These are exciting times for the No 1 spot, which has finally been relinquished by Justin Bieber and Adele, leaving the field open for less obvious hits such as 7 Years by Lukas Graham.
He’s a Dane from the Copenhagen hippy enclave Christiania, big in his homeland since he released a debut album in 2012. We’ve been slow to catch on to 7 Years, which still isn’t on the Radio 1 or 2 playlists but has already been a hit across northern Europe, racking up around 100 million Spotify streams in the process.
It’s a slow-building piece of piano pop sung in his high, boyband voice, in which the 29-year-old attempts to tell his life story from the age of seven to 60. It’s a neat concept that doesn’t entirely make sense — whose dad tells them to “go get yourself a wife” at 11, other than someone who’s trying to make a song rhyme?
It entered the Official Charts at number 24 this week but is up at number six in the iTunes chart, a sign that it won’t be possible to ignore its quirky charms for much longer.
He’ll soon have to update his life story to include a British gold disc.
