Jamie Miller is the first Welsh artist in 15 years to top the UK chart

Number 1 by 556 chart units

Jamie Miller's Babydoll went to Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart on Friday 23 October, making the Cardiff singer the first Welsh artist to top the UK singles chart in 15 years. It was one of the closest races of the year: the Official Charts Company said only 556 chart units separated Babydoll from Tate McRae's Housewife, which came in at Number 2 in its first week.

Miller is the first Welsh act at Number 1 since 2011, when Sian Evans sang on DJ Fresh's Louder. He is also the first solo Welsh man to top the singles chart in 41 years. The last was Shakin' Stevens, with Merry Christmas Everyone in 1985.

The rest of that week's top five was Olivia Rodrigo's Expectations with Chappell Roan at Number 3, Ashe's Stop The Wedding at Number 4 and Sienna Spiro's Great Expectation at Number 5. On the albums chart the same day, Fontaines D.C. went to Number 1 with Dopamine Chamber.

It was a busy week further down the chart too. Fontaines D.C. put three songs from that album into the Top 40, led by Marianne at Number 12, their best singles chart placing so far. Zach Bryan reached Number 7 with Lies, his duet with Lana Del Rey and his highest UK single to date, and Justice returned to the Top 40 for the first time in 20 years with Flower In A Hurricane, the Official Charts Company reported.

Oscar Edwards reported this first for BBC News. Checked against Official Charts: Jamie Miller becomes the first Welsh artist in 15 years to secure a UK Number 1 single.

The numbers behind the win

Babydoll's chart consumption rose by 38.27% in its Number 1 week to 47,548 units, made up of 5,906 downloads and 41,642 sales-equivalent streams, as Alan Jones reported for Music Week. The jump followed the release of the duet version with the American singer and actor Antonio Cipriano. Music Week also noted that Miller was the first male solo artist to reach Number 1 since Harry Styles in March.

The lead changed hands during the week. On 21 October the Official Charts Company's midweek sales flash had Babydoll on 27,074 sales, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan's Expectations on 24,656 and Tate McRae's Housewife on 24,064, as Charlotte Krol reported for Music Week. By Friday, Housewife had passed Expectations, but Babydoll held on.

What he said

Miller told the Official Charts Company: "This is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me in my life, I love you guys." He thanked fans for getting him to Number 1.

In an interview with BBC Wales a few days later, he said nothing felt normal any more and that he was trying to live in the moment. He spoke about a hard few years in his personal life, during which he took two years away from music, and said the honesty in the way he sings on Babydoll might be part of why the song connected, as Oscar Edwards reported for BBC News.

He also told the BBC his parents were finding it all a bit mad, and that his dad was back at work as an Uber driver in Cardiff.

Nine weeks from 84 to the top

Babydoll was not an overnight hit. The song came out on 7 August, according to BBC News, and first entered the Official Singles Chart in September at Number 84. It broke into the Top 40 on 24 September and into the Top 10 a week later, the Official Charts Company says.

On 9 October it climbed three places to Number 3, Miller's first Top 5 single and his highest chart position until then, in a week when Taylor Swift held Number 1 with Patient Zero. A week later it peaked at Number 2, narrowly missing out on the top spot. On 23 October, in its ninth week on the chart, it got there.

A TikTok hit with a Hollywood push

The song took off on TikTok after the American actress Jennifer Love Hewitt posted videos using it, BBC News reported. It became the soundtrack to a dance trend, went to Number 1 on the US iTunes pop chart and gave Miller his first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, as Leigh Boobyer reported for BBC News.

Miller also recorded a second version of Babydoll with Antonio Cipriano, an actor in the series Off Campus, after the pair joked about the idea on social media. The two performed it together on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing the weekend after it went to Number 1.

The Strictly performance had a personal side. Miller told the BBC it meant a lot to see the presenter Emma Willis again, whom he called one of his biggest champions. She was hosting The Voice UK when he reached the final as a teenager.

Cipriano told BBC Wales he had admired Miller's voice for years and rated him among the best singers he had heard. Miller, for his part, said the Strictly appearance had made him want to bring dancing and singing together in his career, but that he was relaxed about whether his next songs become dance trends too.

From The Voice UK to Number 1

Miller, 29, grew up in Pontprennau in Cardiff. He launched his career nearly a decade ago, aged 19, when he finished third on the sixth series of The Voice UK in 2017, BBC News reported. He has said he fell in love with singing after an audition for a primary school show.

The years after The Voice were harder than the chart run suggests. He told BBC Wales he had been depressed for a long time and that he considered giving up music at the start of 2026, months before Babydoll was released. Now, he said, he feels genuine joy.

His message to young fans was to dream big whatever their background. He told the BBC he had always been scared he would never make something of himself.

Wales and the singles chart

Wales has a long but patchy record at the top of the chart, which is part of why this Number 1 drew so much attention. According to the Official Charts Company, the first Welsh artist to go to Number 1 was Shirley Bassey, with As I Love You in 1958. Her second and last Number 1 came in 1961 with Reach For The Stars/Climb Ev'ry Mountain.

Shakin' Stevens, real name Michael Barrett, has more UK Number 1s than any other Welsh act: This Ole House and Green Door in 1981, Oh Julie in 1982 and Merry Christmas Everyone in 1985. Tom Jones has the best-selling single by a Welsh artist, The Green, Green Grass of Home, which went to Number 1 in 1966 and has sold 1.26 million copies, the Official Charts Company says.

Bonnie Tyler topped the chart in both the UK and the US in 1983 with Total Eclipse of the Heart. Manic Street Preachers are one of the few Welsh bands on the list, with two Number 1s, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and, most recently, The Masses Against the Classes in 2000. After that came Sian Evans on Louder in 2011, and then a 15-year gap until Babydoll.

The full list runs to 20 Number 1s across almost seven decades. Between Bassey and Shakin' Stevens came Ricky Valance's Tell Laura I Love Her in 1960, Tom Jones's It's Not Unusual in 1965, Mary Hopkin's Those Were The Days in 1968, Amen Corner's (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice in 1969 and Dave Edmunds' I Hear You Knocking in 1970. In the 2000s, Stereophonics went to Number 1 with Dakota in 2005 and Duffy with Mercy in 2008, and in 2009 the Comic Relief cover of Islands in the Stream, credited to the Gavin & Stacey characters Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West with Tom Jones and Robin Gibb, also topped the chart.

That last one has an odd echo now. Miller told the BBC that last Christmas he was watching Gavin & Stacey on the sofa with his parents, and that Ruth Jones and James Corden are now commenting on his social media posts.

A second week?

The race is not over. On 25 October the Official Charts Company's first look at the following week's chart had Babydoll on course for a second week at Number 1. The final chart for that week was due to be published at 5.45pm on Friday 30 October, and we will update this story with the result.

The same first look had Raye's Where Is My Husband! climbing after her Mercury Prize win, and Jade's Angel Of My Dreams heading back towards the Top 40 after her performance at the Mercury awards in Newcastle.

Coming back to Cardiff

Miller is planning a world tour and has said he wants to bring some of the shows to Wales. He told BBC Wales: "I'm definitely coming back to Cardiff baby." No dates, venues or ticket details have been announced yet.

Before then there is more music to come. Miller told BBC Wales he was proud of his new songs and excited to share his latest album and tour it, and he has said Babydoll is the first song he released after his break from music. No album title or release date has been announced.

We do not list any Jamie Miller shows yet, because none have been announced. When dates are announced and tickets appear on StubHub, we will track the prices from the first day. If you want to hear about it, set a watch below and we will email you when Jamie Miller dates appear and when prices drop.