US Singer Robin Thicke moves up two places to No.1 on the ARIA Singles Chart this week with his track “Blurred Lines”.
Robin Thicke
The song has become his first chart-topping single here in Australia, plus the first for guest vocalist T.I., but the second for Pharrell Williams, who appeared in last weeks No.1 “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk which is down a place to No.2 this week (and now Platinum ▲ in sales).
“Blurred Lines” (now Gold ● in sales) becomes the 1004th No.1 single in Australia (1940 to 2013) and the 442nd for ARIA (1983 to 2013), plus the 31st for the Interscope label here, whilst Robin is the 179th American Solo Male Artist to top our charts, he also becomes the 395th American Artist and the song is the 657th by an American Act to hit No.1 here. It’s also the first time we’ve had ‘Blurred’ (or Blur) in a No.1 song, and only the second time for the word ‘Lines’, as Silverchair had “Straight Lines” in March 2007 for four weeks.
Pharrell Williams’ appearance in back to back No.1 singles as a featured artist is a first for the Australian charts, although he is not the act with the most guest vocalist No.1’s here, that honor goes to Justin Timberlake who has appeared on three; The Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love” (from 25-Aug-03), then on Snoop Dogg’s “Signs” (from 2-May-05) and finally with Madonna on “4 Minutes” (from 28-Apr-08).
The top three songs are all current/former No.1 singles, as Passenger is only down one place to No.3 with “Let Her Go”, but the next two singles are both landing new peaks this week as “The Other Side” for Jason DeRulo is up one place to No.4 (now ●) and Bastille are up two places to No.5 with “Pompeii” (now ▲). Macklemore and Ryan Lewis stay on hold at No.6 with “Can’t Hold Us” with Paramore down two places to No.7 with “Still into You”. Will.i.am’s Voice Season 2 performance last week for his latest single “#ThatPower” featuring Justin Bieber helps the song to leap up six places to No.8, becoming Will’s seventh Top 10 hit and Justin’s fifth. Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding tumble five places to No.9 with “I Need Your Love” and MKTO drop a place to No.10 with “Thank You”.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: Rudimental land the highest new album entry this week with their debut set “Home” (#2), and their third charting single “Waiting All Night” is up seven places to a new peak of No.11. Returning to the Top 20, up three places to No.19 are T.I. and Pink with “Guns and Roses” (HP-18) whilst just outside is Robert DeLong with “Global Concepts”, which is up five places to a new peak of No.22. Emeli Sande is back up five places to No.25 with “Next to Me” (HP-23), whilst Bruno Mars leaps up thirty-six places to No.28 with his latest single “Treasure”. Ariana Grande returns to the Top 40 by leaping back up thirteen places to No.40 with “The Way” and Empire of the Sun take “Alive” up twenty-three places to No.42, whilst Imagine Dragons land their second Top 50 hit as “Radioactive” is up nine places to a new peak of No.47.
DOWN DOWN: After a single week in the Top 10, “Mirrors” for Justin Timberlake is down four places to No.14, with Avril Lavigne’s “Here’s to Never Growing Up” down a place to No.20 but the track is now Gold (●) in sales, whilst Nelly’s “Hey Porsche” drops six places to No.21 and is now multi-Platinum (2x▲) in sales. PSY is down six places to No.23 with “Gentleman”, whilst Havana Brown sees her “Big Banana” fall eleven places to No.36 this week. Birds of Tokyo see their fading “Lanterns” drop twelve places to No.38 and Rihanna’s “Diamonds” are down fifteen places to No.44. Chris Brown’s “Fine China” falls fourteen places to No.50 and big falls also come from Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years” (28 to 56), “Mountain Sound” by Of Monsters and Men (47 to 61), “If You Could See Me Now” by The Script (48 to 69) and last weeks highest new entry of “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey is down thirty-five places to No.74 this week.
The VOICE Season 2: Harrison Craig lands his second ‘Highest Entry’ of the week as his rendition of the Michael Buble track “Home” (original HP-35, May 2005) debuts at No.13 this week. He also did this five weeks ago when “Broken Vow” debuted at No.18, with that track returning to the Top 100 this week at No.94, whilst he is also charting with “You Raise Me Up” at No.52 this week. The rendition by Rob Edwards of the James Arthur track “Impossible” helps that song back up three places to No.17, whilst Jackie Sannia’s version of Brooke Fraser song “Arithmetic” debuts at No.24. Nick Kingswell’s version of “Army of Two” helps the Olly Murs original back up three places to No.29, after which there are a bank of new Voice Season 2 entries. Miss Murphy debuts at No.30 with her rendition of the Elton John song (original HP-19, peaked Jan 1977) “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” and then at No.31 is Steve Clisby with the Leonard Cohen track “God Bless the Child”, Steve also charting with “Walking in Memphis” which rises twelve places to a new peak of No.60.
Michael Paynter debuts at No.34 with “The Horses” (Rickie Lee Jones original, Daryl Braithwaite version No.1×2 in May 1991), whilst two more Top 50 debuts from contestants sees Kiyomi Vella enter at No.48 with “Upside Down” (original by Paloma Faith) and then Alex Gibson debuts at No.49 with “Sounds of Silence” (Simon & Garfunkel, HP-3, Feb 1966 and again HP-23, March 1969). Lower down the Top 100, Birdy’s “Skinny Love” is back up ten places to No.75 and Jackie Sannia’s version of “People Help the People” debuts at No.96. Celia Pavey tumbles fifty-three places to No.76 with “A Thousand Years”, whilst Michelle Martinez debuts at No.87 with her version of the Lloyd #3 song “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)”.
NEW – #32 – Crazy Kids by Ke$ha feat Will.i.am
The third single from Ke$ha’s “Warrior” (HP-12) album is the highest non-Voice entry this week, coming in at No.32. This is her twelfth single to chart here in Australia, and the previous two from the album were “Die Young” (HP-3, peaked mid-Nov 2012) and “C’Mon” (HP-19, peaked early Feb 2013). The previous eleven entries for Ke$ha have all gone Top 20, so here’s hoping she doesn’t break her run of hits now, and this song also becomes the 19th chart entry for Will.i.am
NEW – #33 – How Ya Doin’? by Little Mix feat Missy Elliott
The fourth chart entry for Little Mix debuts at No.33 entitled “How Ya Doin’?”, with the song sampling the chorus of the De La Soul song “Ring, Ring, Ring” (HP-4, peaked early July 1991), plus it’s the return of Missy Elliott, who was last on our charts in July 2009 as guest vocalist on the Ciara track “Work” (HP-66), whilst her last solo outing was in September 2006 with “We Run This” (HP-23). Little Mix are also charting with “Change Your Life” (HP-8) which is down three places to No.16 this week.
NEW – #41 – Beat it by Sean Kingston feat Chris Brown & Wiz Khalifa
Sean Kingston returns to the ARIA Singles Chart with “Beat it” (NOT the Michael Jackson song) at No.41 this week featuring guest vocalists Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa. This is the first taste of his forthcoming third album “Back 2 Life” (no date known as yet) and becomes his eleventh ARIA Singles chart entry, with his last entry being “Letting Go (Dutty Love)” (HP-73, Sept 2010), which featured Nicki Minaj in her second chart appearance here.
Lower 50: Emeli Sande re-enters the Top 100 at No.59 with “Read All About it (Part II)” (HP-58) and Duke Dumont and A*M*E leap back up thirty-one places to No.64 with “Need U (100%)” (HP-60). The pending ‘Offspring Season 3’ is making use of the Ellie Goulding track “Anything Could Happen” (HP-20) in the promo ads, which helps the song to keep climbing back up the charts, this week it’s up to No.77. With Imagine Dragons landing their second Top 50 hit this week, their first “It’s Time” (HP-27) is back up eighteen places to No.79, with further returnees from Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran with “Everything Has Changed” (HP-75) at No.82 and “Feel the Love” (HP-3) for Rudimental at No.85.
Mariah Carey is set to release her (as yet untitled) fourteenth studio album later this year, and the first single from it “Beautiful” debuts at No.71 after only a few days of sales. The track features US singer Miguel as guest vocalist, and becomes Mariah’s 45th single to chart in Australia, her last being the Foreigner song “I Want to Know What Love is” which made it to No.45 in September 2009.
British singer-songwriter Charlie Brown debuts at No.73 with his former UK No.7 single “On My Way”, his first entry here, with the final new entry of the week going to former ABBA lead singer Agnetha Faltskog who debuts at No.90 with “When You Really Loved Someone”, taken from her just released (May 10) new album “A”. This becomes her second chart entry in Australia, as she had a small hit in September 1983 with “Can’t Shake Loose” (HP-76).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
The ARIA Chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm.
