'Rein Me In' matches the British record of 15 weeks at No 1. Can it get a 16th?

What happened

‘Rein Me In’ logs a 15th week at No 1, equalling Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Love Is All Around’ (1994) as the longest-running British No 1 single in chart history.

One more week at No 1 would set a new British record. A 16th week would make ‘Rein Me In’ the longest-running British No 1 on its own. Only two songs in all of chart history would then be ahead: Bryan Adams, with 16 weeks in a row in 1991, and Frankie Laine, with 18 weeks in total in 1953.

The race is now decided one Friday chart at a time. The song by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean reached its 15th week at No 1 on the chart dated 3 July 2026. The 15 weeks were not all in a row.

The song is breaking other records too. It has spent 37 weeks in the Top 10, level with Harry Styles’ ‘As It Was’ as the longest run for any song that is not a Christmas hit. It also has 54 weeks in a row in the Top 40, the same as Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

Its climb to No 1 was a record as well. The duet spent 35 weeks in a row in the Top 40 before it first reached No 1, the longest climb in chart history. The old record was the 19-week climb of ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

On the way it passed Rihanna and Jay-Z’s ‘Umbrella’, which had 10 weeks at No 1 in 2007. That makes it the duet by a man and a woman with the most weeks at No 1.

Sources: Official Charts Company (2), Billboard

The Pattern

Only four singles have ever reached 15 weeks at No 1. The UK chart is 74 years old. We looked at what happened to each of the four after week 15. Two kept going. Two stopped at exactly 15: one was pushed off the top by a new song, and the other was taken off sale by the band itself.

The Read

History is split evenly, but this song leans towards a 16th week. In the streaming era, a No 1 loses listeners slowly, and this one is still setting Top 10 records. A song does not spend 37 weeks in the Top 10 while it is fading. Neither thing that stopped the earlier songs applies here. No artist takes a single off sale in 2026, and the July release list has no clear rival as big as ‘Cold Water’ was in 2016. At 61 per cent for a 16th week by 17 July, the market bet that the song would keep going, as it had all along.

There are reasons for doubt. The record is only four songs, split two and two. Because this run is historic, it can also end suddenly. Drake’s ‘One Dance’ looked just as safe in its 15th week and never had a 16th. A surprise release, or a fan campaign for a rival song, could end the run within one chart week.

The next Friday charts decide it. The market on the final total is split almost evenly between 16, 17 and 18 weeks or more, because no one can see past the next two Fridays.