Australian singer Conrad Sewell takes his third chart entry “Start Again” all the way to the top of the ARIA Singles chart this week after only four weeks on the charts and stopping any further ‘Bad Blood’ from Taylor Swift being spilt at the top.
“Start Again” becomes the 1036th No.1 single in Australia (1940 to 2015) and the 471st for ARIA (1983 to 2015), plus only the second for an Aussie act this year, as Conrad’s sister Grace was at the top five weeks ago (and who is also in the country on a promo tour at the moment). The new No.1 also gives the Atlantic record label their 24th chart-topping single in Australia since their first with the Led Zeppelin song “Whole Lotta Love” in March 1970, and their last was only two months ago with another ‘Again’ song, “See You Again” for Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. This is now the eighth time that a song with ‘Again’ has reached the top of the Australian charts (as mentioned above), but only the second with just ‘Start’, the other being “Start Me Up” for The Rolling Stones for a single week in November 1981, although we have had ‘Started’ (twice) and ‘Starting’ (once) also at the top.
Conrad becomes the 38th Australian Male artist to reach the top here, the last being Taylor Henderson in November 2013 with “Borrow My Heart”, and the 105th Australian Artist to score a No.1, with the 160th Aussie performed song and as I mentioned above only the second this year. Conrad going to No.1 also creates a new chart record for siblings, as his sister Grace spent a week at the top at the end of May with this weeks No.4 song “You Don’t Own Me”, and this is the first time that two siblings have landed at the top in the same year within a month of each other since 1966. The other closest siblings to both reach the top in the same year were the Sinatra’s, with daughter Nancy hitting the top for eight weeks from early March to late April 1966 with “These Boots are Made for Walkin’” and then her Dad Frank went to the top twelve weeks (three months) later with his last No.1 here “Strangers in the Night” (2 weeks from 16-July-1966). We also had John and Julian Lennon, but they were more than ten years apart, John in early 1981 and Julian in late 1991.
Taylor Swift drops to No.2 after three weeks at the top with her Kendrick Lamar infused track “Bad Blood”, and it follows her previous two No.1’s “Shake it Off” and “Blank Space” which also spent three weeks at the summit of the ARIA Singles chart. Returning to the Top 10 and also leaping back up eighteen places to a new peak of No.3 is Rachel Platten with her former No.10 single “Fight Song”, plus the track jumps from Gold in sales to 2x▲Platinum, whilst down a place to No.4 is Grace with “You Don’t Own Me”, which doesn’t fall far due to her being in the country this past week on a promotional tour.
Meghan Trainor jumps up fourteen places to land at No.5 this week with her ballad “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” featuring John Legend. This becomes Meghan’s fifth (out of 5) consecutive Top 10 single and also her fourth Top 5 hit, plus it becomes the third Top 10 single for John Legend after his No.1 “All of Me” and his featured vocals on the Sam Smith track “Lay me Down”. Down two places to No.6 are Walk the Moon with “Shut Up and Dance” and the third and final Top 10 entry this week is the second for Major Lazer, this time featuring Ellie Goulding on vocals, with “Powerful” up eight to No.7 replacing the acts former No.1 “Lean On” as it falls out of the Top 10 this week.
Another former No.1 in “See You Again” for Wiz and Charlie is down three places to No.8 this week, but the track does jump from single to now 3x▲Platinum in sales, whilst also down are “Hey Mama” for David Guetta, Nicki Minaj and Afrojack, dropping two to No.9 and down four spots to No.10 is Jessie J with “Flashlight”, which might climb back up in the next few weeks thanks to her appearance as a judge on the returning series of ‘The Voice’ in early July.
UP: Avicii is up one spot to a new peak of No.15 with “Waiting for Love” whilst this weeks highest new albums chart entrant at #4 Adam Lambert, is up eight places to No.17 with “Ghost Town”, with DJ Snake & AlunaGeorge also up eight to just outside of the Top 20 at No.21 this week with “You Know You Like it”. After several weeks at No.28, Birds of Tokyo are up five to a new peak of No.23 with their EP “Anchor” thanks to their recent tour here, and after entering the Top 50 last week Jason DeRulo this week jumps eighteen spots to land at No.26 with “Cheyenne”. Ed Sheeran is back up eight to No.33 with his former No.1 “Thinking Out Loud” and the four songs joining the Top 50 for this first time are “Poison” by Rita Ora (up from 57 to 34), “Headlights” for Robin Schulz and Ilsey (59 to 36), Fifty Harmony land their first Top 50 hit with the Kid Ink infused track “Worth it” (54 to 41) and last weeks Top 100 entry of “Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)” for Silento (63 to 47) is also new to the fifty.
DOWN: Ed Sheeran leaves the Top 10 after two weeks with “Photograph” (HP-9) down two to No.11 and falling five to No.13 is Deorro and Chris Brown with “Five More Hours” (HP-7×2, WI10-3), and falling six to No.16 is “Lean On” (HP-1×1, WI10-11). Little Mix fall back a place to No.12 after peaking at eleven last week with “Black Magic” and “Marvin Gaye” for Charlie & Meghan is back down seven to No.19 now that Meghan has a new Top 10 single. “Let it Go” for James Bay is down six to No.20 and leaving the Top 20 and down five to No.22 is Jamie Lawson with “Wasn’t Expecting That”. With sales going to the new Jason DeRulo track this week, his former Top 5 single “Want to Want Me” drops six to No.24 and also dropping six places each are “Where are U Now” for Jack U and “Sugar” by Maroon 5 to No.29 and No.30 respectively. Jarryd James is down two places to No.38 with “Do You Remember”, with the track recently entering the New Zealand Top 10 and the German Top 100, the song is now 2x▲Platinum in sales here. “King” for Years & Years is down eight to No.42, Sia falls ten spots to No.45 with “Big Girls Cry”, also down ten are Britney and Iggy with “Pretty Girls” to No.39 and tumbling nineteen spots to No.50 this week is our first Eurovision entrant Guy Sebastian with “Tonight Again”.
The only new entry to the Top 50 this week is at No.27, “Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd, which becomes his fourth Top 50 hit and second from his forthcoming third album titled “Chapter III” (due late August/early Sept.) after “The Hills” (TW-66) hit No.47 a couple of weeks ago, whilst he has also charted on the Ariana Grande track “Love Me Harder” (HP-19) and the song from the ’50 Shades of Grey’ soundtrack “Earned it” (HP-13, TW-73).
Lower 50: Jarryd James’ second single “Give Me Something” rebounds twenty-five places to a new peak of No.59 after having fallen the past two weeks and another local act in Golden Features with Thelma Plum is up six places to a new peak of No.60 with “No One”. Rihanna is back up eleven places to No.65 with “Bitch Better Have My Money” and Fetty Wap is up twelve spots to a new peak of No.67 with his current US No.3 single “Trap Queen”. “Go” for The Chemical Brothers is back up eighteen places to No.68 and the final new peak in the lower fifty is Parkway Drive with “Vice Grip” which is up seven to No.88. There are four new entries to the Top 100 this week, plus five re-entries which consist of “Happy” for Pharrell Williams at No.83, “I’m Not the Only One” by Sam Smith at No.94, Meghan Trainor and her first entry “All About That Bass” at No.95, “Masterpiece” for Jessie J at No.98 and the longest charting single in ARIA’s chart history “Riptide” for Vance Joy is back in at #100 for its 111th week within the hundred, possibly helped by James Keogh appearing on RockWiz last weekend.
The three further entries to the hundred all occur in the 90-100 section, firstly is Tori Kelly with her second singles chart entry at No.91 entitled “Should’ve Been Us”, following on from “Nobody Love” (HP-21, TW-77). Tinie Tempah lands at No.92 with “Not Letting Go” featuring Jess Glynne as guest vocalist, and the track is the first release from Tinie’s forthcoming third album (no date or title known yet) and the debut album for Jess entitled “I Cry When I Laugh” which is out in mid-August. The final entry at No.99 is the second entry from the debut solo album “Talk” (TW-27) for Daniel Johns entitled “Cool on Fire”, which is his third overall solo entry after “Aerial Love” hit No.21 in March and last year he appeared on the 360 track “Impossible” (HP-25, Feb 2014).
Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.
>h2>Conrad Sewell, the Noise11 interview
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