Sam Fender scored a rare chart milestone on Friday as his duet with Olivia Dean, “Rein Me In,” held at No. 1 on the U.K. singles chart for a 12th non-consecutive week on May 22.
The run cements the song’s place in chart history: Billboard calls it "The song is the longest-running No. 1 male/female duet in U.K. chart history," and the Official Charts cheered, "The Rein Me In reign continues!" The 12-week total exceeds the previous record of 10 weeks set by Rihanna and Jay-Z’s "Umbrella" in 2007.
Fender collected another honour the night before the chart update, taking the songwriter of the year prize at the Ivor Novello Awards on Thursday, May 21. The back-to-back recognition — a top spot on the singles chart and an industry songwriting prize — underlines the commercial and critical momentum behind a song that first appeared on Fender’s 2025 album People Watching.
The trajectory of "Rein Me In" has been unusual. The track was remixed in June last year with a new verse from Olivia Dean, rose to No. 1 in February 2026 and later won song of the year at the BRIT Awards, but it has not been a single-season phenomenon; its chart authority has returned in fits and starts and now totals 12 non-consecutive weeks at the summit.
That resilience matters because it rewrites a specific record and reshapes how male/female duets are measured on the Official Singles Chart. Surpassing a decade-old benchmark set by one of the era’s biggest pop hits signals more than a fleeting trend: it marks a sustained public appetite for the pairing of Fender’s songwriting with Dean’s contribution.
But the chart landscape is not static. Drake’s new single "Janice STFU" landed at No. 2 on the same May 22 update, and "National Treasures" slots in at No. 3, showing immediate contenders beneath Fender’s hold. At the same time Drake has set a new U.K. chart record with three studio albums landing simultaneously in the top 10 — Iceman at No. 1, Maid of Honour at No. 6 and Habibti at No. 7 — a reminder that streaming-heavy catalog movements and simultaneous album releases can change the shape of weekly charts even as individual singles linger.
The tension is plain: Fender’s single run is historic and industry-validated, but the mechanics of modern charts — remixes, awards-driven spikes and multiple-format releases from other artists — mean that long runs at No. 1 face pressure from several directions. "Rein Me In" arrived on a 2025 album, was boosted by a remix in June last year and by awards attention in 2026; each of those moments has renewed its chart life rather than relying on one continuous surge.
For Fender the practical outcome is clear. Between the Ivor Novello songwriter of the year prize and a record-setting stretch at the top of the singles chart, he has built a rare combination of peer recognition and mass commercial reach in the same week. That dual achievement delivers a simple conclusion: Sam Fender is the defining British songwriter of this moment, and "Rein Me In" has become the durable hit that proves it.
