Most weeks at No.1 on the UK’s singles chart in a calendar year (female)

Three Sabrina Carpenter (USA) tracks topped the UK’s Official Singles Chart for a combined 21 weeks in 2024: “Espresso” (seven weeks at No.1, 9 May to 6 June and 18–25 July); “Please Please Please” (five weeks at No.1, 27 June to 11 July and 1–8 August); and “Taste” (nine weeks at No.1, 5 September to 31 October – making it the longest-running UK chart-topper of 2024). Carpenter spent at least two weeks at No.1 in six consecutive calendar months (May–October 2024).

The male (and overall) record resides with the American crooner Frankie Laine (1913–2007), who, in 1953, the first full year of the Official Singles Chart, scored 27 weeks at No.1 with “I Believe” (18 non-consecutive weeks), “Hey Joe” (2 weeks) and “Answer Me” (7 weeks, including 1 week in a tie with David Whitfield’s version of the same song). Laine’s “Answer Me” actually spent eight weeks at No.1, but as the chart date of its final week at the top was 1 January 1954, it is not included as a week in the calendar year 1953.

Olivia Newton-John’s 16 weeks at No.1 in 1978 with “You’re the One That I Want” (nine weeks) and “Summer Nights” (seven weeks), both with John Travolta, had been the benchmark for a female artist until it was matched (on 26 September) and then broken (on 3 October) by Carpenter in 2024.

Carpenter’s three chart-toppers are, respectively, tracks seven, two and one on her album Short n’ Sweet, which capped a remarkable year for the former Disney Channel star by becoming the UK’s Christmas No.1 album.