This is a summary of 2001 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.

The year saw the tradition of UK acts dominating the top of the charts carried on from 2000. Songs were starting to spend 2–3 weeks at the summit improving on the large amounts of one week number ones from the previous year. CD sales also improved slightly with 3 million selling singles being issued this year. Overall, 30 songs topped the charts over the course of this year.

Summary The first new No. 1 of the year was from the first ever Portuguese act to top the UK charts; Rui Da Silva featuring Cassandra and their dance track, "Touch Me" spent 1-week at the summit. The year ended with the announcement that the pop group Steps were to split up on Boxing Day.

21st century boy bands Five scored their final chart topper with "Let's Dance", which marked their final single as a group. The follow-up No. 4 hit, "Closer to Me" was released after news of the band's split. They released a Greatest Hits compilation at the end of the year, which made number 9. BBMak were another boyband to split, however their career was very short-lived with 2001 seeing the start and end of it. Their debut single, "Back Here" failed to make the Top 20 upon initial release, however was then re-issued and peaked at #5. The follow-up single, "Still on Your Side" peaked at No. 8 and despite seeming to continue on with success, they disappeared after the release of their debut album Sooner or Later, which was a very slight Top 20 smash.

Blue were the most successful new boy band of 2001; whilst their debut single "All Rise" only made No. 4, other boy bands quickly fading away meant that it wasn't long before Blue could take centre stage. Their next two singles, "Too Close" (a cover of the 1998 U.S. chart topper from American boy band Next) and "If You Come Back", a slow love ballad, quickly became chart toppers for the group. However, once again, Westlife became the most successful boy band of the year. Although their run of consecutive No. 1 singles had been broken the previous year by Bob the Builder, they quickly returned to the top spot with the Comic Relief single of the year, "Uptown Girl" (a cover of the Billy Joel 1983 UK number 1) and "Queen of My Heart". By the end of the year, they had accumulated a total of 9 No. 1 singles on the UK chart, putting them side by side with the Spice Girls and ABBA. Their 3rd album, entitled World of Our Own, topped the UK albums chart for 1-week.

ABC aired a talent show, Making the Band, in which by the public vote, boyband O-Town were picked as winners. Their debut single, "Liquid Dreams" peaked at No. 3 in the UK and their follow-up, "All Or Nothing", stalled one place lower.

The Backstreet Boys released The Hits: Chapter One, which went platinum. The greatest hits album featured a new song, "Drowning", which got to number 4.

Girl groups Girl groups were slowly changing away from 90s pop styles to a more R'N'B/Hip Hop direction. All Saints scored their final UK chart hit, with "All Hooked Up", a final release from their second album, peaking at #7. A greatest hits compilation, entitled All Hits followed, but it only made No. 18 on the albums chart.

Replacing Kerry Katona, Jenny Frost joined girl group Atomic Kitten, who became one of the main early 21st century pop girl groups. After the member change, the band's single "Whole Again", hit No. 1 for 4 weeks, becoming the longest stay since Westlife at New Year in 1999/2000 and also the 4th biggest selling single of the year. They scored a 2nd chart topper later in the year with a remake of The Bangles' "Eternal Flame" chart topper from 1989, which spent 2 weeks at the top and continued on to be one of the most successful groups of the decade.

Destiny's Child started the new trend for girl groups to veer away from pop, as their chart-topping third album, Survivor, spanned a 2nd consecutive No. 1 hit with the title track. The third single, "Emotion" peaked at #3. Mis-teeq, a girl group in a similar vein to Destiny's Child, scored great success throughout the year, with their No. 3 album Lickin' On Both Sides spanning 3 Top 10 hits; "Why", their No. 8 debut, "All I Want" (#2) & One Night Stand (#5). 3LW also made their debut on the UK charts with the No. 6 hit "No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)". Their follow-up single only made No. 21 and their eponymous debut album was not released in the UK.

Film and TV music 2001 was a moderately successful year for film and television music, providing some memorable hit singles and albums. The Tweenies and Bob The Builder both released singles, the former of which was a Christmas release making No. 9 and the latter having his 2nd No. 1 single with a re-make of the No. 1 from 1999 by Lou Bega, "Mambo No. 5". This 2nd No. 1 made Bob the first non-human who "sung" on his recordings to hit the top more than once.

Two very successful movies, Moulin Rouge! and Bridget Jones's Diary, had equally successful soundtracks and produced memorable hit singles each. On the Bridget Jones soundtrack, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell had a chart-topping hit with a cover of The Weather Girls classic "It's Raining Men", while Gabrielle provided her vocals on the No. 4 hit "Out of Reach" which became her first Top 5 single since the chart-topping "Rise" in early 2000. The Moulin Rouge!collaboration proved to be slightly more successful with Christina Aguilera joining forces with Pink, Lil' Kim and Mýa on a cover of the 1975 hit single "Lady Marmalade" (itself previously covered in 1998 by All Saints. Their version proved to be even more successful, topping the charts worldwide and becoming the 900th single to top the UK charts.

Glitter became Mariah Carey's acting debut and the soundtrack became her 10th album release. Despite her massive worldwide success throughout the 90s, the new millennium did not take so kindly to her as both the movie and the soundtrack were a critical and commercial flop. Lead single "Loverboy" failed to make much of an impact, peaking at No. 12 in the UK (made No. 2 in the US, breaking her run of lead single chart toppers). The album peaked at No. 10 in the UK, another weak showing on Carey's behalf. Enough although the former of these singles failed to chart in the US and the latter was not released due to the weak performance of prior singles, "Never Too Far/Last Night a DJ Saved My Life" was able to crack the UK Top 40, peaking at #32.

2001 also saw the beginning of music talent programmes with the band Hear'Say being created on the T.V programme "Popstars" in the UK. It would go on to spawn the creation of similar formats including the British "Pop Idol", American version, "American Idol" and "The X Factor".

Charts

Number-one singles Chart date(week ending) Song Artist(s) Sales "Can We Fix It?" Bob the Builder90,300 "Touch Me"Rui Da Silva featuring Cassandra 68,473 "Love Don't Cost a Thing"Jennifer Lopez67,879 "Rollin'"Limp Bizkit49,487 47,435 "Whole Again" Atomic Kitten 69,286 85,295 101,919 113,090 "It Wasn't Me" Shaggy featuring Ricardo "RikRok" Ducent345,498 "Uptown Girl"Westlife292,319 "Pure and Simple"Hear'Say549,839 242,000 81,000 "What Took You So Long?"Emma Bunton 76,317 64,818 "Survivor"Destiny's Child104,062 "Don't Stop Movin"S Club 7178,985 "It's Raining Men"Geri Halliwell154,811 78,000 "Don't Stop Movin"S Club 763,500 "Do You Really Like It?"DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies148,594 "Angel"Shaggy featuring Rayvon178,645 101,000 76,000 "Lady Marmalade"Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink109,405 "The Way to Your Love"Hear'Say75,514 "Another Chance"Roger Sanchez72,534 "Eternity/The Road to Mandalay"Robbie Williams70,186 64,000 "Eternal Flame"Atomic Kitten141,994 70,000 "21 Seconds"So Solid Crew118,135 "Let's Dance"Five84,782 52,000 "Too Close"Blue83,886 "Mambo No. 5"Bob the Builder102,056 "Hey Baby"DJ Ötzi90,748 "Can't Get You Out of My Head"Kylie Minogue306,648 180,699 122,000 95,500 "Because I Got High"Afroman129,613 109,000 77,060 "Queen of My Heart"Westlife139,344 "If You Come Back"Blue87,600 "Have You Ever"S Club 7143,324 "Gotta Get Thru This" Daniel Bedingfield108,799 80,000 "Somethin' Stupid" Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman98,506 110,000

Number-one albums Chart date(week ending)AlbumArtist(s)Sales 1The Beatles88,739 43,000 31,000 The Greatest HitsTexas29,000 Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored WaterLimp Bizkit40,000 No Angel Dido 78,500 79,000 101,000 84,000 83,000 64,000 SongbirdEva Cassidy78,000 120,000 PopstarsHear'Say306,631 127,000 Just Enough Education to PerformStereophonics140,000 51,000 Free All AngelsAsh39,900 SurvivorDestiny's Child118,000 53,000 RevealR.E.M.111,000 53,000 Hot ShotShaggy 54,500 AmnesiacRadiohead 90,500 The Invisible Band Travis 199,697 78,000 53,000 35,000 8701Usher42,500 SurvivorDestiny's Child30,000 31,500 White LadderDavid Gray35,000 Right NowAtomic Kitten47,000 White LadderDavid Gray180,000 Break the CycleStaind39,000 IowaSlipknot52,000 A Funk OdysseyJamiroquai80,200 43,500 The IdMacy Gray36,000 No AngelDido35,000 FeverKylie Minogue139,000 115,000 GoldSteps146,000 98,000 InvincibleMichael Jackson110,000 GoldSteps55,000 World of Our OwnWestlife178,000 Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams295,024 194,000 212,000 245,000 365,208

Number-one compilation albums Chart date(week ending)Album Now 47 Clubbers Guide to 2001 Breakdown – The Very Best of Euphoric Dance The Chillout Session New Woman 2001 The Annual – Spring 2001 Now 48 Bridget Jones' Diary Capital Gold – Legends Now 49 The Classic Chillout Album Hits 50 The Classic Chillout Album Pepsi Chart 2002 Now Dance 2002 The Annual 2002 Now 50

Year-end charts

Best-selling singles Data based on sales from 31 December 2000 to 29 December 2001. Title Artist Peakposition Sales 1 "It Wasn't Me" Shaggy featuring Rikrok 1 1,150,000 2 "Pure and Simple" Hear'Say 1 1,070,000 3 "Can't Get You Out of My Head" 1 989,000 4 "Whole Again" Atomic Kitten 1 930,000 5 "Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh)" DJ Ötzi 1 6 "Uptown Girl" Westlife 1 7 "Don't Stop Movin" S Club 7 1 8 "Angel" Shaggy featuring Rayvon 1 585,000 9 "Teenage Dirtbag" Wheatus 2 10 "Because I Got High" Afroman 1 490,000 11 "Do You Really Like It?" DJ Pied Piper and the Masters of Ceremonies 1 470,000 12 "Clint Eastwood" Gorillaz 4 13 "It's Raining Men" 1 14 "Lady Marmalade" , Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink 1 400,000 15 "Eternal Flame" Atomic Kitten 1 379,000 16 "Gotta Get Thru This" 1 370,000 17 "Mambo No. 5" Bob the Builder 1 18 "What Would You Do?" City High 3 350,000 19 "21 Seconds" So Solid Crew 1 20 "The Road to Mandalay" 1 21 "Have You Ever" S Club 7 1 22 "Castles in the Sky" Ian Van Dahl 3 23 "Queen of My Heart" Westlife 1 24 "Out of Reach" Gabrielle 4 25 "Touch Me" featuring Cassandra 1 290,000 26 "Perfect Gentleman" 4 27 "Rollin'" Limp Bizkit 1 28 "Follow Me" Uncle Kracker 3 280,000 29 "Let's Dance" Five 1 30 "Somethin' Stupid" and Nicole Kidman 1 31 "I'm Like a Bird" 5 32 "Smooth Criminal" Alien Ant Farm 3 33 "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" OPM 4 270,000 34 "Starlight" featuring Mani Hoffman 2 260,000 35 "Survivor" Destiny's Child 1 36 "Purple Pills" D12 2 37 "Chain Reaction"/"One for Sorrow" (remix) Steps 2 38 "Butterfly" Crazy Town 3 39 "Always Come Back to Your Love" 3 40 "Another Chance" 1 41 "What Took You So Long?" 1 42 "Everytime You Need Me" Fragma featuring Maria Rubia 3 43 "Ms. Jackson" OutKast 2 44 "All Rise" Blue 4 45 "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" Eve featuring Gwen Stefani 4 46 "Take Me Home" 2 47 "Too Close" Blue 1 48 "Here with Me" Dido 4 49 "Dancing in the Moonlight" Toploader 7 50 "If You Come Back" Blue 1

Best-selling albums Data based on sales from 31 December 2000 to 29 December 2001.