What Was I Made For? – Billie Ellish

Less than 48 hours before The Lionesses take to the pitch in their first ever Women’s World Cup Final appearance, Billie Eilish leads a record-breaking week for women on the UK’s Official Singles Chart.

Billie Eilish claims her second Number 1 single with What Was I Made For? which features on the soundtrack for Barbie: The Movie, scoring a last-minute victory over Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night (2). Billie’s previous chart-topper, No Time To Die (2020) was the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name.

Sisters doing it for themselves – this week marks a major record for women on the Official Chart, as female solo artists solely make up the Top 6 of the Official Singles Chart for the first time in the chart’s 70-year history, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

Joining Billie and Dua in the Top 5 are Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire (3), Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer (4), and Peggy Gou’s (It Goes Like) Nanana (5).

Olivia Rodrigo, who is no stranger to a chart record after becoming the first female artist to hold three places in the Official Chart Top 5 simultaneously back in June 2021, makes a second appearance, rounding off the list at Number 6 with this week’s highest new entry, bad idea right?

The entire Top 8 this week are tracks led by female artists, with Barbie World by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua at Number 7, and Disconnect by Becky Hill and Chase & Status at a new peak of Number 8.

Furthermore, the Top 5 of the year-to-date Official Singles Chart is also dominated by women, led by Miley Cyrus’s Flowers, the UK’s biggest single of the year so far, which enjoyed a ten-week residency at Number 1 between January and March.

This week’s chart record occurs during a massive Summer of success for women in entertainment and sport; Greta Gerwig’s Barbie: The Movie has taken over cinemas and our social media feeds, enjoyed the biggest opening weekend ever for a female-directed movie, and is now the highest-grossing film of all time by a solo female director; Taylor Swift and Beyonce are breaking records with their major world tours becoming two of the highest-grossing of all time; and of course England’s The Lionesses are competing in the football World Cup for the first time ever this weekend.