Australian Albums: Kanye West 'Donda' Is No 1

The tenth studio album for Kanye West named after his mother “DONDA” becomes his fourth No.1 Album in Australia.

“DONDA” (GOOD/Def Jam) becomes the 924th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2021), the 774th for ARIA (1983 to 2021), the 560th to debut at No.1, the 24th chart-topping album for 2021, the eighth for the record label Def Jam and the fourth for Kanye after “Yeezus” (1 week on June 24th, 2013), “ye” (1 week on June 11th, 2018) and his last was “Jesus is King” (2 weeks from November 4th, 2019). The album has also landed first week at No.1 in England, Ireland, New Zealand, Italy, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden (so far).

This is the first time that the word ‘Donda’ has appeared in a No.1 Album title, and the last album named after a relative to hit No.1 was Jessica Mauboy with “Hilda” (1 week on October 28th, 2019). Kanye has now racked up five overall weeks at No.1 from his four chart-topping albums, moving him to equal 122nd on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965-2021) alongside Keith Urban (5 weeks from 4 #1’s), who along with 5SOS, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon and Justin Bieber are the six acts this decade who have now achieved their fourth No.1 Album. This new entry for Kanye West also becomes his thirteenth Albums Chart entry (9 studio, 2 collaborative sets, 1 compilation) and also his ninth Top 10 placed album.

“DONDA” is now the 325th No.1 Album by an American Artist (solo male or female, duo or group) and the sixth for 2021, while the new Kanye set is also the 263rd by a Solo Male Artist (local or overseas) and the seventh for this year. Kanye now joins three other America Solo Male Artists with four No.1 albums like Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and Jack Johnson, to sit in equal fourth place on the list for ‘Most No.1 Albums: U.S. Solo Male Artists’, ahead of him are Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen (5 apiece), Michael Jackson (6 #1’s) and in the lead with eleven is Eminem.

Kanye’s new album has also produced nineteen singles chart entries this week, the highest amount of new entries within the Top 50 for one artist in a week, surpassing the previous record of 16 tracks (all debuts) for Taylor Swift (Aug. 2020) and 17 overall entries for both Post Malone (Sept. 2019) and Michael Jackson (July 2009). Kanye lands three new Top 10 debuts from those nineteen overall entries (there are 27 tracks on the new album, so eight more might have entered in the lower 50), with the highest being “Hurricane” (with Lil’ Baby and The Weeknd) at No.4, followed by “Jail” (feat. Jay-Z) at No.5 and “Off the Grid” (feat. Playboi Carti and Fivio Foreign) at No.9, giving him his 11th, 12th and 13th Top 10 singles (lead or guest) in Australia, and his first Top 10 entry since the first week of November in 2019 when he placed nine songs within the Top 50 from his “Jesus is King” set, one of which “Follow God” debuted and peaked at No.7.

What could’ve become the fourth No.1 album in a row for Australian act Bliss N’ Eso for their seventh studio album called “The Sun”, has instead come in at No.2 this week, becoming the hip-hop acts’ sixth albums chart entry and fifth Top 10 set. And what could’ve also become a fourth No.2 entry for Halsey with her fourth album “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power” has this week debuted at No.3, becoming her fourth Top 3 entry in Australia after her first three albums all debuted and peaked at No.2 in Australia.

After fourteen weeks of sitting within the top two spots, this week the Olivia Rodrigo album “SOUR” has dropped two places to land at No.4 (returns to the U.S. #1 for a fifth week), followed by another two place dip to No.5 for “Planet Her” for Doja Cat, now logging their fifteenth and tenth week within the Top 10 respectively. The three further surviving Top 10 albums from last week are “F**k Love” for Kid Laroi (6 to No.7, #1 in Canada for a third week) and the longest running Top 10 album this week at 38 overall weeks within the T10, after which are “Happier Than Ever” for Billie Eilish (5 to No.8) and last week’s No.1 album for Lorde and “Solar Power” which drops down eight places to land at No.9.

The two further Top 10 entries this week are the fourth album for UK band CHVRCHES called “Screen Violence”, new at No.6, becoming their fourth entry and third Top 10 placement, and new at No.10 is the fifth studio album for OneRepublic called “Human”, which is their fourth entry and also fourth Top 10 in Australia.

UP:
TOP 20: No dropping albums within the Top 20, just a stable No.12 for Justin Bieber’s “Justice”.
TOP 30: The first album to rise anywhere within the Top 50 is a two place rebound to No.22 for the Taylor Swift album “folklore”, while she scores a second Top 30 entry this week with a non-mover at No.29 for her 2014 set “1989” (WI100-358).
TOP 40: The Hugh Jackman movie ‘The Greatest Showman’ was screened on TV this past week, and that has helped the soundtrack to zoom back up thirty places this week to land at No.33, followed by a stable No.34 for the Queen biopic soundtrack ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The self-titled Dua Lipa album is back up two places to No.37 and the Foo Fighters “Greatest Hits” set rebounds twenty-one spots to move back up to No.40.
TOP 50: After returning to the Top 50 last week the Katy Perry 2010 set “Teenage Dream” is this week up six spots to No.41, while Kanye’s 2010 set “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is up one spot to No.43 (possibly thanks to his new #1 entry this week), with the Arctic Monkeys set “AM” rising back up five spots to No.48.

DOWN:
TOP 20: Two long-stayers within the Top 10 albums dip down into the Top 20 this week, with Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” (HP-1×2, WI10-45) down three to No.11 and “The Highlights” for The Weeknd (HP-2, WI10-24) falls four spots to No.14. “Fine Line” for Harry Styles and “Diamonds” for Elton John both drop three places each to No.17 and No.18 respectively.
TOP 30: At the end of 2020, the debut Billie Eilish album “When We All Fall Asleep…” fell to it’s lowest chart position (so far) of No.23 (Dec 28th, 2020), having logged 22-21-21-21 since the end of November 2020, and now for the first time in 2021 the album has left the Top 20 by dipping one spot to No.21 this week. After three weeks back within the Top 20, the Lewis Capaldi album is this week back down six spots to No.24, with a five place slump to No.27 for the Eminem collection “Curtain Call: The Hits”. The new entry last week for the Slim Dusty compilation “Gone Fishin” is this week down seventeen spots to No.28, but with Father’s Day in Australia this weekend, it might rebound on next week’s chart.
TOP 40: The third of five Top 10 dropouts (and the final one to land within the Top 50 this week) is the Trippie Redd entry from last week “Trip at Knight” (HP-9, WI10-1), which tumbles down twenty two places to No.31, with the only other major falling album being the XXXTentacion set “?”, down five spots to No.36.
TOP 50: Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous” album drops six spots to No.42, Pop Smoke’s “Faith” falls nine to No.44, Post Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is down four to No.45 on it’s two year Top 100 chart anniversary (WI-104), followed by a sixteen place plummet to No.46 for Ed Sheeran’s “No.6 Collaborations Project”. The two further Top 10 dropouts from last week which move down into the lower fifty were from Holy Holy (#4) and Tropical F**k Storm (#7), along with Top 30 entries for Angus & Julia Stone (#16), Guy Sebastian (#26) and The Jungle Giants (#27).

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #13 (LP#1) – Begin to Look Around by Gretta Ray (EMI Australia) is the debut album for the Australian Female singer from Melbourne who won the Triple J Unearthed competition in 2016. She has previously charted with her second issued EP called “Here and Now” (HP-46, August 2018).

* #16 (LP#9) – Bronx (VI) by The Bronx (Cooking Vinyl UK) is the ninth studio album and now sixth self-titled album for the L.A. punk band, while overall this is their third albums chart entry after “The Bronx (IV-4)” (LP#6, HP-37, February 2013) and “V” (LP#8, HP-26, October 2017).

* #32 (LP#3) – 3 by Ngaiire (Dot/Dash) is the third album and now second entry for the Papua New Guinea born and Australian based singer, who saw her second album “Blastoma” hit No.41 in June of 2016.

* #49 (LP#2) – We Love You Tecca 2 by Lil’ Tecca (Republic) is the second album and now third albums chart entry for the New York rapper, who first charted with his mixtape of the same name “We Love You Tecca” (HP-13), which charted this week two years ago, and then his other entry was with his debut album “Virgo World” (HP-61, 28th September, 2020).

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 27th of August to the 2nd of September, 2021.