Clean Bandit Become One Of Only Four British Artists To Top UK Chart This Year

Robbie Daw | November 18, 2016 2:37 pm

Seven days ago, Clean Bandit topped the UK chart with their latest single, “Rockabye,” and today brings the news that they’ve extended their run for a second week. This marks the dance-pop/classical act’s second #1 single in their home country, following 2014 smash “Rather Be” — a song that nabbed a Grammy as well a Top 10 chart placing on this side of the pond. It’s also Clean Bandit’s fourth consecutive UK Top 5 hit, and sixth overall. Not bad for a band that recently saw one of its founding members bow out.

Interestingly, Clean Bandit are now one of only four British acts to top the country’s chart so far in 2016. In fact, up until October, Zayn Malik‘s “Pillowtalk” was the only single by an artist born in the UK to reach #1. (Recent weeks have also seen past X Factor contestants James Arthur and Little Mix reach the top.)

More:: Neil-Amin Smith quits Clean Bandit: read his statement

By comparison, 15 singles by British artists topped the UK chart in 2015, including Mark Ronson‘s “Uptown Funk,” Ellie Goulding‘s “Love Me Like You Do,” Years & Years‘ “King,” Sam Smith‘s “Lay Me Down” and “Writing’s On The Wall,” One Direction‘s “Drag Me Down” and Adele‘s “Hello,” among several others.

Of course, we have to consider that a whopping 21 different songs hit #1 in the UK in 2015, compared to only 11 in 2016, to-date. One big reason for the log jam this year: Drake‘s “One Dance,” a massive streaming hit on Spotify, dominated the top spot for a whopping 15 weeks. It’s now tied with Wet Wet Wet‘s 1994 Four Weddings And A Funeral soundtrack cover of “Love Is All Around” for the longest-running #1 single in UK chart history.

Here in the States, “One Dance” ruled for 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 between May and July. And if you’re curious, we also had one single by a Barbadian artist (Rihanna‘s “Work”), one by an Australian (Sia‘s “Cheap Thrills”), two by Brits (Adele’s “Hello” and Zayn’s “Pillowtalk”), three by Canadians (Drake’s “One Dance,” plus Justin Bieber‘s “Sorry” and “Love Yourself”) and four by Americans (Desiigner‘s “Panda,” Justin Timberlake‘s “Can’t Stop The Feeling,” The Chainsmokers‘ “Closer” and Rae Sremmurd‘s “Black Beatles”) run the show.

Check back here on Idolator next week for our latest interview with Clean Bandit.

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