Miley Cyrus’s Flowers retains its position as the biggest song of 2023 so far, Official Charts can confirm.
The disco-influenced self-love anthem completed a 10-week stay at Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart earlier this year, giving Miley her first UK chart-topper in nearly a decade. Flowers also helped Miley claim the coveted Official Chart Double, when its parent album Endless Summer Vacation debuted at Number 1 during Flowers’ reign.
According to Official Charts Company data, Flowers has racked up a total of 1.2 million UK chart units since its release in January; with over 147 million streams and in excess of 80,000 downloads making it the most-streamed and most-downloaded song of the year so far.
Flowers also claims the biggest week of any track in 2023, pushing a mammoth 126,000 chart units during its second week at Number 1. It went on to become the longest-running Number 1 single by a female artist this side of the decade in the process, equaling the epic 10-week chart-topping runs of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You and Rihanna's Umbrella.
Holding steady at second place is RAYE and 070 Shake’s Escapism. The experimental, electronic banger became RAYE’s first ever UK Number 1 single in January, and has so far this year shifted over 850,000 chart units.
Rounding out the Top 5 are SZA with Kill Bill (3), PinkPantheress’s viral anthem boy’s a liar (4) and Taylor Swift’s former chart-topper, Anti-Hero (5).
Brand new in the year-to-date Top 10 is Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding’s third collaboration, trance banger Miracle (7). Enjoying eight weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart, Miracle became Calvin’s 11th and Ellie’s fourth Number 1 single. It also helped Ellie enter the Official Charts record books as one of the British female solo artists with the most Number 1 singles ever.
Two massive Afrobeats singles are enjoying a place in the year-to-date Top 10; Rema’s Number 3-peaking Calm Down (6) and Libianca’s People (8), which climbed all the way to Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart and spent 12 weeks at the top of the Official Afrobeats Chart.
TikTok’s influence on the Official Singles Chart continues, with some of 2023’s biggest songs having found new success via the video-sharing platform; for many, years after their initial release. Miguel’s Sure Thing, originally released in 2010 (10), David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s I’m Good (Blue), which was originally demoed in 2017 (12) and The Weeknd’s 2016 cut Die For You (13) are all among the year’s biggest tracks to date.
Other viral hits still making an impact this year include Meghan Trainor’s Made You Look (17), Lizzy McAlpine’s breakthrough chart entry Ceilings (18) and Coi Leray’s Players (22), which samples Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five’s The Message.
Further down, Ed Sheeran’s former Number 1 single Eyes Closed continues to resonate (23), as does Switch Disco & Ella Henderson’s slow-burning dance smash React (26).
Up-and-coming US singer-songwriter David Kushner scored his first-ever UK Top 10 single earlier this year with haunting ballad Daylight; the track now named one of the biggest breakout hits of the year so far (28).
Sure to rise as the year goes on, Dave and Central Cee already make the year’s Top 40 to date with Sprinter (35). The track holds the distinction of acquiring 2023’s biggest first-week sales so far, accumulating 108,000 units during its first week of sale, and boasts the biggest week of streams for a rap song ever in UK Chart history, surpassing Stormzy’s 2019 hit Vossi Bop and Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road to take the title.
Finally, Stephen Sanchez’s Until I Found You rounds off the list at Number 40. Originally blowing up on TikTok, Stephen got a big break recently as he was handpicked by Elton John to perform the track live during his Sunday headline set at Glastonbury.
