CHART WATCH

Ronan Keating has dominated the Australian albums chart over the last couple of weeks with his covers album ‘Songs For My Mother’ and with Mother’s Day just yesterday, all bets were on that he’d continue his domination of the albums chart in the lead-up to the big day. Did he succeed? Here’s this week’s chart watch.
SINGLES : After just four weeks on the charts, US rapper Eminem has made it to the top of the Australian singles chart. The star sold (10,175 copies) of his single ‘We Made You’ last week to snare the top spot. Coming in a close second was labelmates Black Eyed Peas with their single ‘Boom Boom Pow’ selling (10,006 copies). The Lady Gaga phenomenon continues with the singer’s fourth Aussie single ‘LoveGame’ hitting a new peak of No.4 (8125 copies), while the Script breaks into the top ten with ‘Breakeven’ at an even No.6 (7357 copies). Green Day makes a splash at No.22 (2673 copies), Eskimo Joe returns at No.24 (2633 copies) and there’s a No.30 debut for Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s new single ‘1000 Stars’ which sold (2325 copies) on the back of her Logies appearance. September pOps in at No.41, Sidney Sampson at No.43.
PHYSICAL SINGLES : This gives you an idea of just how low the sales of physical singles have gotten here in Australia and the reason that the format will ultimately be phased out. The Sundance Kids’ new single ‘Solutions’ had a massive debut on the physical singles chart, coming in at No.3, but over on the top 50 singles chart proper, it’s nowhere to be seen. Lady Gaga hits the No.7 position here with new single ‘LoveGame’ and there are plenty more debuts too. At No.10, there’s Natalie Bassingthwaighte (‘1000 Stars’), No.11 there’s Green Day’s ‘Know Your Enemy’. In at No.14, Eminem’s ‘We Made You’ and at No.16, Eskimo Joe’s ‘Foreign Land’. But it didn’t end there. There were also debuts at No.24, No.35, No.36 and No.41 for Death Cab For Cutie, Pink, Sash! and The Galvatrons respectively.
DIGITAL TRACKS : It’s the Black Eyed Peas at the top of the digital charts, but it’s Eminem that gets the combined chart No.1. We don’t know how in the world this has eventuated, but it has. Lady Gaga’s ‘LoveGame’ enters the top ten here at No.6, while the VIDEO for LoveGame debuts at No.29. We can’t remember another video before hitting the top 40 digital chart (correct us if we’re wrong). Nat Bass comes in at No.30 with ‘1000 Stars’.
ALBUMS : And over on the album chart, it was indeed Ronan Keating who succeeded in keeping his No.1 mantle in the all-important lead-up to Mother’s Day. But it wasn’t so much a case of holding on to the No.1 position – Ronan totally and utterly dominated it. He outsold the No.2 and No.3 albums COMBINED by a long long way. Ronan sold 20,439 copies of ‘Songs For My Mother’ last week. He triumphed over visiting violinist Andre Rieu, whose new album ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ came in at No.2 (7287 copies). It was indeed all Mother’s Day and Pink this week, with big rises for The Priests and Annie Lennox on the back of TV advertising and Logies appearances in that order. Ben Harper debuts at No.17 with his new album ‘White Lies For Dark Times’ (selling 3468 copies), and Sony’s attempt to cash in on the Rieu juggernaut, his nice-price ‘Best Of’ debuts at No.33. Just outside the top 50, Peaches’ new album ‘I Feel Cream’ debuts at No.65 (725 copies) and an early leak into stores of Bertie Blackman’s album ‘Secrets And Lies’ sees it debut at No.72 (663 sales).

OFFICIAL ARIA CHARTS

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