U.K.'S HOTTEST
SUMMER SONGS

It has not been the hottest year for British-born singles thanks to smashes from Justin Bieber, Drake and Lukas Graham, so it’s no surprise that just three tracks from Blighty feature in the U.K.’s Official Chart’s best-selling summer singles list.

In the label stakes, it’s a tie between David Joseph’s UMG and Jason Iley’s Sony, with both majors enjoying four entries each. There’s zero from Max Lousada’s WMG, and two from the indie sector (3 Beat and Because Music). In the sub-label stakes, Virgin EMI marketshare champ Ted Cockle has three mentions, Darcus Beese’s Island and Colin Barlow’s RCA have two each.

Based on streams and sales combined from June to August, the #1 summer tune is Drake f/Wizkid & Kyla’s “One Dance” (Island). The song logged 15 weeks at #1 and, during the summer period, notched up 654k combined chart sales, including 51m streams.

It was streaming that powered its long reign—there's something about that track that Spotify (and Apple Music) customers seriously adore. If you take streaming out of the mix, "One Dance" descends to #9 on the summer's best-selling singles list. Calum Scott's "Dancing On My Own" (Virgin EMI) is the victor there.

French act Kungs finishes in second place with his remix of Cookin’ On 3 Burners’ “This Girl” (3 Beat) with 562k chart sales, and Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This Is What You Came For” (Columbia) is third with 531k.

We'll leave you with a final observation: Isn't it interesting how many (eight) tracks in the following Top 10 are collaborations...

Official Singles Chart – summer 2016 (based on streams and sales combined):

1. Drake f/Wizkid & Kyla “One Dance” (Island)
2. Kungs vs Cookin’ On 3 Burners “This Girl” (3 Beat)
3. Calvin Harris f/Rihanna “This Is What You Came For” (Columbia)
4. Drake f/Rihanna “Too Good” (Island)
5. Calum Scott “Dancing On My Own” (Virgin EMI)
6. Justin Timberlake “Can’t Stop The Feeling” (RCA)
7. Chainsmokers f/Daya “Don’t Let Me Down” (RCA)
8. Major Lazer, Justin Bieber and MØ “Cold Water” (Because Music)
9. Clean Bandit f/Louisa Johnson “Tears” (SYCO)
10. Jonas Blue f/JP Cooper “Perfect Strangers” (Virgin EMI)