The UK Singles Chart Just Had Its First Female #1 Of The Year & It's Nearly November

British girl group Little Mix have cause to celebrate this weekend, being revealed as the week's #1 song on the official UK Singles Chart with new cut Shout Out To My Ex — a feat achieved on debut, no less — but there's also a degree of ignominy to the result.

This is because, despite the fact that we are 43 weeks into the year, Little Mix are the first female primary artists to hit #1 on the UK Singles Chart in 2016.

We say "primary" artists because there have been three female solo artists who have appeared as featured performers on tracks by male acts to hit #1 this year: Kyla featured alongside Wizkid on Drake's One Dance, which stayed at the top for 15 weeks after climbing its way up in April; MØ reared her head with fellow featured artist Justin Bieber on Major Lazer's Cold Water, which had a five-week run at the top; and Halsey made it to #1 featuring on The Chainsmokers' Closer, which stuck around for four weeks before being supplanted by James Arthur a fortnight ago.

Otherwise, it's sausage city: Bieber controlled the charts with Love Yourself, spilling over from its first weeks at #1 in 2015, until the end of January; Shawn Mendes took over with Stitches for a couple of weeks before Zayn Malik usurped him with Pillowtalk on debut back in February; Malik lasted a week before Lukas Graham and 7 Years dug in its heels for a five-week stay, ultimately knocked off by Mike Posner's I Took A Pill In Ibiza, which stayed gold for four weeks until being passed by Drake, which brings us full circle on the year that was in testosterone-heavy tunes.

Thankfully, there's been better representation Down Under — though there's still room for improvement — where Pink broke the dude deluge in May (though Olivia O'Brien beat her by a week as a featured artist on Gnash's I Hate U, I Love U), with fellow female primary artists claiming the #1 song in the country this year including The Veronicas and Katy Perry. Kyla, MØ and Halsey all made the same appearances here as they did in the UK, with Rihanna also joining the cabal in Australia as featured guest on Calvin Harris' This Is What You Came For, which was blocked from the top spot in Britain.  

To be fair, it's been more encouraging across the board in the albums world this year, though, again, there's marked room for improvement in 2017 — Adele spent several consecutive and non-consecutive weeks at #1 with 25, while other women to reign supreme this year with their own full-lengths have included PJ Harvey, Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Barbra Streisand and Ward Thomas. 

Anyway, here's the song to have finally cracked the almost-year-long cock-block: