Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's 'Rein Me In' Sets UK Chart Record with 19 Weeks at Number One

Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's duet 'Rein Me In' has broken the UK's longest-running number one record, spending 19 non-consecutive weeks atop the UK singles chart. The track, a reworking of a solo Fender song from his Mercury Prize-winning album 'People Watching', features an additional verse from Dean's perspective. It overtakes Frankie Laine's 'I Believe' (18 weeks in the 1950s), Bryan Adams' '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' (16 weeks in 1991), and Wet Wet Wet's 'Love Is All Around' (15 weeks in 1994). Fender expressed being 'speechless' on BBC Radio 1's Official Chart show, thanking Dean and the fans. The duet was first performed at London Stadium in June 2025, with a viral TikTok video, and took eight months to reach number one in February 2026. It won Song of the Year at the Brit Awards, beating Lewis Capaldi, Raye, and Ed Sheeran. Polydor's Ben Mortimer called it a 'historic achievement' for the two homegrown stars. The song's success is attributed to its authenticity and emotional depth, praised by critics like Jake Fitzpatrick of Blunt Magazine and Ewan Gleadow of Cult Following. It has been briefly displaced by Harry Styles' 'American Girls', Olivia Rodrigo's 'Drop Dead', and Ariana Grande's 'Hate That I Made You Love Me'.