UK Singles Chart, February 26, 2011

1. Someone Like You - Adele
2. Price Tag - Jessie J (feat. B.o.B)
3. Born This Way - Lady Gaga

Hasn't the UK singles chart been full of surprises lately? Four weeks ago it was how Bruno Mars kept heavily hyped Adele from #1, then last week how Chipmunk and Chris Brown looked headed to #1 until a weekend surge kept Jessie J at the top for a second week.

This week has to be the biggest surprise yet though.

Going into the week, it was pretty clear that the #1 single was going to be Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." After 3 days of sales, the song managed to reach #3 last week, so the pretty well reasoned assumption was that after a full week of sales it would be vaulted to the top spot. That's really not even an out-there assumption. After all, the track has topped the charts all over the world and represents the first taste of a new album from one of the world's hottest acts. But it seems that everything works fast for Gaga these days...including the speed of her backlash. The naysayers seem to be gaining the upper hand, as "Born This Way" does not claim the easy #1 spot this week, and in fact can't even be #2, beat as it is by last week's #1 single by Jessie J that drops to #2.

So what emerged as the #1 single this week wasn't another new single or even a recent hit returning to the top but a rather unusual surge in popularity for Adele's "Someone Like You," the 21 album cut slated as the album's next single that was popular enough to chart in the lowest fourth of the top 40 the week the album was released and the week after. But Adele's apparently moving performance of the song on the Brit Awards this week pushed the track into the stratosphere. Wednesday it was in the top 20, Thursday it was #3, and Friday it was less than 200 copies behind "Born This Way." I hadn't been aware of this, and I actually listened to the last hour of the UK top 40 this afternoon, so it was a great surprise indeed to hear "Born This Way" at #3, which sent me scrambling to figure out what along with Jessie J was vying for #1.

Congratulations then to Adele who finally scores her first #1 hit after seeing "Chasing Pavements" and "Rolling in the Deep" reach #2, as well as last year's amazing run for "Make You Feel My Love," which got as high as #4. It is a pretty fantastic song and I expect it's going to stick around for awhile. But as this week's chart shows, there's no sure thing anymore.

6. S&M - Rihanna

Global pop sensation Rihanna climbs into the top 10 this week with "S&M," the third single from Loud, her fifth album, which was released late last year. This is her 17th top 10 hit.

8. Eyes Wide Shut - JLS (feat. Tinie Tempah)

JLS finally charts with the single version of "Eyes Wide Shut," having been in the top 40 the last 5 weeks with the album version that does include Tinie Tempah. Perhaps because so many people already shelled out for that version, or the fact that it's just not a very interesting song, leads it to become the group's lowest charting single, below last year's #6 peak for "One Shot." Still, they are 6 top 10 hits for 6 singles, which isn't bad.

14. Rocketeer - Far*East Movement (feat. Ryan Tedder)

Not quite the hit that "Like a G6" was, but not a major bomb either. This is the first solo appearance on the chart for Ryan Tedder, best known as one of pop music's most prolific hitmakers, but also as lead singer of the group OneRepublic, who hit the top 40 last year with "All the Right Moves."

31. Kidz - Take That

This single is out tomorrow, but charts this week on sales of the album track. For Take That 2.0, follow-up singles have been a mixed bag. The lead singles from their last two albums both hit #1, a feat that sadly Progress's brilliant first release, "The Flood" did not achieve, but while their 2006 album's second single, "Shine," also hit #1, their 2008 album's second single, "Up All Night," didn't even reach the top 10. I really hope "Kidz" can make the top 10, as it is another great single from them. It's #9 on the airplay chart, so at least there is some support there, although not as much as there was for "The Flood," which spent 5 weeks at #1 on the airplay chart.

36. Teenage Dream - Glee Cast

I'm sad to see this didn't chart higher. Is Glee no longer a major hitmaker in Britain? They seem to be flagging a bit in the US too, although this song was their best-selling US release, peaking at #8 last year. Nothing so far this season has sold all that well, with their highest-charting second season single so far being "Telephone," which hit #25.