It feels like Drake has been No. 1 for an eternity. And, looking at how the world has changed over the past 13 weeks, he may as well have been.
Where to begin with what’s happened to civilisation since the rapper took the top spot in the singles chart with his ubiquitous One Dance?
Well, the heart of British government appears to have collapsed, with both main parties effectively leaderless and in various states of post-Brexit disarray following mass resignations, so-called back stabbings and a military style coup.
The Euros have come and gone, in more ways than one, as the UK opted out of the EU, only to be followed in quick succession by the England football team as it crashed out of Euro 2016 in spectacular fashion.
Meanwhile, back in the music world, Spotify and Apple appear to have declared war on one another, as Spotify’s Jonathan Prince went rogue and publicly called out Apple Music for wanting to “have their cake and eat everyone else’s too.”
Similarly, over 1,000 pop stars from across the globe decided to call out YouTube for causing damage to the industry on account of its practices. Coldplay, Sir Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga were among those to sign a letter of complaint, which was handed to EU president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.
The letter said that the future of music is being “jeopardised by a substantial ‘value gap’ caused by user upload services such as Google’s YouTube that are unfairly siphoning value away from the music community and its artists and songwriters."
We've also found out that Queen's Greatest Hits is the biggest selling album in the UK over the past 60 years, as the Official Charts Company celebrated its 60th birthday; BMG US has appointed a new president in the form of Zach Katz; The Beatles have had over one billion streams; and Adele headlined Glastonbury, which enjoyed and, indeed, endured one of its muddiest and wettest outings in decades.
Oh, and Pixies have just announced a new album.
All in all, it’s been a bit of a crazy time for everyone. One can only guess at what the world will look like by the time someone knocks Drake from the top of the charts. All that's certain is he'll be No. 1 for at least the next seven days. And who knows what could happen during that time...
