This may surprise you, but it would seem Adele has a vice-like grip on both the singles and albums charts, with her respective releases maintaining their leads on both.
But who debuted? And where? Who’s notched up new certifications? Whose singles have tanked? Naturally, we’ll provide all the answers to these and more pressing questions in this week’s Chart Watch.
SINGLES
‘Hello’ again from the No.1 position on the ARIA singles chart. Yes, that’s Adele and she’s still calling from the top of the chart mountain with her new single. It remains untroubled in the No.1 position for a sixth consecutive week, ahead of Justin Bieber’s ‘Love Yourself’ (now with a gold sales certification) and Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’.
Shawn Mendes ‘Stitches’ up the No.4 spot with his breakout smash, up from No.6, while Duke Dumont’s ‘Ocean Drive’ continues its climb northwards, up from No.8 to No.5.
The Rudimental/Ed Sheeran collaboration ‘Lay It All On Me’ is back into the top ten (No.12 to No.8) and so too is The Weeknd’s single ‘The Hills’ (No.11 to No.9).
Seven weeks after premiering on the ARIA singles chart, the Marcus Marr & Chet Faker single ‘The Trouble With Us’ finally bags a gold sales certification (35,000 copies), dropping one spot to No.11. But ‘X Factor’ winner Cyrus Villanueva’s debut single ‘Stone’ sinks like a… well, to be fair, it’s only eight positions from last week’s No.4 debut.
The week’s highest new entry is at No.14 and it’s the superstar collaboration between Tina Arena, The Veronicas and Jessica Mauboy. Their performance of Tina’s classic hit ‘Chains’ at the ARIA Awards late last month brought the house down an clearly struck a chord with the record buying public. It’s Tina’s biggest hit on the singles chart in Australia since 2002.
The new DJ Snake single ‘Middle’ is up seven to No.19, Conrad Sewell’s ‘Who You Lovin’ is up eight to No.24 and his smash ‘Start Again’, again performed at the ARIAs, bullets from No.92 to No.28.
The second highest debut this week comes from ‘X Factor’ third place getters Jess & Matt. Their ‘winner’s single’ ‘Nothing Matters’ enters the countdown at No.29, ahead of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Photograph’, which is up from No.61 to No.30.
Adele’s ‘When We Were Young’ is down 19 to No.32, not that she’ll care with sales of her album as strong as they are.
Charlotte Devaney’s ‘Flip It’ is up, however, from No.56 to No.38.
Jarryd James’ ‘Do You Remember’ hits triple platinum (No.52), Mariah Carey’s seminal Christmas classic ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is back in the charts again (No.59 on re-entry), Sam Smith’s ‘Bond’ theme ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ tumbles 18 to No.64, Birds Of Tokyo’s ‘I’d Go Anywhere With You’ is down 19 to No.66 and Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide’ bounds back into the top 100, making its re-entry at No.70. ‘Georgia’ also pokes its head back in this week (No.78).
New entries for 99 Souls ftg. Destiny’s Child & Brandy (‘The Girl Is Mine’ at No.80) and Cyrus Villanueva (‘Jealous’ at No.81).
Jason Derulo’s ‘Get Ugly’ premieres at No.85, but Adele’s classic singles both take a tumble. ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Rolling In The Deep’ are both seven times platinum (more than 490,000 sales each), but they’re down; the former from No.41 to No.86 and the latter from No.52 to No.87.
‘X Factor’ runner-up Louise Adams makes her chart entry at No.91 with her debut single ‘History’ and there are four more between it and the precipice of the top 100; Elle King’s ‘Ex’s & Oh’s’ at No.94, The Weeknd’s ‘In The Night’ at No.95, Coldplay’s ‘Everglow’ at No.97 and Snakehips’ ‘All My Friends’ at No.98.
ALBUMS
No! Not Adele!? Surely not? Oh yes… there’s no budging the British starlet from the top spot on the Australian albums chart. At least not yet. She’s again crowing from her roost and has this week blasted through the four times platinum barrier, having premiered with a triple platinum certification last week. She’s sold in excess of 280,000 copies of ’25’ down under in just two weeks – no mean feat.
Justin Bieber’s also selling (clearly, given his album ‘Purpose’ has hit platinum at No.2), but in nowhere near great enough numbers to knock Adele from her perch.
Michael Bublé’s ‘Christmas’ improves to No.3 and The 12th Man proves his lost none of his spark, with his tribute to cricketing legend Richie Benaud (‘The Very Best Of Richie’) debuting at No.4.
It’s been a long time coming, but Taylor Swift’s album ‘1989’ has finally clicked over the six times platinum barrier; with her tour impacting the charts, the album rises from No.9 to No.5.
Though Michael Buble’s ‘Christmas’ is the one topping them all, the top ten is looking a little more festive now that seasonal albums from home-grown stars Kylie Minogue and Human Nature have joined the celebrations. Kylie’s at No.9, Human Nature’s is at No.10.
Vance Joy’s ‘Dream Your Life Away’ improves from No.24 to No.12, Tina Arena’s ‘Eleven’ picks up from No.22 to No.14 and Enya’s ‘Dark Sky Island’ loses seven positions in its second week of chart action.
The Tame Impala album ‘Currents’ bullets (No.33 to No.17), the soundtrack to the upcoming miniseries ‘Molly’ premieres at No.18 and The Vamps just miss the top 20 on debut with their new long player ‘Wake Up’, which lands in Australia at No.23.
Mariah’s back for another season with ‘Merry Christmas’. The five times platinum classic re-emerges in this week’s albums chart at No.25.
Tracy Chapman’s ‘Greatest Hits’ is down from No.14 to No.28, but Fleetwood Mac’s ’25 Years : The Chain’ and the ‘Frozen’ soundtrack pick up steam (No.42 to No.29 and No.38 to No.30 respectively).
Adam Harvey’s ‘Harvey’s Bar’ is down from No.17 on debut to No.33, The Amity Affliction’s ‘Let The Ocean Take Me’ re-enters at No.35 and given he’s firing on all cylinders at the moment, it’s no surprise to see Justin Bieber’s Christmas album ‘Under The Mistletoe’ back in the top 100. It re-joins the chart party at No.36.
Pentatonix’ ‘That’s Christmas To Me’ jumps from No.75 to No.40, Ed Sheeran’s ‘+’ is up from No.100 to No.41, Rob Thomas’ ‘The Great Unknown’ drops from No.23 to No.44 and James Bay’s ‘Chaos & The Calm’ leaps back into the top 50 (No.73 to No.46).
Not such good news for Samantha Jade this week, whose long-awaited album ‘Nine’ takes a big second week tumble. It premiered at No.11 last week, but is down an alarming 41 places to No.52.
David Guetta’s repackaged ‘Listen’ album (now called ‘Listen Again’) debuts at No.56, Sia’s ‘1000 Forms Of Fear’ dives from No.29 to No.63, the ‘Essential Michael Jackson’ package is down 20 and Phil Collins’ ‘Hits’ slumps 24.
Mickey Pye carves a slice of the top 100 at No.71 with ‘Unleashed’ on debut, Slim Dusty’s ‘The Den Tapes’ hasn’t stuck around in the top 50 for long (No.39 to No.73) and Carrie Underwood’s ‘Storyteller’ is down 22 to No.84.
And Roger Waters’ ‘The Wall’ plunges 52 places – from No.46 to No.98.
For a full run down of the ARIA top 50s, head over to the ARIA CHARTS WEBSITE every Saturday from 6:00pm AEDT.
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