During 2017 we have only seen three songs at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart, the year started off with Clean Bandits’ “Rockabye”, and a few weeks ago we saw former 1D’er Harry Styles debut at the top, but the dominant track for this year has been Ed Sheeran with his “Shape of You” track, which this week racks up it’s record-breaking fifteenth weeks at No.1 in Australia.
“Shape of You” has now spent more time at the top here than any other track since the charts went weekly in January 1949, beating the former record holder, April 1976’s “Fernando” (this week in ’76 it had been at the top for 5 weeks, chart dated 3rd May) which stayed atop for fourteen weeks. In fact we have to go back to the 1940 to 1948 chart period to find anything that has lasted longer (the charts were monthly during this period), when The Andrews Sisters in 1948 spent 18 weeks at No.1 with their track “Near You” (the record is 23 weeks in 1943 for ‘White Christmas’ for Bing Crosby). One thing again with ‘Shape’ is that it’s not at the top of either the Digital (#7) or Streaming (#2) chart this week, but neither of the current No.1’s on those charts are selling enough on the other chart that they can reach the top this week.
Ed Sheeran has now racked up 21 weeks at No.1 in Australia from his three chart-toppers, and that now places him equal second for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: the 2010’s; Singles’ alongside Pharrell Williams (Rihanna is in first place with 23 weeks), and Ed moves up from equal 32nd to now equal 29th on the overall list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 1940 to 2017’ with not only Pharrell but Bryan Adams (from four No.1’s). And with Ed holding the top of both charts again this week, he makes it seven weeks in a row for ‘Shape’ and its parent album “÷ (Divide)”, which becomes the longest stretch for one song and album by a Solo Male Artist at the top, beating the six weeks previously set my Michael Jackson in late 1991, but one solo male act has come close to achieving this in the past, just with the one album, but two No.1’s from that set, in Bryan Adams who took “Please Forgive Me” (5 weeks from 12-Dec-1993) and “All for Love” (2 weeks from 23-Jan-1994) both from the collection “So Far So Good”, whilst the last act to hold both top spots for seven weeks was Adele from late June in 2011 with “Someone Like You” and her second set “21”.
Ed Sheeran again has the Top 2 positions in the country, with his current No.1 Digital selling single “Galway Girl” (#3 streamed) climbing back to its former peak of No.2 which achieved four weeks ago. The current No.1 streamed track is again “Humble.” by Kendrick Lamar, which is down one spot this week to No.3 overall and drops to No.16 on the digital sales chart too, but for Kendrick, the track achieves Gold (●) in sales after only four weeks on the chart.Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson climb up two places to a new peak of No.4 this week with their collaboration “Symphony”, which gives Zara her equal second-highest charted song (alongside “Lush Life”) and her third Top 4 single after “Never Forget You” peaked at No.3, with this move pushing down two songs one place in “Something Just Like This” for The Chainsmokers and Coldplay, plus “Sign of the Times” (now Gold (●) in sales) for Harry Styles to No.5 and No.6 respectively.
Two tracks staying on hold this week are “Stay” for Zedd and Alessia Cara plus “Green Light” for Lorde at No.7 and No.9 respectively, plus both tracks achieve a new certification of ▲Platinum in sales too. In between those two stable tracks is the highest new entry for this week at No.8, Shawn Mendes with the third single lifted from his “Illuminate” album (TW-47) “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back”. This becomes his third Top 10 single in Australia, and his first to debut within the Top 10 (also making it his highest new entry in the process too), and it is also helped by his recent announcement for a second national tour here in late November. And finally scoring her eleventh Top 10 single in Australia is Lady Gaga with last week’s entry “The Cure”, which jumps up seven places to land at a new peak of No.10, and it’s her first ten-entrant since “The Edge of Glory” climbed to No.2 in late July of 2011.
UP:
* Dean Lewis hits the Top 20 shores with his track “Waves”, up four to a new peak of No.17, the song newly certified Gold (●) too.
* Also cracking a new certification of Gold (●) is Future with “Mask off” (HP-20), which is back up two places to No.22.
* FF8 lead single “Good Life” for G-Eazy and Kehlani rises eight places to a new peak of No.23.
* Jason DeRulo holds at his No.25 peak of for a second week with “Swalla”.
* The fastest climbing track for this week is last weeks second lowest entry, “Despacito” for Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, which came in at No.93, and this week zooms up sixty-seven places to No.26, giving Luis his first Top 50 and Top 30 hit here in Australia, and the second for Daddy Yankee.
* With the debut EP out and the highest new entry on the albums chart this week for Amy Shark, her two singles rise back up this week, with the first entry “Adore” rising seven to No.27, and second single “Weekends” jumping twenty-one spots to land at a new peak of No.53.
* The Kyle track “iSpy” is up one spot to a new peak of No.35.
* The new Bliss N’ Eso album was released on Friday, and the current single from the album “Moments” is up six spots to a new peak of No.37, becoming the sixth Top 40 single for the boys, their highest so far was “My Life” (Jan 2014, HP-26).
* Andy Grammer was in the country last week on a promo visit, plus he sang his former No.5 single “Fresh Eyes” at The Logie Awards last Sunday night (23rd April), which helps the song to rebound twenty-one spots to No.39.
* Kaleo break into the Top 40 this week with their first entry “Way Down We Go”, jumping up thirteen places to land at a new chart height of No.40, the song being helped by its appearance in the X-Men/Wolverine film ‘Logan’ too.
* After an initial stumble, the new Cheat Codes and Demi Lovator track “No Promises” is up nine spots to a new peak of No.41.
* Post Malone continue to climb with “Congratulations”, this week its up three to a new peak of No.62.
* Last weeks entry for Lord Huron and “The Night We Met” is up eight to a new peak of No.78.
* Ed Sheeran continues his record breaks for this week, as “Thinking Out Loud” is on hold at No.92 and spending its 125th week within the Top 100, still the longest charted song for ARIA.
* The only returning track for the week is Tash Sultana and “Jungle” (HP-39) at No.99.
DOWN:
* There are two songs leaving the Top 10 this week, the first of which leaves for the first time in its ten week run on the charts, “It Ain’t Me” (HP-4, WI10-9) for Kygo and Selena Gomez, which is down only one spot to No.11, whilst dropping four to No.12 is Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like” (HP-5, WI10-6).
* Drake falls two spots to No.13 with his “Passionfruit”, which is newly Gold (●) in sales.
* The three Kendrick Lamar debuts from last week all move down this week, with “DNA” (16 to 19), “Loyalty” (20 to 28) and “Love” (29 to 36) falling a little, thankfully not a lot.
* The Chainsmokers’ “Paris” drops seven to No.29 this week, whilst their former No.1 “Closer” with Halsey is down seven to No.55 and newly 10x▲Platinum, whilst “The One” plummets eighteen spots to No.82.
* Starley and her debut track “Call on Me” is down three to No.33 and now 2x▲Platinum in sales.
* The Zayn and Taylor Swift duet from ’50 Shades Darker’ drops seven to No.45.
* Two Future tracks fall this week, with his Rihanna duet “Selfish” down two to No.46, and his appearance on the Maroon 5 song “Cold” down ten to No.49, but this song is now Gold (●).
* The Weeknd and Daft Punk drop with both of their collaborations this week, with “I Feel it Coming” down eight to No.48 and “Starboy” falls seven to No.56.
* The first No.1 for this year in “Rockabye” for Clean Bandit with Anne-Marie & Sean Paul drops ten places to No.51.
* The Alessia Cara version of the ‘Moana’ theme “How Far I’ll Go” drops twenty-eight places this week to No.63, whilst the Auli’i Cravalho version is down sixteen to No.85 and the Dwayne Johnson track from the movie “You’re Welcome” drops nine places to No.94.
* Adele’s “Water Under the Bridge” and Sheppard with “Keep Me Crazy” both fall thirteen places to No.68 and No.69 respectively.
* Imagine Dragons grab a Gold (●) certification for their track “Believer”, which is down fourteen spots to No.72 this week.
* Dropping eleven to No.77 is Rag’N’Bone Man and his debut entry “Human”.
* The final Gold (●) in the chart this week is for Big Sean and “Bounce Back” which is down six to No.84.
* The Vamps tumble nineteen spots to No.86 with “All Night” after 21 weeks in the chart.
* Drake’s “Fake Love” drops twelve places this week to No.87.
NEW ENTRIES:
* #44 – Lust for Life by Lana Del Rey feat The Weeknd is the second single lifted from Lana’s fifth due album also entitled “Lust for Life” (no date known as yet), and follows on from “Love” (HP-41, late February of 2017) and this becomes her ninth Top 50 and twelfth Top 100 entry.
* #59 – Murder to the Mind by Tash Sultana is the second entry from her debut EP “Notion” (TW-13), and follows on from this weeks No.99 re-entry “Jungle” (HP-39)
* #61 – Hard Times by Paramore is the first single from the forthcoming fifth album from the band entitled “After Laughter” (due May 12th), and is the first new material from the group since early 2014, with this track becoming the band’s thirteenth Top 100 entry (11 for the band, two for lead singer Hayley Williams).
* #64 – Attention by Charlie Puth is the lead single from his forthcoming second album (no date or title known as yet), and becomes his fifth chart entry, with all four previous entries hitting the Top 10 too.
* #67 – Don’t Give Me Those Eyes by James Blunt is helped into the charts by a couple of events, one is his appearance on the Graham Norton Show screened here two weeks ago, then late last week he was in the country on a promo tour for his new album “The Afterlove” (TW-9), and then last Sunday night he too sang at The Logie Awards (23rd April), which helps this to become his eleventh Top 100 chart entry.
* #73 – Night With You by MØ is the seventh Top 100 entry for the Danish singer born Karen Marie Aafaad Ørsted, all of her recent entries (Kamikaze, Don’t Leave and Final Song) all due on her forthcoming second album (no date or title known as yet).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
