How Sam Fender and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In broke the UK’s singles chart record

It’s a song that has become inescapable, whether you’re scrolling on TikTok, listening to the radio or even filling up your trolley on the weekly shop.

And now Rein Me In, the melodic love song by Sam Fender and Olivia Dean, has officially broken the longest standing record in British music history.

Speaking to Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart show on Friday afternoon, Fender said he was “speechless” when asked how it felt to break the record.

By spending 19 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, it overtakes the record set by American crooner Frankie Laine with his track I Believe, in 1953.

This reworking of Rein Me In, from Fender’s third studio album, the Mercury Prize-winning People Watching, features an extra verse about the breakdown of a relationship from a female perspective, from Dean.

“[It’s] very personal and reminded us of home, but when Olivia put her touch on it, it became a much more universal track,” he told Radio 1, adding “that’s what made it so huge and so beautiful”.

He said he wanted to “personally thank” Dean, who helped him achieve his first ever number one single, adding: “It wouldn’t have happened without Olivia obviously, but now I feel like it belongs to the fans, they’ve made it what it is”.

When asked how he’d be celebrating the achievement, Fender joked “I think I’m just gonna have a really big sandwich”.

It hasn’t been a straightforward ascent to the top for Rein Me In – originally released as a solo Fender track and repurposed as a duet in June 2025, it took eight months to reach number one in February this year.

Dean said when the track came out that the original version of Rein Me In was her “favourite song on Sam’s album” and it was “a pleasure to write a new verse from a female perspective”.

A lot of the song’s success as a duet comes from its authenticity, with the lyrics exploring the fallout from the end of a relationship and the difficulties faced by both parties as they try to move on from each other.

Whilst Fender’s verses feel full of anger and regret at not being able to open up and be the partner he wanted to be, they are complimented by the softer and more reflective tone of Dean’s, in which she encourages him to try again to make it work.

It has been described by Blunt Magazine’s Jake Fitzpatrick as “stormy, tender and anthemic” and a “love letter to the kind of songwriting that knows when to burn slow”.

The song has also received praise amongst many critics and bloggers, including Cult Following’s Ewan Gleadow, who says that Dean’s addition helps it to find “a new depth”, noting “charm is a big part of it too, with all those reflections on where you come from and where you’re headed”.

The song’s journey has been an interesting one – first entering the charts in June 2025, but not hitting the top spot until February 2026, just a week before it was crowned song of the year at the Brit Awards.

Three weeks after going to number one, it was knocked off the top spot by Harry Styles’ American Girls, but only for seven days.

Since then it has only been superseded briefly by Olivia Rodrigo’s Drop Dead and Ariana Grande’s Hate That I Made You Love Me.

Rein Me In has now spent so long at the top that it has broken every record in UK chart history.

Ben Mortimer, who runs Fender’s label Polydor, described it as a “historic achievement” from “two homegrown stars” – Newcastle’s Fender and London’s Dean.

In an interview with Radio 1 when the track first hit number one, Fender acknowledged the track’s slow climb to the top, thanking “the internet”.

He also says he found it interesting that the track “travelled online and people came to it later, which is wonderful really because it’s the music that’s doing the talking”.

The song has become a mainstay on TikTok – a quick scroll through the social media app shows its use on everything from grand declarations of love to montages of holidays and even compilations of football goals and celebrations.

It’s also notable that the song first went viral after the pair performed it at a show at the London Stadium, home of Dean’s team West Ham, in June last year.

She then returned the favour a week later at Newcastle United’s St James Park, performing the song this time at the home of Fender’s footballing love.

Whilst TikTok streams do not count towards the official charts, BBC research from last year explored how much of an effect the platform was having on what we listened to, particularly songs with meaningful and powerful lyrics.