Back to News
Sam Fender breaks record to score first Number One single as Charli XCX tops UK album chart
Music•February 20, 2026 at 6:44 PMNational

Sam Fender breaks record to score first Number One single as Charli XCX tops UK album chart

By Max Pilley•NME Music News

Fender and Olivia Dean's 'Rein Me In' has beaten a record held by Ed Sheeran since 2014 The post Sam Fender breaks record to score first Number One single as Charli XCX tops UK album chart appeared first on NME.

Sam Fender has claimed his first ever Number One single with his Olivia Dean collab ‘Rein Me In’, while Charli XCX’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ has topped the albums chart.

‘Rein Me In’ was first released last June and in finally reaching the summit of the chart today (February 20), it has broken the record for the most consecutive weeks spent in the Top 40 before reaching the top. Its 35-week climb has broken the previous record of 19 weeks set by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’ in 2014.

It is Fender’s first ever Number One single and it beats his previous high of Number Three for ‘Seventeen Going Under’ in 2021.

For Dean, she now occupies three of the top four spots in the Singles Chart, with ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’ rising to Number Two and her previous chart-topper ‘Man I Need’ coming in at Number Four.

Elsewhere, the 2016 social media trend is borne out by Zara Larsson’s ‘Lush Life’ rising to Number Three, the same peak it reached ten years ago, while Bad Bunny sees a resurgence after his Super Bowl halftime show, with ‘DTMF’ coming in at Number Five.

Official UK Singles Chart, 20-26 February 2026 

1) Sam Fender & Olivia Dean – ‘Rein Me In’ 
2) Olivia Dean – ‘So Easy (To Fall In Love)’ 
3) Zara Larsson – ‘Lush Life’ 
4) Olivia Dean – ‘Man I Need’ 
5) Bad Bunny – ‘DTMF’ 
6) Bruno Mars – ‘I Just Might’ 
7) Sombr – ‘Homewrecker’ 
8) Taylor Swift – ‘Opalite’ 
9) PinkPantheress – ‘Stateside’ 
10) Harry Styles – ‘Aperture’ 

In the albums chart, Charli XCX has claimed the third Number One of her career with her soundtrack record to Emerald Fennell’s new film Wuthering Heights. It follows her previous chart-toppers ‘Crash’ (2022) and ‘Brat’ (2024), and it is her eighth Top 40 album in total.

‘Wuthering Heights’ has also topped the Official Vinyl Albums Chart this week, while the film has soared to the top of the UK box office on its first week of release.

It knocks Olivia Dean’s debut album ‘The Art Of Loving’ down to Number Two, while Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits album ‘50 Years – Don’t Stop’ continues to fly high at Number Three.

Official UK Albums Chart, 20-26 February 2026 

1) Charli XCX – ‘Wuthering Heights’ 
2) Olivia Dean – ‘The Art Of Loving’ 
3) Fleetwood Mac – ‘50 Years – Don’t Stop’ 
4) The Weeknd – ‘The Highlights’ 
5) Bad Bunny – ‘Debi Tirar Mas Fotos’ 
6) Michael Jackson – ‘The Essential’ 
7) Ed Sheeran – ‘+ – = Divide X – Tour Collection’ 
8) Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Man’s Best Friend’ 
9) Alex Warren – ‘You’ll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1)’ 
10) Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Short N’ Sweet’ 

Fender is nominated for a number of BRIT Awards ahead of the ceremony in Manchester next week (February 28), including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for his Mercury Prize-winning ‘People Watching’.

Charli, meanwhile, has seen her new film The Moment released into cinemas today, a music industry satire that NME has awarded three stars and noted: “The Moment is too protracted and tonally uneven to work as a great mockumentary, but it has plenty of meme-worthy moments that TikTok will lap up. If that sounds like faint praise, well, just remember it was enough to make Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn a sensation back in 2023.”

The post Sam Fender breaks record to score first Number One single as Charli XCX tops UK album chart appeared first on NME.

Related News

Hamlet Hail to the Thief could have been rotten but redeems Radiohead’s ‘record that got away’ | Alexis Petridis
EntertainmentMusicMusic News

Hamlet Hail to the Thief could have been rotten but redeems Radiohead’s ‘record that got away’ | Alexis Petridis

The band’s uneven 2003 album has been judiciously reworked to accompany a staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy with quite ex...

The Guardian Music2 hours ago
Duran Duran drummer Roger Taylor leaves band due to tinnitus
UK NewsEntertainmentMusicMusic News

Duran Duran drummer Roger Taylor leaves band due to tinnitus

‘I must now listen to my body and my doctors’, says Taylor, who was one of the earliest members of the new wave hit-make...

The Guardian Music14 hours ago
‘Joni Mitchell sang Both Sides, Now over the phone to me’: folk music legend Judy Collins on her 87 remarkable years
EntertainmentMusicMusic News

‘Joni Mitchell sang Both Sides, Now over the phone to me’: folk music legend Judy Collins on her 87 remarkable years

As she continues her farewell tour, the US singer-songwriter answers your questions on romance with Stephen Stills, frie...

The Guardian Music17 hours ago
Giulio Cesare in Egitto album review – Sabine Devieilhe’s exquisite Cleopatra could make stones weep
EntertainmentMusicMusic News

Giulio Cesare in Egitto album review – Sabine Devieilhe’s exquisite Cleopatra could make stones weep

Orliński/Devieilhe/Il Pomo d’Oro/Corti(Erato)Francesco Corti keeps the drama on the boil in this period instrument recor...

The Guardian Music18 hours ago
War Requiem review – in the cathedral where it premiered, Britten’s masterpiece has lost none of its power
EntertainmentMusicMusic News

War Requiem review – in the cathedral where it premiered, Britten’s masterpiece has lost none of its power

Coventry CathedralKazuki Yamada led the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and chorus and soloists Christian Gerhaher...

The Guardian Music19 hours ago
Blackhaine: Saints in the Wethouse review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week
EntertainmentMusicMusic News

Blackhaine: Saints in the Wethouse review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(XL Recordings)His Playboi Carti collabs may have dragged Tom Heyes out of the underground, but this bracing debut remai...

The Guardian Music20 hours ago

More From These Categories

No other articles in this category yet.