The Taylor Swift takeover is in full swing on the U.K. chart blast.
Based on sales and streaming data for the first 48 hours in the U.K. chart week, Swift is on track to nab the top three spots with songs from 1989 (Taylor’s Version): “Slut,” “Style” and “Is It Over Now,” respectively.
According to the Official Charts Company, just over 200 chart units separate the three songs at this early stage in the chart cycle.
Swift couldn’t possibly do any better. Unlike Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, the OCC’s chart rules dictate that a maximum of three tracks by the same artist can impact the top 100 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart.
“Slut,” written by Taylor, Jack Antonoff and Patrik Berger, and “Is It Over Now,” written by Taylor and Antonoff, are two of the album’s five “Vault” tracks, works that were written during the original 1989 sessions, but never made it to the finished version (for the record: 1989 logged one week at the U.K. chart summit in 2014).
The original cut of “Style,” written by Taylor, Max Martin, Shellback and Ali Payami, was released as the third single from first version of 1989, and peaked at No. 21 in the U.K.
The fresh album (via EMI in the U.K.) features newly recorded editions of all 13 original songs, plus three bonus tracks (“Wonderland,” “New Romantics” and “You Are In Love”) and the “Vault” tracks (“Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Suburban Legends” and “Slut”).
Swift already has 23 top 10 singles in the U.K., including two No. 1s: “Look What You Made Me Do” (from 2017) and “Anti-Hero” (2022). The extend to which she expands on that tally will be revealed late Friday, Nov. 3, when the Official U.K. Singles Chart is published in full.
Thanks to the Taylor Swift effect, Kenya Grace’s three-week reign with “Strangers” (FFRR) looks set to come to a halt. It’s down 1-5 on the First Look chart, just behind Casso, Raye and D-Block Europe’s “Prada” (Ministry of Sound), set to dip 2-4.
