The first women to hold number one for a whole month in the charts
The gender battle of the charts is something that has been dissected at length already in terms of its impact on women, and in some ways doesn’t need to go any further.
We know absolutely clearly by now that male artists have typically ruled the roost when it comes to musical acclaim and number one titles, and until relatively recently, that has remained the status quo in every part of the world. As with everything, there are certain exceptions, of course, but the uprising of female pop has certainly been a welcome tipping of the scales.
This is not to say that women achieving a number one had been a total anomaly at any time before this, but it definitely remained the case that the ability to stay at the top spot for a protracted period was far harder to come by. Mariah Carey was the obvious example, with her 2005 smash hit ‘We Belong Together’ hitting number one for 16 weeks in the US, albeit not consecutively.
Further afield and returning to British chart shores, the picture looks a little different. The longest time spent at number one in this country was a whopping 18 weeks, clocked up by Frankie Laine in 1953 with ‘I Believe’, whereas, by comparison, Whitney Houston held the women’s title for a long time after ‘I Will Always Love You’ spent ten weeks at the top.
She is not the only woman to have reigned at number one for longer than a month, but it is still a fact that she is one of a small group. Rihanna came to match Houston some years later with the 2007 hit ‘Umbrella’, but when it amassed its own ten-week stint, it seemed that nothing was ever going to topple the giant pair.
Which women have now spent the longest at number one?
For better or worse, that remained the case until 2019 when Tones and I emerged from the depths of hell – or, more appropriately, Australia – and unleashed her menace of ‘Dance Monkey’ into the world. Did it really warrant a celebration that this monstrosity beat out Houston and Rihanna, spending 11 weeks at the top?
Personal feelings aside, it was true that ‘Dance Monkey’ was the spark of a trend we have witnessed increasingly over the course of recent years, where female artists have finally been given the space to take a tighter grip of the wheel. Everyone from Miley Cyrus to Lola Young to Olivia Rodrigo has had a shot at the massive chart success, and that, at least, signals things turning for the better.
Most of the time, taking up space in the charts is a true symbol of longevity that no one can reject. It becomes an even stronger statement when that comes from a woman, just for the sheer fact that you know the odds of the industry can often be stacked against them in various ways, not experienced by their male counterparts.
Of course, the continued smashing of records, preferably by more breaths of fresh air, is the preferred route to keep going down. As long as that includes more female artists, and not necessarily Tones and I, then everyone should be all for it. One month is small fry: let’s keep aiming for the big leagues.
