Snapping at Halliwell’s heels: Rivals to Geri’s chart crown
By Will Stroude
According to the Official Chart Company’s midweek update, Rita Ora is on course for a fourth UK Number One single this Sunday (May 18) with Calvin Harris-produced summer banger I Will Never Let You Down.
Should Rita hit the top spot it will signal a landmark moment in music; ending Geri Halliwell’s 13-year reign as Queen of British Pop.
Since 2001, Geri has stood alone as the only UK female solo artist to achieve four Number One singles, which she bagged between 1999 and 2001 with Mi Chico Latino, Lift Me Up, Bag It Up and Weather Girls cover It’s Raining Men.
There’s a sizeable chasing pack of British female talent who’ve achieved three Number One singles, but up until now no one has broken the barrier and achieved full Halliwell.
With that in mind, we thought we’d take a look at who’s in contention to join Geri – and quite possibly Rita – on four Number Ones as the best that Britain has to offer. Oh, and before you ask – yes – we’ve reached out for confirmation from the Official Charts Company and being a featured artist on a chart-topping single DOES count towards an artist’s Number One tally.
The Contenders:
Lily Allen
Number Ones: Smile (2006), The Fear (2008), Somewhere Only We Know (2013)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: High
It’s been an up and down few months for Allen, but with Sheezus hitting Number One on the album chart last week she’s officially re-established herself as a relevant musical force. She ain’t going to achieve the mythical fourth Number One with the so-called “docile pop rubbish” she’s been releasing from the album, but don’t bet against her hitting the top spot when she comes back with the next.
Pixie Lott
Number Ones: Mama Do (2009), Boys and Girls (2009), All About Tonight (2011)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: Increasingly slim, but don’t count her out
After a young, foolish and not-so-happy second album campaign, Lott’s struggled to maintain her position as the country’s premier pop princess. A lukewarm response to her third album’s lead single Nasty, which scraped into the top ten earlier this year, has left the 23-year-old on the ropes. But don’t count her out as a chart-topping contender just yet: if Pixie puts her perfect pop sensibility behind an on-trend club banger, she could easily find herself back in the upper echelons. The question is, with Ora hoovering up all of boyfriend Calvin Harris’ hits, will Lott get a look in?
Cheryl Cole
Number Ones: Fight for This Love (2009), Promise This (2010), Call My Name (2012)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: Almost guaranteed
Cole may have been quiet over the last 18 months, but with a new album confirmed for later this year she’s surely just a few months away from claiming her fourth Number One and with it, a place in pop history. No one’s heard a note of her new material, but now she’s rejoined The X Factor, we’d eat our hat if the inevitable Sunday night results show performance doesn’t bag Chezzer the top spot with whatever she releases next.
Leona Lewis Number Ones: A Moment Like This (2006), Bleeding Love (2007), Run (2008)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: Anyone’s guess
Lewis is a tough one to call. Despite ruling the world circa 2007-8 and having several near-misses with number twos like Better in Time and Happy, the 29-year-old has gone off the boil in recent years. The Hackney gal is a grafter though, and we wouldn’t be surprised if she had one more big sweeping Number One left in her, a la 2009’s Run. Failing that, there’s always the possibility that when her Christmas single One More Sleep starts taking off again in the first week of December it’ll go the whole way.
Alexandra Burke
Number Ones: Hallelujah (2008), Bad Boys (2009), Start Without You (2010)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: Over
The chunky yet zesty Start Without You might have bagged Burke her third Number One back in 2010, but the song’s slightly misguided cheesiness spun the X Factor winner into a downward spiral from which it has proved hard to recover. The public failed to buy into her new club-diva sound on 2012’s Heartbreak on Hold, and after ‘ok.com-gate’ there was nowhere left to go. Apart from the West End, apparently, and although she’s insisting she’s not retired from making pop music, you can see Alex in The Bodyguard at the Adelphi Theatre from June 2.
Billie Piper
Number Ones: Because We Want To (1998), Girlfriend (1998), Day & Night (2000)
Chances of reaching Halliwell: Higher than Burke’s
Before she was Rose Tyler and Belle de Jour, Billie was the British answer to Britney, and with three Number Ones to her name, she ranks among the country’s most successful female solo artists. Although she retired from making music nearly 15 years ago, and insists she has no plans to return to the industry, Piper was at the centre of a Chris Moyles-backed campaign in 2007 to get her song Honey to the Bee back in the top 40. The song actually managed to climb all the way to number 17 thanks to the campaign – 16 places higher than Alexandra Burke’s last single, Let It Go. Who knows, she may be a contender yet?
Who do you think will be the next British female solo artist to bag that mythical fourth Number One single? Leave your predictions in the comments…