Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have broken Wet Wet Wet's 32-year record for a British act's run at No. 1 in the UK singles chart. Their duet Rein Me In has racked up its 16th week at the top, surpassing Wet Wet Wet's Love is All Around, which spent 15 weeks at No. 1 in 1994. However, unlike Wet Wet Wet's consecutive run, Fender and Dean's song has dropped in and out of the top spot since February.
'Take that, Marti Pellow!' – Fender's Reaction
Sam Fender told the Official Charts Company: 'Take that, Marti Pellow!' He added that the success of Rein Me In has been 'ridiculous – every Friday, it's been an excuse to party.' The song also scores the longest consecutive run for a song in the Top 40, with 55 weeks, beating Ed Sheeran's record for his ballad Thinking Out Loud.
Still Behind Non-UK Acts
Fender and Dean are yet to beat two non-UK acts with an equal or greater run at No. 1. They draw level with Canada's Bryan Adams, whose (Everything I Do) I Do It For You spent 16 consecutive weeks at the top in 1991. US crooner Frankie Laine holds the all-time record with 18 non-consecutive weeks in 1953 for his ballad I Believe, back when the UK chart featured just 12 songs.
Origin and Impact of 'Rein Me In'
Rein Me In began as an album track on Fender's chart-topping, Mercury prize-winning 2025 release People Watching. A wracked mid-tempo number about self-sabotaging a romantic relationship, it showcases Fender's kitchen-sink poetry. Dean added her own verse, voicing the other figure in the relationship, and the duet was released as a single in June 2025. Fender noted: 'Olivia putting the alternative narrative on it made the song really universal – that opened the floodgates. There's two sides to the story.' The pair performed it together at Fender's stadium concerts in Newcastle and London, and it won song of the year at the Brit awards in February.
Olivia Dean's Parallel Success
Dean has enjoyed considerable chart success alongside Rein Me In. Her single Man I Need topped the chart in October 2025, and its parent album The Art of Loving has had an astonishing run, not leaving the top five since its release, including eight weeks at No. 1. This year, she won three other Brit awards, plus three Mobos and the Grammy for best new artist.
Chart Rules Make the Record More Impressive
The long-running success of Rein Me In is all the more impressive given that the Official Charts Company introduced a rule in 2017 to prevent songs from hanging around too long. After a song has been in the Top 100 for 10 weeks, if it has three weeks of declining streaming numbers in a row, the value of streams is halved. Since the rule's introduction, only four songs have made it past 10 weeks at No. 1: Ed Sheeran's Bad Habits, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's Despacito featuring Justin Bieber, Tones & I's Dance Monkey (all 11 weeks), and Alex Warren's Ordinary (13 weeks).
Other Chart Highlights
Elsewhere in this week's singles charts, Oasis's Wonderwall reaches No. 11 after being aired at the close of England's victorious World Cup matches. This year's official World Cup song, Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy, is at No. 13, and Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds' Three Lions is at No. 21. US country singer Ella Langley gets her first UK top five single with Choosin' Texas, and Journey's 1981 hit Don't Stop Believin' is unexpectedly back at No. 27 due to online virality.
Madonna is No. 1 in the album chart with Confessions II, her sequel to 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, bringing her back to the top after her previous two albums could only reach No. 2. She becomes the first US female artist to earn UK No. 1 albums across five decades. She prevailed in a chart battle with Sienna Spiro, whose debut album Visitor scores the biggest UK debut of the year but could only reach No. 2.
