After drawing level with Wet Wet Wet’s 15-week stay at the top it looks like Drake’s One Dance is about to take a tumble, with Major Lazer’s (feat. Justin Bieber) new single Cold Water set to dethrone the Canadian rapper.
According to official charts figures, Cold Water has stopped One Dance in its tracks, flying straight in at No. 1. And, while the midweeks have yet to be updated with Spotify and Apple streaming numbers, Major Lazer’s streams are way ahead of Drake’s numbers from this time last week, making a first new No. 1 in almost four months look very likely.
Last week, Drake dropped the download price of One Dance on iTunes from 99p to 59p in a bid to boost paid-for purchases. And it seemed to work, securing him another week at the top and driving week-on-week download sales up 33%.
However, while this approach may have helped it draw level with Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around, it looks as though it’s not been quite enough to displace Bryan Adams from the UK singles chart throne, whose single (Everything I Do) I Do It For You held on to the top spot for a whopping 16 weeks.
Despite the close-run race between the three singles, a look at official charts sales figures for each makes for interesting reading.
Adams managed to shift enough units of his single to earn it double platinum status, while We Wet Wet notched up over 1.2 million physical sales. Drake’s One Dance, on the other hand, has relied almost entirely on streams to support its stint atop the charts. So far it has accumulated almost 88 million streams, but only a relatively meager 435,00 permanent downloads.
In Drake’s defence, both of his ‘90s rivals were backed by major cinematic releases – Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves and Four Weddings And A Funeral – adding significantly to their widespread appeal.
But who knows? An end of week sales surge for One Dance certainly shouldn’t be ruled out. And who knows what last-minute tactics team Drake may still have up its sleeve?
All will be revealed in this Friday's charts.
