After 43 years of waiting Queen now have their second No.1 album in Australia as the soundtrack to their biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ climbs into the top spot after spending the past eight weeks sitting at No.2.
The soundtrack for the Queen film “Bohemian Rhapsody” becomes the 840th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2019) and the 691st for ARIA (1983 to 2019), while for the albums record label Virgin Records its their first No.1 this decade, the label last appearing at the top with The Spice Girls “Greatest Hits” (1 week on 19-Nov, 2007), while overall this is the 20th No.1 album in Australia for the Virgin label since its first in May of 1974 with “Tubular Bells” for Mike Oldfield (4 weeks).
The last time that a soundtrack took over the top spot from another soundtrack was back in August of 2001 when ‘Moulin Rouge’ was dethroned by ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’, while overall this is the 52nd soundtrack to hit the top spot in Australia. This is also the first time that the words ‘Bohemian’ or ‘Rhapsody’ have appeared in a No.1 album title, and this is now the second chart-topping album for Queen who first hit No.1 with “A Night at the Opera” (2 weeks from 15th of March, 1976). This new No.1 set also becomes the 153rd by an English act to hit the top (Arctic Monkeys were the last on 21st of May, 2018) and the 374th by a Group (local or overseas).
So after ten weeks at the top the soundtrack for ‘A Star is Born’ is down one spot to No.2, and it retains its lead for an eleventh week in New Zealand, while the current UK No.1 album is also a soundtrack in ‘The Greatest Showman’ (25th overall week) which here is back up one spot to No.3 with the covers version of the album “The Greatest Showman: Reimagined” holding at No.6 this week.
Queen also have two compilations within the Top 10 this week too, with the 1981 collection “Greatest Hits” up one spot to No.4 and their overall best of “The Platinum Collection” rebounding two places back to its former peak of No.5. “÷ (Divide)” for Ed Sheeran returned to the Top 10 last week and is this week up three spots to No.7, while the returning albums for this week are “Beerbongs & Bentleys” for Post Malone (19 to 8 for a 24th week within the Top 10, thanks also to two Top 10 singles this week, both of which ARE NOT on this album), the George Ezra second album “Staying at Tamara’s” (15 to 9 for a second week within the Top 10) and bulleting up twenty-one spots to No.10 is “Scorpion” by Drake for 17th week inside the ten.
UP:
* With a new No.1 song this week from the soundtrack to ‘Spider-Man: into the Spider-verse’, the album is up eleven spots to a new peak of No.12. With other climbing soundtracks being for ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” (26 to 25), ‘Guardians Vol.1’ (46 to 40) and returns for ‘Molly’ (#71), ‘Black Panther’ (#73) and ‘Moana’ (#79).
* Ariana Grande rebounds seven spots to No.14 with her latest album “Sweetener”, while she is back in at #100 with her “Dangerous Woman” set.
* Shawn Mendes’ self-titled fourth album jumps up fourteen places to No.29.
* Taylor Swift’s two entries rise back up in “Reputation” (37 to 17) and “1989” (63 to 47).
* Returning to its former peak of No.18 is the Billie Eilish set “Don’t Smile at Me”, leaping up thirty-six spots.
* Both of the Imagine Dragons albums also rebound, with “Origins” up six to No.19 and their older set “Evolve” up twelve to No.36.
* The Eminem best of “Curtain Call: The Hits” jumps back up thirteen spots to No.20, with further climbing collections being for Cold Chisel (27 to 21), INXS (40 to 24), Queen (GHII 30 to 27), Pink (44 to 38), ABBA (Gold 54 to 39, Gold & More 98 to 53), Bon Jovi (62 to 54), Red Hot Chili Peppers (64 to 58), Crowded House (66 to 60), Guns N’ Roses (70 to 66), Maroon 5 (returns at No.67), Cat Stevens (returns at No.76), The Beatles “#1” (returns at No.80), Phil Collins (touring here in early February; 84 to 81), Green Day (re-entry at No.82), Creedence Clearwater Revival (returns at No.85), The Killers (97 to 87), The Wiggles (returns at No.96), Elvis Presley with “The King” (returns at #98) and Fleetwood Mac (GH returns at #99).
* Travis Scott leaps back up twenty places to No.23 with his former No.1 set “Astroworld”.
* Luke Combs does one better and rises twenty-one spots to No.26 with his 42 weeks running set “This One’s for You”.
* Both of the XXXTentacion albums rise back up this week with his second set “?” up thirty spots to No.28 and his most recent release “Skins” back up thirty-eight places to No.45.
* Last weeks only entry and this week new U.S. No.1 album for 21 Savage and “I Am > I Was” rises four places to a new peak of No.30.
* Vance Joy climb back up ten places to No.31 with “Nation of Two”, while their first album “Dream Your Life Away” returns at No.91.
* Both older Ed Sheeran albums are back up also, with his second set “x” up thirteen to No.32 and his debut album “+” rising four places to No.64.
* Rufus du Sol rise back up twenty-two spots to No.34 with “Solace”, followed by rises for “Phoenix” by Rita Ora (72 to 35), “Stoney” by Post Malone (67 to 37), “Live” for AC/DC (71 to 41), “Invasion of Privacy” by Cardi B (100 to 42) and “American Teen” by Khalid (92 to 49) all back up into the Top 50.
* The highest of the returning albums for this week is the EP for Khalid and “Suncity” which returns at No.51, with further returns of “7” by David Guetta (#65), “What is Love” by Clean Bandit (#68), “Queen” by Nicki Minaj (#72), Benny Blanco with “Friends Keep Secrets” (#74), “Drinking… Walking… Restrung” for The Hilltop Hoods (#83), “Blue” the debut album for Jonas Blue (#88), “Damn” for Kendrick Lamar (#89), “Love Yourself: Answer” by BTS (#90) and “Always in Between” by Jess Glynne (#93).
* Morgan Evans has a bullet on both charts as his single “Day Drunk” scores a new peak of No.27 his album “Things That We Drink to” jumps up thirty spots to No.52.
* Calum Scott rebounds fourteen places to No.61 with his repackaged debut album “Only Human”.
* Local acts climbing are 5SOS with “Youngblood” (65 to 62), Ziggy Alberts’ “Laps Around the Sun” (94 to 69) and “Bloom” by Troye Sivan (86 to 77).
DOWN:
* The twelve charting Christmas titles from last week all leave the Top 100 albums chart this week, with two of the sets being from last weeks Top 10 in “Christmas” (HP-1×14, WI10-53a) for Michael Buble leaving the chart from No.3 and also “Merry Christmas” for Mariah Carey” (HP-2, WI10-4a) departing from No.9. The third and final Top 10 dropout is “Love” for Michael Buble (HP-2, WI10-6) which drops down fourteen spots to No.22.
* The Bruce Springsteen live album “Springsteen on Broadway” drops down eighteen places to No.29.
* Mumford & Sons see their “Delta” set drop down five places to No.33.
* Keith Urban for this week is down five chart rungs to No.43 with his “Graffiti U” set, but his tour here starts in a couple of weeks so it should rise again soon.
* Now that his national tour is finished Paul Kelly drops down twenty-six spots to No.50 with his most recent album “Nature”, which his collection “Songs from the South Vol.1 & 2” drops ten places to No.59.
* The compilation for Triple J and “Like a Version Vol.14” falls down twenty-three spots to No.55.
* After rebounding for the past few weeks the twenty one pilots set “Trench” declines twenty spots to No.56.
* The 50th anniversary re-packaged album “The Beatles (White Album)” drops down thirteen places to No.70.
* Pink’s “Beautiful Trauma” declines twenty-three spots to land at No.75.
* Gang of Youths drops down fifteen places to No.84 with “Go Farther in Lightness”.
* The Eagles “Very Best of” falls down twenty-six spots this week to No.86.
* The Coldplay “Live in Buenos Aires” album plummets this week forty-three spots to No.94.
* The second Zayn album “Icarus Falls” tumbles down twenty-three places to No.97.
* Further Top 50 dropouts from last weeks Top 100 were all Christmas albums for David Campbell (#16), John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John (#17), Human Nature (#18), Mark Vincent (#20), Elvis Presley and the RPO (#22), Samantha Jade (#35) and John Legend (#39).
NEW ENTRY:
* #48 (S’tck) – Mary Poppins Returns soundtrack is the only new entry to the chart this week, and is the sequel to the 1965 film ‘Mary Poppins’ whose soundtrack was the seventh such album ever to chart in mid May of 1965 reaching No.2 and spending 42 weeks on the charts. This new film features Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins the eternal nanny and some of the 27 songs on the soundtrack are performed by Emily plus actors Ben Wishaw, Emily Mortimer plus the others in the cast including Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth and one of the original films’ star in Dick Van Dyke.
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Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
