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The song has now spent 19 weeks at the top
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Sam Fender and Olivia Dean outlast Taylor Swift and Harry Styles to break a 73-year UK chart record
Aug 01, 2026
Highlights
- Rein Me In becomes the UK's longest-running No 1 single with 19 weeks at the top.
- The duet repeatedly returned to No 1 after being displaced by Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo.
- The achievement ends a chart record that had stood since 1953.
Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have rewritten UK chart history after their duet Rein Me In overtook some of pop's biggest names to become the longest-running No 1 single in the history of the Official Singles Chart.
The song has now spent 19 weeks at the top, surpassing the 18-week record set by Frankie Laine's I Believe in 1953. Along the way, it weathered competition from major releases by Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo, reclaiming the No 1 position each time.
A record 73 years in the making
Laine's I Believe held the UK record for more than seven decades, surviving challenges from Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, which spent 16 consecutive weeks at No 1 in 1991, and Wet Wet Wet's Love Is All Around, which topped the chart for 15 weeks in 1994.
More recently, Drake's One Dance and Ed Sheeran's Shape of You also enjoyed lengthy runs, but neither matched the staying power of Rein Me In.
With its 19th week at the summit, Fender and Dean have become the first artists to eclipse the 73-year-old milestone.
How Rein Me In kept coming back
Originally recorded by Fender for his 2025 album People Watching, Rein Me In gained new momentum when Olivia Dean joined for a duet version, adding a verse from the perspective of the woman at the centre of the song's story.
Released in June 2025, the collaboration took 36 weeks to reach No 1 before beginning an unusual chart run. Instead of remaining at the top continuously, the single repeatedly reclaimed the position after brief interruptions from chart-topping releases by Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo.
That resilience proved crucial in helping it break the all-time record.
Fender reacts to historic milestone
Responding to the achievement, Fender said he was "completely lost for words" and thanked Dean and fans for making the song "the juggernaut that it is".
The milestone is particularly significant because it comes during the streaming era, when chart rules introduced in 2017 were designed to prevent older songs from dominating the charts for extended periods.
The duet also won Song of the Year at the 2026 Brit Awards, capping a remarkable run for a song that began life as an understated album track before becoming one of the biggest hits in recent UK chart history.
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