Park Jae-sang is better known as the South Korean K-Pop artist PSY, who moves up to No.1 on the ARIA Singles Chart with his first hit here “Gangham Style”, the song turning over to Platinum in sales within its third week on the charts, and we are now the tenth country around the planet to make it into a No.1 song (so far).
PSY
Gavin Ryan reports that PSY becomes the first artist since 2002 to reach No.1 with a foreign language song, and now the eighth overall, with a list of the previous Australian No.1’s in another language listed below…
25-Oct-58 – Volare – Domenico Modugno (Italian) (7 weeks)
13-July-63 – Sukiyaki – Kyu Sakamoto (Japanese) (2 weeks)
02-Apr-84 – 99 Luftballoons – Nena (German) (5 weeks)
28-Sep-97 – La Bamba – Los Lobos (Mexican/Spanish) (7 weeks)
16-Aug-92 – Amigos Para Siempre – Sarah Brightman & Joe Carreras (Spanish) (6 weeks)
01-Sep-96 – Macarena – Los Del Rio (Spanish) (9 weeks)
14-Sep-02 – The Ketchup Song – Las Ketchup (Spanish) (3 weeks)
“Gangham Style” becomes the 998th No.1 single in Australia (1940 to 2012) and the 432nd for ARIA (1983 to 2012), whilst it also becomes the second No.1 this decade for Universal (direct), the other being the first of this decade, Owl City with “Fireflies” (4-Jan-10, 5 weeks), and now the labels 13th overall since their first with “Doctor Jones” at the end of 1997 (7 weeks from 28-Dec-97) {BTW; “Barbie Girl” was on MCA before switching to Universal, so that’s why “Dr. Jones” is the first Universal No.1 single).
We have never had a ‘Gangham’ at No.1 in Australia before, “Gangsta’s Paradise” for Coolio (from 22-Oct-95 for 13 weeks) being the closest title, whilst only one ‘Style’ has been at No.1 previously, “Freestyler” for Bomfunk MC’s (from 3-July-2000 for 3 weeks). It’s also the first time at No.1 for an artist from South Korea (or even North Korea), in fact no Korean artist has charted in Australia before now.
After six weeks at No.1, Guy Sebastian’s “Battle Scars” only drop a place to No.2 this week, whilst holding at No.3 and No.4 are Birdy with “Skinny Love” (from 1x to now 3xPlatinum) and “I Cry” for Flo Rida (from Gold to 1xPlatinum) respectively.
The Script were in the country last week for a promo visit (X-Factor, Footy Show Grand Final Edition, etc), and that has helped their current UK No.1 single “Hall of Fame” to climb back up from No.9 to a new peak of No.5 this week. This in turn pushes down Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never…” and Owl City with Carly Rae Jepsen on “Good Time” one place each to No.6 and No.7 respectively. Owl City finally breaking out of their 5 and 6 holding pattern they’ve been in for the previous ten weeks.
“Boom Boom” for Justice Crew drops two places to No.9 after now twelve weeks inside the Top 10, appearing at almost every position between 1 and 9 (8 and 10 not as yet), and then we have two songs that climb into the Top 10 this week. Up three places to No.8 is Ne-Yo with “Let Me Love You (Until you Learn to Love yourself)”, which becomes his fourth Top 10 single (three solo and one as a guest on Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” {HP-2, peaked May 2011}). And climbing five places to claim her second successive Top 10 hit is Rita Ora with “R.I.P.” up to No.10 thanks in part to her X-Factor guest performance last week. Her first hit “How We Do (Party)” (jumps from LW-70 to TW-49) peaking at No.9 for two broken weeks in late June of 2012. The song also features Tinie Tempah as guest vocalist, and this is his second Top 10 placing, the other also as a guest singer on the April 2012 No.4 hit “Earthquake” for Labrinth.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: The past two weeks we have not had a new peak within the Top 10, this week there are four, but the first outside T10 peaking track is Alicia Keys and Nicki Minaj who have so far climbed 25-20 to now No.15 with “Girl on Fire”. Will it climb five places again next week? And jumping back up into the Top 20 (30 to 18) is Havana Brown with her “When the Lights Go Out” EP.
Four weeks ago James Morrison (UK) peaked at No.13 with his long running/bobbing track “I Won’t Let You Go” thanks to an X-Factor contestant performance. Last week the song was sitting at No.49 but it leaps back up twenty-eight places to No.21 this week helped by his current national tour, and his physical guest appearance on X-Factor this past week.
“Play Hard” for David Guetta moves up three places to No.24 from it’s debut into the charts last week, and after a massive tumble from No.16 to No.75 last week, P!nk’s former No.1 “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” reclaims a Top 30 position this week, back up forty-six places to No.29.
After claiming their second Top 40 hit last week, Swedish House Mafia can this week claim their highest charting single (so far) in Australia, as their latest track “Don’t You Worry Child” jumps up ten places to No.30, their previous best effort was the No.31 single “Miami 2 Ibiza” which peaked in the last week of December 2010.
“Heatwave” for Wiley has been climbing slowly (44-44-41-36-32) and this week it’s up to a new peak of No.31, whilst right behind him at No.32 are Of Monsters and Men who can now claim their first Top 40 entry as “Little Talks” jumps up nine places to No.32.
DOWN DOWN: Leaving the Top 10 are Maroon 5 with “One More Night”, down two places to No.10, having spent ten weeks inside it, two of those at No.2, plus it has gone from 2x to now 3xPlatinum, whilst the other Top 10 dropout was last weeks highest new entry, “Try” for P!nk which drops from No.8 to No.11 this week.
After peaking at No.18 last week, Timomatic’s “Incredible” drops down four places to No.22, and also falling out of the Top 20 are Florence + the Machine with “Spectrum (Say My Name)” from No.17 to No.26 this week. Birdy’s “People Help the People” drops eight places to No.33, as too does “Drunk” for Ed Sheeran, now down to No.39.
Last weeks high boy-band debut plummet this week, with The Janoskians’ “Set This World on Fire” falling twenty-eight places to No.50, and tumbling twenty-five places to No.53 is Jay Sean and Pitbull with “I’m All Yours”. And after debuting at No.48 last week with “Beautiful”, Carly Rae’s song tumbles forty-one places to No.89.
X-Factor Live(Week 2): X-Factor group The Collective’s version of “Domino” is down twelve places to No.47, but they debut with their version of “Footloose” (Kenny Loggins, No.1×3 weeks from April 1984) at No.41 this week, so they currently have two Top 50 hits on their hands. With James Morrison, The Script and Rita Ora all benefitting from their X-Factor performances last week by scoring climbing tracks, the next new entry for an XF contestant is the No.62 debut for Bella Ferraro at No.62 with her rendition of “What Makes You Beautiful”, the original by One Direction climbing back up three places to No.64. Lastly eliminated contestant’s from the recent show What About Tonight debut at No.97 with their version of “Year 3000”.
The highest new entry of the week comes in at No.20 and is the second single from Taylor Swift’s October 22nd due fourth album “Red”, the new track entitled “Begin Again”. It joins first track from the album “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (HP-3) which is at No.6 this week, Taylor is also currently on the charts as guest vocalist on the B.o.B track “Both of Us” (HP-5, TW-56).
Lower 50: “Gold on the Ceiling” (HP-34) for The Black Keys is up seven places to No.55, and scoring one of only two lower peaks this week are The Rubens, who climb fourteen places to a new peak of No.58 with “My Gun”. The other new peak is from The Hilltop Hoods who return to the Top 100 with “Rattling the Keys to the Kingdom” at No.63.
Avicii’s “Silhouettes” (HP-53) is back up nine places to No.75, and also up nine is The Wanted with “Glad You Came” (HP-20) to No.81 this week. Three more tracks returning to the Top 100 are “Little Lion Man” (HP-3) for Mumford & Sons at No.85, “Breakeven” (HP-3) for The Script at No.99 and lastly back in at No.100 is “Titanium” (HP-5) for David Guetta and Sia.
Example debuts at No.54 with his new single “Say Nothing”, whilst a few places lower at No.57 is Enrique Iglesias featuring Sammy Adams and the song “Finally Found You”. Karmin fall out of the Top 50 with their former No.9 single “Brokenhearted” (TW-61), but debut at No.72 with their new track “Hello”.
Madison Avenue’s main man DJ Andy Van started the project Vandalism in 2005, scoring three ARIA Singles chart entries, the best of which was their second entry from March 2006 single “Never Say Never” (HP-15). This week they debut at No.76 with “Coming Alive” featuring guest vocalist iKid.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
The ARIA Chart is updated every Sunday at 6pm.
Watch the Noise11.com interview with Justice Crew
