2010 in British music charts

The British music charts are compiled by the Official Charts Company to measure sales of recorded music on Compact Disc and digital download.

Summary

In early January, Iyaz's début single "Replay" went to number one. It became the first number one single of the 2010s; not counting Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" which first reached number one in 2009. February saw the release of X Factor finalists Jedward's debut single, "Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)". Debuting at number one mid-month was the Helping Haiti single, a cover of "Everybody Hurts". The single, which was arranged by Simon Cowell, features 21 artists including Kylie Minogue, Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis, Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart and Susan Boyle. It recorded the biggest first-week sales of any single since 2000, selling over 453,000. All of the proceeds went to the Disasters Emergency Committee and The Sun's Helping Haiti charity.

The BRIT Awards on 16 February boosted the sales of both singles and albums; the songs performed on the BRIT Awards climbed the singles chart while the albums that won BRIT Awards climbed the albums chart. British artists received awards recognition overseas, with The Ting Tings, Adele, Seal, Imogen Heap, Pet Shop Boys and Coldplay nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Also in February, the band Sade's first studio album in ten years, Soldier of Love, debuted at number one in the United States.

In March, rapper Tinie Tempah's debut single "Pass Out" entered the singles chart at number one, with sales of just over 92,000. In April, Scouting for Girls returned to the charts with their first UK number-one single "This Ain't a Love Song", the first single from their second album Everybody Wants to Be on TV. A Facebook group called Christian Music set up an Internet campaign to get Christian rock anthem "History Makers" by Delirious? to number one on Easter Sunday; it ended up getting to number four. Diana Vickers debuted at number one with "Once", and rapper Chipmunk and Dutch singer Esmée Denters secured a number-three hit with "Until You Were Gone". Tina Turner re-entered the top ten with "The Best", following an Internet campaign set up by fans of Glasgow Rangers Football Club in an attempt to get their unofficial anthem to number one.

May began with London rap collective Roll Deep releasing their first single since 2005, "Good Times", which was at number one for three weeks. Diana Vickers' debut album Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree knocked Plan B's The Defamation of Strickland Banks off the top spot, making Vickers only the second X Factor non-winner whose debut single and album both topped their respective charts. At the end of the month, Dizzee Rascal scored his fourth number-one single with "Dirtee Disco" and Pendulum scored their first number-one album with Immersion.

June coincided with the FIFA World Cup competition, and seven World Cup-related songs entered the singles chart, including the number-one single "Shout for England" by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden, which was produced by Simon Cowell and released as a charity single. Oasis scored their seventh UK number-one album with their second compilation album, Time Flies... 1994–2009.

To begin the month of August, new British boyband The Wanted topped the UK Singles Chart with "All Time Low". The Iron Maiden album The Final Frontier was released to enormous acclaim from rock music reviewers. By September, reality television shows were starting to influence both the singles and albums charts. 2009 X Factor runner-up Olly Murs topped the singles chart with "Please Don't Let Me Go", followed by Alexandra Burke, winner of X Factor 2008, with her sixth single "Start Without You" (featuring American rapper Laza Morgan). Artists from Sky1's new reality TV show Must Be the Music achieved success during this month, including the eventual winner Emma's Imagination. Some songs used on the audition stages of X Factor 2010 also re-entered the chart, including Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" (originally recorded by Bob Dylan).

In October, Tinie Tempah repeated his initial success by topping the singles chart with "Written in the Stars" and the album chart with debut album Disc-Overy. "Ambitions" by X Factor 2009 winner Joe McElderry reached the top ten, and his album Wide Awake the top five, although sales were below expectations. The show's judge Cheryl Cole topped the charts with "Promise This" and Messy Little Raindrops.

During November, every number-one single had been performed live on The X Factor. Take That's much anticipated comeback with Robbie Williams started successfully; new single "The Flood" reached number two, and album Progress topped the album chart for the rest of the year. The X Factor Finalists of 2010 topped the singles chart with a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes".

The winner of that show, Matt Cardle, took the Christmas number-one of 2010, with winning single "When We Collide", a cover of the Biffy Clyro song "Many of Horror". The single sold over 700,000 copies, making it the third best-selling X Factor winning single. It also prompted the re-entry of the original version of the song by Biffy Clyro. Several internet campaigns were initiated in an unsuccessful attempt to topple X Factor following the success of the Rage Against the Machine campaign in 2009.

Number ones

Number-one singles

Number-one albums

Key

Best-selling album of the year

Chart date (week ending)	Album	Artist	Sales
2 January	Crazy Love	Michael Bublé	243,226
9 January	Sunny Side Up	Paolo Nutini	58,082
16 January			49,698
23 January	Lungs	Florence + the Machine	51,005
30 January			42,360
6 February	Sunny Side Up	Paolo Nutini	35,739
13 February	The Element of Freedom	Alicia Keys	35,336
20 February			57,312
27 February	Glee: The Music, Volume 1	Glee Cast	62,451
6 March	The Fame Monster	Lady Gaga	45,358
13 March	Lights	Ellie Goulding	36,854
20 March	Brother	Boyzone	101,096
27 March	The Fame Monster	Lady Gaga	45,025
3 April	Brother	Boyzone	61,886
10 April			45,267
17 April	The Fame Monster	Lady Gaga	25,211
24 April	The Defamation of Strickland Banks	Plan B	68,173
1 May	Iron Man 2	AC/DC	56,936
8 May	The Defamation of Strickland Banks	Plan B	41,001
15 May	Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree	Diana Vickers	35,951
22 May	Night Train	Keane	28,063
29 May	Exile on Main St.	The Rolling Stones	31,287
5 June	Immersion	Pendulum	58,859
12 June	To the Sea	Jack Johnson	27,254
19 June	Bionic	Christina Aguilera	24,300
26 June	Time Flies... 1994–2009	Oasis	101,297
3 July	Recovery	Eminem	141,023
10 July			69,045
17 July	Aphrodite	Kylie Minogue	79,153
24 July	Recovery	Eminem	49,616
31 July			41,593
7 August			39,864
14 August	The Suburbs	Arcade Fire	61,263
21 August	Recovery	Eminem	32,097
28 August	The Final Frontier	Iron Maiden	44,384
4 September	Recovery	Eminem	27,081
11 September	Teenage Dream	Katy Perry	54,176
18 September	Flamingo	Brandon Flowers	65,518
25 September	Science & Faith	The Script	70,816
2 October	Going Back	Phil Collins	40,684
9 October	Science & Faith	The Script	34,313
16 October	Disc-Overy	Tinie Tempah	84,993
23 October	In and Out of Consciousness: The Greatest Hits 1990–2010	Robbie Williams	124,689
30 October	Come Around Sundown	Kings of Leon	183,298
6 November			72,611
13 November	Messy Little Raindrops	Cheryl Cole	105,431
20 November	The Gift	Susan Boyle	102,993
27 November	Progress	Take That	518,601
4 December			208,220
11 December			176,881
18 December			203,210
25 December			330,252

Number-one single downloads

Number-one album downloads

Number-one compilation albums

Year-end charts

Best-selling singles of 2010

^[1]

For the first time in British music history, a song that never reached number one became the biggest-selling single of the year. "Love the Way You Lie", by Eminem featuring Rihanna, also sold all its singles in digital format.

Best-selling albums of 2010

^[4]

Notes:

Best-selling compilation albums of 2010

^[6]

See also

• List of number-one singles from 2010
• List of number-one albums from 2010
• List of top 10 singles in 2010 (UK)
• 2010s in music
• List of Albums released in 2010
• 2010 in British television

References

Music of the United Kingdom
Art music	Early music (England • Scotland) Baroque Classical
History of popular music	Early popular music 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
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Contemporary popular genres	Folk Hip Hop Jazz Pop Popular Rock Soul
Ethnic music	Caribbean England Scotland Wales
Media and performance	Music awards Brit Awards Classic Brit Awards Gramophone Awards Ivor Novello Awards Kerrang! Awards Mercury Prize MOBO Awards Spiral Awards BBC Music Awards Music charts Albums chart Classical charts Compilation chart Dance chart Download chart Indie chart R&B chart Rock chart Singles chart Subscription plays chart Music festivals Cambridge folk Download Edinburgh Eisteddfod Glastonbury Isle of Wight Knebworth Royal National Mòd The Proms Reading and Leeds T in the Park V Music media The Gramophone Kerrang! Melody Maker Mojo NME Q The Wire National anthem "God Save the Queen"
Regional music	British Isles Birmingham (Classical music, Jazz, Popular music) Cardiff Cornwall Liverpool Manchester Northumbria Somerset Sussex Yorkshire Overseas Anguilla Bermuda Cayman Islands Gibraltar Montserrat Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands