This is a summary of the year 2008 in British music in terms of the charts. 21 singles occupied the number one position during the year, with 11 being new.
On 27 January, Basshunter stayed at number one for a third week, holding off the heavily favoured Adele, who failed to climb from her download-only position of number two with a physical release of "Chasing Pavements". Nickelback's "Rockstar" reached a new peak of number three fourteen weeks after its initial debut, and Kelly Rowland climbed to number seven on downloads alone making a jump of 24 places with "Work". On the Albums Chart, Lupe Fiasco's album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool debuted at number seven, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's Raising Sand took the runner-up spot and a new peak behind Scouting for Girls.
Hawaiian singer/songwriter Jack Johnson's album Sleep Through the Static was new at the top on 10 February. There were new entries for Hot Chip at number four with Made in the Dark and Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains at number six. Basshunter made it five weeks as the number one single, seeing off tough competition from Nickelback (number two) and Adele (number three), while David Jordan climbed to number five. Wet Wet Wet, who went to number one for fifteen weeks in 1994 with "Love Is All Around", scored their first top ten single in eleven years with "Weightless" at number ten, and soft rock band The Feeling also returned to the chart at number twelve with "I Thought It Was Over", the first single from their second album Join With Us.
Soul singer Duffy, who came second in the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll, entered the chart at number one with her retro–pop style second single "Mercy" on 17 February, pushing Basshunter down to number three. Dance act H "Two" O debuted in the chart with "What's It Gonna Be" at number seven, while Goldfrapp's "A&E" climbed into the top ten. United States pop rock band OneRepublic, who had success in 2007 with their debut single "Apologize", were new at number eleven with follow-up single "Stop and Stare".
On 24 February, Duffy stayed at number one for a second week, while Nickelback were replaced by H "Two" O at number two. Kylie Minogue's "Wow" climbed into the top ten, as did OneRepublic's "Stop & Stare". After a successful performance at the BRIT Awards ceremony, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse's "Valerie" climbed back into the top twenty, over thirty weeks after its original release. Ronson and Winehouse also saw an increase in sales of their albums, with Version and Back to Black both re-entering the top five.
March
Three months after its initial release, the deluxe edition of Amy Winehouse's Grammy Award-winning second album Back to Black climbed to number one on 2 March, holding off Goldfrapp's fourth studio album Seventh Tree which entered the chart at number two. Duffy held on to the singles top spot for a third week, managing to keep H "Two" O, Nickelback and Kylie Minogue all from climbing up.
On 23 March, London hip hop sensation Estelle's single "American Boy", a collaboration with Kanye West, went to number one on download sales alone, ending Duffy's five-week-long reign at the top of the charts. Madonna returned to the chart with the Timbaland-produced "4 Minutes", featuring vocals from Justin Timberlake, at number seven. Girls Aloud scored their eighteenth UK top ten single with "Can't Speak French" which climbed to number nine, while their rivals the Sugababes missed out on the top ten with "Denial" peaking at number fifteen.
"I Kissed A Girl" remained at number 1 for the fifth week in a row and Forth from The Verve stayed at number 1 in the album chart. Pussycat Dolls came back (with 1 less member) and their new single "When I Grow Up" which charted at number 3 on downloads alone. Kings of Leon soar to the top of the UK singles chart on 14 September with "Sex on Fire". It remained at the top spot the following week. Ne-Yo's third album Year of the Gentleman enters at number 2 on 21 September. Dreamgirls actress and formed American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson enters at 15. On 28 September, Kings of Leon stay at number one for a third week. Their new album soars to the top of the album chart, with over 200,000 sales.
October
On 5 October Pink made it to number 1 with her new single "So What". Sugababes made a comeback with "Girls" which got to number 3 on the singles chart.
On 20 October, Girls Aloud scored their fourth number one with The Promise. It was the lead single from their fifth studio album "Out of Control" which would also go on to reach number one in the album chart.
Also on 25 October the twelve finalists of the fifth series of The X Factor performed a new song for the Help for Heroes charity which Simon Cowell predicted will go straight to the top of the charts. It was released on download on 26 October and single on 27 October. Midweek sales revealed that this single had sold 100,500 copies on its first day - more than any single of 2008 so far has sold in a week, and more than twice the average weekly sale.
Pink's new album Funhouse got the 1st No.1 album of November selling 112,000+, whilst there were new entries by Snow Patrol and Celine Dion, a week later Pink was knocked off the Album chart by Girls Aloud who scored their second number one album with Out of Control whilst there were greatest hits albums from Status Quo and Enrique Iglesias.
Beyoncé got her 4th No.1 with "If I Were a Boy" displacing charity single "Hero" after its three-week reign. The next week it was displaced by Take That's new song, who got their 11th No.1 single with "Greatest Day".
Leona Lewis' version of the Snow Patrol track "Run" was released digitally and went to number one on 7 December with sales of over 130,000 copies. Lewis held the top spot the following week too, selling a further 85,034 copies of the single in its second week of release. Take That's fifth studio album The Circus went to number one with sales of over 432,000 copies in its first week of release, while Britney Spears' sixth studio LP - similarly entitled Circus - charted at number four. Many classic Christmas songs, including Wham!'s "Last Christmas" and "Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl, returned to the chart throughout December.
Alexandra Burke won the fifth series of The X Factor on 13 December, and released her debut single - a cover of Leonard Cohen's track "Hallelujah" - on 14 December. The single sold 576,000 copies in its first week of release, and was the Christmas number one single of 2008. The late Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" - originally recorded for his 1994 album Grace - charted at number two, following a campaign to raise Buckley's version higher in the chart than Burke's version. Elsewhere in the Christmas chart, Geraldine McQueen's Christmas single "Once Upon a Christmas Song" charted at number five, while James Morrison and Nelly Furtado's "Broken Strings" climbed to number six. "Listen", a song recorded by Beyoncé for the 2006 movie Dreamgirls, returned to the top ten after Beyoncé and Alexandra Burke performed the track together on the final of The X Factor. Take That's The Circus was the Christmas number one album of 2008.
The Year-End charts were dominated by American and British artists in 2008. Fifteen of the top forty singles were by British people (including featured singles), while twenty were by American artists. Just four other nationalities were represented in the Top Forty: Barbadian (three singles involving Rihanna), Australian, Swedish (both two singles) and Canadian (one Nickelback single). The top 40 albums shows a chart dominated by British acts, while also showing albums from varied international artists.
The year's charts were dominated by Welsh singer Duffy, as her single "Mercy" reached #3 in the year-end charts, with her debut album effort, Rockferry attaining #1. Her single "Warwick Avenue" also charted at #30 in the year-end countdown. Other successful artists included Take That, Leona Lewis and Kings of Leon.
Note: the official list of best-selling singles of 2008 produced by the Official Chart Company and published in Music Week in the issue dated 17 January 2009 originally included "Superstar" by Lupe Fiasco at number 22. The following week (issue dated 24 January 2009) Music Week published a correction by the OCC to the effect that sales of "Superstar" had been overstated and it should have been placed at number 67, with all the original numbers 23 to 67 moving up one place.[4] This has been reflected in the table above.
