UK Singles Chart: 2012

Nobody scoring their 30th Top 40 hit in 2012 and we had the final Top 40 hit for George Michael. The ones highlighted are those who still have hits to come:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	124
=	Cliff Richard	124
3	Elton John	69
4	Madonna	67	Give Me All Your Luvin
5	David Bowie	57
=	Status Quo	57
7	Queen	53
8	Michael Jackson	50
9	Kylie Minogue	48	Timebomb
10	Paul McCartney	47
11	Rod Stewart	45
12	Pet Shop Boys	44
13	Diana Ross	43
=	Rolling Stones	43
=	Depeche Mode	43
16	Stevie Wonder	41
=	U2	41
18	UB40	40
19	Prince	38
=	Mariah Carey	38
21	Janet Jackson	37
=	Jay-Z	37	Niggas In Paris, No Church in  the Wild, Clique
23	Tom Jones	36
=	Bon Jovi	36
=	George Michael	36	White Light
=	Rihanna	36	Where Have You Been, Diamonds, Right Now, Stay
27	R Kelly	35
28	Erasure	34
=	Manic Street Preachers	34
30	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33
=	Morrissey	33
33	Iron Maiden	32
=	Simply Red	32
=	Whitney Houston	32
=	Robbie Williams	32	Candy
37	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	REM	31
40	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30
=	Paul Weller	30
=	Mary J Blige	30
=	Glee Cast	30

Both Rihanna and Robbie Williams had one number one in 2012 bringing their total to 7:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	21
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
=	Westlife	14
5	Madonna	13
6	Take That	11
7	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
9	Rolling Stones	8
=	Oasis	8
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7
=	Elton John	7
=	Eminem	7
=	McFly	7
=	Robbie Williams	7	Candy
=	Rihanna	7	Diamonds
20	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Sugababes	6

Kanye West now had the most consecutive years of Top 40 hits and previous X Factor winner Leona Lewis becomes joint third in most consecutive years of hits:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Kanye West	2004
2	Rihanna	2005
3	Chris Brown	2006
=	Leona Lewis	2006
=	Ne-Yo	2006
=	Taio Cruz	2006

We had a new talent show in 2012 on the BBC to rival the X Factor called The Voice. However the winners single failed to make the Top 40. We did however have one contestant who did make the Top 40. Tyler James who had previously been in the charts in 2004 and 2005 just about reached the Top 40 with his cover of "Higher Love" making number 39. His next hit "Single Tear" did better reaching 28, but neither of these charted as high as his previous hits.

The true winners of The Voice were the judges. Will.I.Am had a number one with "This Is Love" featuring Eva Simons and "Hall Of Fame" in collaboration with The Script, the group of fellow judge Danny O'Donoghue. Jessie J also had a number one with "Domino".

Like the previous year, the X Factor winners single, which was "Impossible" by James Arthur, was released the week before Christmas and made number one before being knocked off Christmas week by the charity single "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by the Justice Collective.

James Arthur wasn't the only contestant from this series of X Factor to have a hit this year. Lucy Spraggan had a hit with "Last Night" before being removed from iTunes by request of the X Factor producers.

The previous years winners Little Mix had their second number one with "Wings" and also had a number three with "DNA". There were three more contestants from the previous year to have hits in 2012, Marcus Collins with "Seven Nation Army", Amelia Lily with "You Bring Me Joy" and Misha B with "Home Run" and "Do You Think Of Me".

There was also the only hit from 2010 contestant Aiden Grimshaw with "Is This Love". Cher Lloyd had her final hit with "Want U Back" and Rebecca Ferguson had her second hit with "Backtrack". Proving to be the success story of that series though were One Direction who had their second number one with "Little Things" and had a further three Top 10 hits.

The last contestant standing contestant from the 2009 series was Olly Murs who had a number one with "Troublemaker" featuring Flo Rida and had another hit with "Oh My Goodness".

The 2008 winner Alexandra Burke had her final hit this year with "Let It Go" meaning the last ones standing from that series were JLS who had three hits in 2012.

X Factor judge Tulisa began her solo career in 2012 with "Young" which made number one. Her next singles "Live It Up" and "Sight of You" failed to reach the top ten and she hasn't appeared in the Top 40 since. Fellow judge Gary Barlow had his first solo number one in 15 years with "Sing".

There were no new boybands in the Top 40 in 2012, the other boybands alongside One Direction and JLS to have hits were The Wanted and McFly.

There were a new girl group in the charts though. They were called Stooshe and debuted with a number five hit "Love Me". They managed number three with their second hit "Black Heart" but only made 21 with their third hit "Waterfalls".

Girls Aloud were back in the charts one last time with "Something New" which made number two. Girls Aloud member Cheryl scored her third solo number one with "Call My Name". The Saturdays had just one hit this year with "30 Days".

The most successful act of the year from a chart perspective was from chart debutant Rita Ora. She debuted at number one as the vocalist on "Hot Right Now" by DJ Fresh. She followed up with another two number ones, "How We Do (Party)" and "RIP" and had a top ten with "Shine Ya Light".

It was the most successful year to date from a chart perspective for Drum & Bass music. After there were no Drum & Bass hits in 2011 there were 9 in 2012, a number that had only been seen in 1997 previously. Further to that, "Hot Right Now" by DJ Fresh became the first ever Drum & Bass number one, but it was the second for DJ Fresh who had the first Dubstep number one in 2011. We then had the second Drum & Bass number one from debutants Rudimental featuring John Newman with "Feel the Love".

It was a much quieter year for Dubstep but EDM was still as strong as ever. However the year did see the break up of Swedish House Mafia, who scored their first number one with their final hit "Don't You Worry Child". Swedish House Mafia member Sebastian Ingrosso made his solo debut with "Calling (Lose My Mind)" in collaboration with fellow Swedish debutant Alesso.

David Guetta and Calvin Harris had one number one each in 2012, David Guetta with "Titanium" featuring Sia and Calvin Harris with "Sweet Nothing" featuring Florence Welch. Both DJs also collaborated with Ne-Yo in 2012, David Guetta with "Play Hard" and Calvin Harris with "Let's Go".

Ne-Yo also had a number one with "Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)" which was one of many examples of R&B singers still doing Electropop. There was however one actual R&B number one in 2012 which came from Labrinth ft Emeli Sande with "Beneath Your Beautiful".

Following the death of Etta James, her song "At Last" made the Top 40 having never previous been a hit. There was very little R&B in the charts overall though in 2012 mainly due to Electropop.

Rap music was also suffering with several rappers such as Flo Rida and Pitbull continuing to make Electropop with Flo Rida making number one with "Good Feeling".

One Rap act making their first Top 40 appearance in 14 years was Public Enemy with "Harder Than You Think". This tune was 5 years old at the time but charted thanks to being the theme music to Channel 4's coverage of the Paralympics and gave them their first Top 10 hit.

Following Ed Sheeran's debut the previous year, Folk Pop increased in popularity with other with acts such as James Vincent McMorrow, Ben Howard, Frank Turner, Ryan O'Shaughnessy and Jake Bugg having hits as well as Ed Sheeran himself.

The decline of Indie Music was still evident but we did have a return to the charts after 9 years for Blur with "Under the Westway". There were also debuts for Everything Everything with "Cough Cough" and Bastille with "Flaws".

We had a couple of unlikely collaborations between older and newer artists. Brian May collaborated with Dappy on "Rockstar" and Mick Jagger collaborated with Will.I.Am and Jennifer Lopez on "T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)".

Aside from the Electropop dominating the charts there were two notable number ones that were completely different. The biggest number one of the year was "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye ft Kimbra and we also had some K-Pop in the charts for the first time with Psy making number one with "Gangnam Style".

To sum up 2012 would be lots of Electropop and EDM, the rise of Drum & Bass and Folk Pop and the fall of Dubstep and a minimal amount of other genres. Indie dominated the charts for 5 years from 2004-2008, Electropop has dominated since 2009, will it continue to dominate for a 5th year and if so will it be the last?