It’s official: Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” was the U.K.’s biggest song of 2021.
The first single lifted from Sheeran’s latest chart-leading set = (equals), “Bad Habits” led the Official U.K. Singles Chart for 11 weeks during the year, amassing more than 1.7 million combined sales along the way, the OCC reports.
Of that sum, “Bad Habits” was streamed 204 million times and amassed 142,000 sales.
Sheeran rules the year-end U.K. singles chart, ahead of two Olivia Rodrigo songs, “Good 4 U” (167 million streams) and “Drivers License” (nearly 156 million streams), respectively.
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The California teen ties with Sheeran for the most entries on the year-end survey, with three each.
Other acts landing multiple entries in the 2021 Top 40 include The Weeknd (“Save Your Tears” at No. 4 and “Blinding Lights” at No. 9); Dua Lipa (“Levitating” at No. 6 and “Cold Heart” (Pnau Remix) with Elton John at No. 21), Lil Nas X (“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” at No. 5 and “Industry Baby” at No. 32) and Joel Corry (“Head & Heart” with MNEK at No. 17 and “Bed” with Raye at No. 18).
The Official Charts are collated by the Official Charts Company, a joint venture of labels body the BPI and Entertainment Retailers Assn. (ERA), and based on sales of downloads, CD, vinyl plus audio and video streams.
The hits impacting the year-end singles charts reflect the surge in music consumption across the U.K., and, in particular, the ongoing rise in streaming.
According to new data published by the OCC, total recorded music consumption lifted by 2.5% in 2021, powered by streaming.
Brits played more than 147 billion tracks over the course of the year, up 5.7% from 2020, the report finds, as streaming now accounts for 83% of all U.K. music consumption.
Official U.K. Top 10 biggest songs of 2021:
1. “Bad Habits”, Ed Sheeran
2. “Good 4 U”, Olivia Rodrigo
3. “Drivers License”, Olivia Rodrigo
4. “Save Your Tears”, The Weeknd
5. “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, Lil Nas X
6. “Levitating”, Dua Lipa
7. “Stay”, Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber
8. “Heat Waves”, Glass Animals
9. “Blinding Lights”, The Weeknd
10. “Body”, Tion Wayne & Russ Millions
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Tagged: Chart Beat, entertainment blog, music, music blog, OCC, Official U.K. Charts