Pharrell Williams holds for an eighth non-consecutive week at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart with “Happy”, the song also climbing to the top of the US chart this week too.
“Happy” becomes the equal third longest running chart-topper for this decade, matching the eight weeks achieved by “Somebody That I Used to Know” for Gotye & Kimbra (2011), “Whistle” for Flo Rida (2012) and “Blurred Lines” for Robin Thicke (2013) {which also featured Pharrell as guest vocalist}. Plus Pharrell is performing the song at the Grammy Awards ceremony this coming weekend (Monday in Aus), plus he’ll be in the country for the Future Music Festival during the week, which could cement him at the top for yet another week.
The recent UK No.1 single “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne (it was pushed out this past week) climbs to a new peak of No.2 this week, whilst debuting at No.3 is the first entry for Sydney four-piece band 5 Seconds of Summer with their song “She Looks so Perfect”, which has been flying high on pre-order on the worlds’ iTune charts, and has so far reached No.50 in Portugal (debuted this past week).
A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera drop back a couple of places to No.4 with “Say Something”, which is now certified 2x▲ Platinum in sales. Kim Cesarion was in the country for a promo visit this past week, and that helps his single “Undressed” to jump up four places to a new peak of No.5, with Australia now giving the song its highest placing anywhere in the world, beating the No.6 peak in Denmark.
Sara Bareilles is up a couple of places to a new peak of No.6 with “Brave”, which also cracks Gold (●) in sales, whilst dropping three places to No.7 are Joel Fletcher and Savage with “Swing”. Cash Cash drop back down one place to No.8 with “Take Me Home”, whilst John Legend falls three to No.9 with his former No.1 single “All of Me”. Climbing up three places to land at No.10 are American Authors with “Best Day of My Life” (also Gold ●), with Australia becoming the first country to give it a Top 10 placing.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “The Man” (HP-11) for Aloe Blacc is back up a couple of chart spots to No.14, with Eminem and Nate Ruess jumping up five places to a new peak of No.21 with “Headlights”, helped by his current national tour. Neon Jungle leaps up fifteen places to No.24 with “Braveheart”, whilst “Drunk in Love” for Beyonce and Jay-Z is back up to No.29 this week. Katy Perry’s “Unconditionally” keeps climbing back up, this week it climbs three places to No.33, whilst blasting up forty-two spots and into the Top 40 is Major Lazer with Pharrell on the track “Aerosol Can” to No.37. Peking Duk stay on hold with “High” at their debut position of No.40, with Miley Cyrus climbing back up to No.45 with “Adore You”, and INXS jumping up thirteen places to No.46 with “Don’t Change” (both now Gold ●), helped somewhat by Bruce Springsteen covering the song during his live shows, and lastly Ryan Keen is up to a new peak of No.47 with “Old Scars”.
DOWN DOWN: After three weeks within the Top 10, peaking at No.5, “Addicted to You” for Avicii drops back down six places to No.11, whilst “Free” by Rudimental, Emeli Sande and Nas falls down three to No.13, having spent ten weeks within the Top 10, peaking at No.5 for four broken weeks. After landing a new peak of No.11 last week, INXS’ “Never Tear us Apart” is back down to No.15, and after hitting No.14 for the past two weeks, OneRepublic vs. Alesso with “If I Lose Myself” drops down five places to No.19. The Shakira and Rihanna duet of “Can’t Remember to Forget You” is down a couple of places to No.22, and now certified Gold (●) in sales, and dropping six places to No.30 are Vance Joy with “Riptide”. INXS pick up two Gold (●) certifications this week, as “Need You Tonight” is also re-certified, but drops eight places to No.36 this week. After debuting at No.22 last week, “Catch” by Will Sparks drops back down twenty places to No.42, and after leaping into the Top 40 last week, “Talk is Cheap” for Chet Faker drops back down sixteen spots to No.50. Big drops out of the Top 50 include “My Life” for Bliss N’ Eso (44 to 58), and “Hard Out Here” for Lily Allen (48 to 63).
David Guetta debuts at No.27 with his 28th ARIA Top 100 Singles chart entry “Shot Me Down”, featuring US vocalist Skylar Grey. The song is similar to the Audio Bully’s track from August 2005 “Shot You Down” (HP-17), in that it features a female vocal (Skylar) singing the 1966 chorus to “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” (Cher, HP-11, peaked June 1966). The song also becomes the third guest vocalist appearance for Skylar Grey, as she also sung on “I Need a Doctor” for Dr. Dre and Eminem (HP-12, peaked April 2011) and “Coming Home” by Diddy-Dirty Money (HP-4, peaked March 2011).
UK singer Gabrielle Aplin makes her ARIA Singles chart debut at No.34 with her rendition of “The Power of Love”, originally performed by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (HP-4, peaked Jan 1985, remix HP-65, August 2000). The song was her first chart entry in England and made it to No.1 there; here it is being used in the TV promos for the upcoming series ‘Resurrection’, which is due to start in March. The album featuring the song is “English Rain” (HP-22, May 2013), which returns at No.71 this week.
Lower 50: Mikhael Pashalev returns to his former No.51 peak with “I Spy”, whilst Zendaya stays on hold at No.66 with her debut from last week “Replay”. Eminem’s tour helps the longest running No.1 single for the century, “Lose Yourself” (12 weeks) to jump back up thirty-two places to No.67 and “Rap God” is back up fifteen spots to No.75. INXS land a new peak of No.73 with “Mystify”, whilst re-entries are from John Newman with “Love Me Again” (#92), “Given the Chance” for The Kite String Tangle (#94) and “Talk Dirty” for Jason DeRulo (#97).
Alex Lloyd debuts at No.62 with his ode to the Richmond football team “Coming Home to Richmond”, which becomes his thirteenth Top 100 singles chart entry and first new entry since the April 2006 song “Brand New Day” (HP-53).
The next new entry is at No.81, French producer DJ Snake (William Grigahcine) with vocals by Lil’ Jon on their track “Turn Down for What”, which is currently Top 30 in the US, Top 40 in New Zealand and has cracked the Canadian Top 50 so far. A couple of places lower at No.83 is Jason DeRulo with “Stupid Love”, the fifth single from his current “Tattoos” (TW-50) album, with the first four releases all cracking the Top 10.
Paloma Faith lands her first singles chart Top 100 entry this week by debuting at No.88 with “Can’t Rely on You”, the first single taken from her forthcoming third album “A Perfect Contradiction” (out here 7th March). New York based DJ duo The Chainsmokers are made up of Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, and their first entry is new at No.98, “#SELFIE”, whilst coming in at No.99 are Dizzee Rascal and Jessie J with “We Don’t Play Around”, his ninth chart entry, and taken from his current album “The Fifth” (HP-33, Oct 2013).
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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