Ahead of next week’s Brit Awards, North Shields’ own Sam Fender has earned his first ever number 1 single in the UK
18:00, 20 Feb 2026Updated 19:49, 20 Feb 2026
Sam Fender at St James’ Park – June 12, 2025
As both he and Olivia Dean go for glory at next week’s Brit Awards in Manchester. Sam Fender’s duet with the Man I Need singer – Rein Me In – has given Sam his first ever UK number 1. And, released back in June, some 35 weeks ago, the track has set a new record for the most consecutive weeks a song has spent in the top 40 before hitting the top spot.
There was a lot of excitement from fans of both stars when Sam and Olivia, his then support act, performed duets of Rein Me In on tour last year, after it initially appeared on Sam’s third album, the Mercury Prize-winning People Watching, as a solo track. Olivia, who recently took home the Best New Artist trophy at the Grammys 2026, sang the song with Sam at both Finsbury Park in London and St James’ Park in Newcastle, to a huge reaction, meaning there was widespread delight when the duet version was then released as a single.
It originally peaked at number 5 but has now finally hit number 1, giving Sam his biggest hit to date, outpeaking Seventeen Going Under, which itself made number 3 in 2022, after 25 weeks in the charts. Rein Me In’s 35 week journey to number 1 has seen it take the record for the longest time spent consecutively in the charts between release and getting number 1, from Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, which spent 22 consecutive weeks in the top 40 before eventually claiming number one in 2017.
Olivia Dean at the 68th GRAMMY Awards (Image: Billboard via Getty Images)
At next week’s Brits, Sam is up for Rock/Alternative, the award he’s already won twice before, as well as Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for People Watching. And, after it’s ascent to the top of the charts, Rein Me In is the running for British Single, one of the few categories this year that is decided by public vote.
While Sam and Olivia at the top of the Official Singles Chart, it’s last year’s big Brit winner, Charli XCX, ruling the roost for the album top 40, with her new release Wuthering Heights and soundtrack to the much talked about film of the same name, storming straight to the top of the charts.
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