With Christmas just days away and the releases all but drying up for another year, the charts this week are a little quieter than normal, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some moving and shaking going on in their midst. And while much is made of the celebrated Christmas No.1 in the UK, in Australia it’s not THAT important. That said, here are your Australian Christmas No.1s for 2008;
SINGLES : He may have been celebrating his No.1 position on the singles chart last week, but Australian Idol winner Wes Carr has surrendered the spot this week to a former No.1 in Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’. Wes moves down just the one position, while elsewhere in the top ten, there are moves up the chart for Britney Spears’ ‘Circus’ – up to No.6 and Ian Carey Project’s ‘Get Shaky’ up four places to No.7. Pink’s former No.1 single ‘So What’ moves back to the No.10 position, piggybacking her new single ‘Sober’ at No.9, while the week’s biggest move is the thirteen place jump for Paramore’s single ‘Decode’, up to No.25. Right down at the other end of the chart, there are four new appearances and strangely they’re from No.44 to No.47, with Fall Out Boy nabbing No.44, Katy Perry grabbing No.45, Lily Allen stealing No.46 and The Ting Tings getting their hands on No.47.
DIGITAL TRACKS : It’s essentially a case of musical chairs within the top 20 this week, but a ten place jump from No.33 to No.23 here by Paramore breaks the monotony somewhat. There’s also a debut right down the bottom of the top 40 by Fall Out Boy with ‘America’s Suitehearts’.
PHYSICAL SINGLES : There’s just one debut on the ARIA top 50 Physical Singles Chart this week and that’s the No.37 position from Metro Station. Pink moves back up the charts with her former No.1 single ‘So What’ while second single ‘Sober’ holds steady further down the list at No.9. Kevin Rudolf moves up a further six positions and is now within the top 20 at No.18, while people have finally discovered the Ian Carey Project has a physical single available, with the club anthem moving up an impressive 12 places to No.24.
ALBUMS : Well we knew it was going to take a massive album to knock Pink off the No.1 spot on the ARIA albums charts and it seems that massive album just hasn’t arrived as Pink manages to hold steady for an extraordinary eighth week on top with ‘Funhouse’. The entire top four holds steady and the only newcomer to the top five is the High School Musical 3 soundtrack, obviously being eagerly snapped up in time for Christmas. Fall Out Boy’s ‘Folie A Deux’ debuts at a respectable No.9, while Dutch sensation Andre Rieu lands in the No.14 position (with GOLD accreditation) with his new album ‘Live In Australia’. Soundtrack to the hit vampire flick ‘Twilight’ moves up this week to No.16 (it’s highest point thus far), while television advertising for Elvis Presley’s ‘Christmas Duets’ album pays off, with the CD moving up from No.31 to No.23. But where are all the big pre-Christmas rises from the contemporary artists that mums and dads like? Albums by Il Divo, Enya, Josh Groban, Tina Arena and Dido have either fallen or stalled in the run up to Christmas, prompting us to believe that indeed, it’s the younger generation that’s keeping the sales ticking over.
That said, it’s a completely different story over on the music DVD charts, with Andre Rieu’s ‘Live In Australia’ DVD officially given a 19 times platinum rating for sales just shy of 300,000 copies (in two weeks, that’s a pretty remarkable feat).
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