With Pharrell Williams in the country this past week for the Future Music Festival, his appearance at The Oscars on Monday night here (U.S.A. on their Sunday), and the release of his new album “G I R L” (new at No.2), he stakes his ninth week at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart with the newly certified 5x▲ Platinum single “Happy”.
“Happy” becomes now the equal second longest running No.1 this decade behind “Roar” for Katy Perry and “Sexy and I Know it” for LMFAO, plus it’s also the equal third longest running No.1 for this century alongside “Hips Don’t Lie” for Shakira (2006) and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” for Fergie (2001). Plus “Happy” also becomes Pharrell’s longest run at the top, beating the eight weeks he spent with Robin Thicke on “Blurred Lines”, and taking his total weeks at No.1 in Australia to an accumulated total of eighteen weeks, putting him in third place on list of ‘Most Weeks at No.1: 2010’s’ behind Rihanna (20 weeks) and LMFAO (19 weeks).
“Rather Be” by Clean Bandit holds at No.2 for a third week, whilst Sara Bareilles jumps up three places to a new peak of No.3 with “Brave”, which also becomes her highest charting single in Australia, beating the No.4 peak that her first entry “Love Song” achieved in early July 2008. Leaping into the Top 10 is David Guetta with Skylar Grey on his new track “Shot Me Down”, up twenty-three places to No.4, becoming David’s twelfth Top 10 entry, and his first since “Turn Me On” (HP-3, late Jan 2012) with Nicki Minaj. The song also matches the previous peak that Skylar Grey achieved when she was did guest vocals on the Diddy-Dirty Money track “Coming Home” (HP-4, peaked March 2011). It’s also the first time in Australian chart history that “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” has reached the Top 10, as Cher’s version stalled at No.11 in June 1966, the Audio Bully’s version reached No.17 in August 2005.
“Say Something” for A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, plus “Undressed” for Kim Cesarion (now ▲ Platinum) are both down a single spot to No.5 and No.6 respectively, whilst last weeks No.3 debut of “She Looks So Perfect” for 5 Seconds of Summer drops back four places to No.7 this week. Holding at No.8 are Cash Cash with “Take Me Home”, with “Swing” for Joel Fletcher and Savage down two to No.9 and hanging on for one more week at No.10 is “All of Me” by John Legend.
NEW PEAKS & MOVERS: “The Man” (HP-11) for Aloe Blacc keeps climbing back up slowly, this week to No.13, but jumping into the Top 20 are Neon Jungle with “Braveheart”, up five places to No.19 this week. “Let it Go” by Idina Menzel (from “Frozen”) won the Oscar for ‘Best Original Song”, and it helps the song jump back up eight places to No.23, whilst Gabrielle Aplin’s version of F.G.T.H.’s “The Power of Love” is up nine spots to a new peak of No.25. After two weeks at No.40, “High” for Peking Duk jumps up eleven places to No.29, and Katy Perry’s promo tour this past week helps her former No.1 “Roar” back up to No.32. “Aerosol Can” for Major Lazer and Pharrell holds at its No.37 peak, but Jason DeRulo bullets up forty-four places to No.39 with his latest track “Stupid Love”. Also leaping into the Top 50 are Dizzee Rascal and Jessie J on “We Don’t Play Around”, up fifty-three places to No.46, whilst Demi Lovato’s version of “Let it Go” is also up eight places to No.48.
DOWN DOWN: After a single week at No.10, American Authors drop back down a place to No.11 with “Best Day of My Life”, whilst it’s also down a place to No.12 with “Addicted to You” for Avicii, which is now 2x▲ Platinum in sales. Lily Allen is a little deflated that her “Air Balloon” has been going down for the past three weeks, this weeks is drops to No.20, whilst London Grammar are down seven to No.27 with the newly certified 2x▲ Platinum track “Strong”. MKTO drop eight to No.31 with “God Only Knows”, Tiesto drops nine spots to No.34 with “Red Lights”, and INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart” tumbles twenty spots to No.35 this week. “Drunk in Love” for Beyonce and Jay-Z falls nine places to No.38 (now Gold ●), with Avicii down eight to No.40 with “Hey Brother”. Katy Perry’s other current single “Unconditionally” falls ten places to No.43 and Ed Sheeran is down six to No.45 with “I See Fire” (now 2x▲ Platinum). Big drops out of the Top 50 include “XO” for Beyonce (44 to 58), “Catch” by Will Sparks (42 to 60), “Can We Dance” for The Vamps (43 to 62), “Need You Tonight” for INXS (36 to 69), “Goodness Gracious” for Ellie Goulding (49 to 81) and leaving from last weeks Top 50 is INXS with “Don’t Change” (#46).
Nathaniel (Willemse) lands the highest new entry of the week by debuting at No.14 with his second single “You’re Beautiful”, with his first entry “You” reaching No.4 in October 2013. The other Top 20 debut of the week is Coldplay with “Magic”, the first single to be released from their forthcoming album “Ghost Stories” (due May). This becomes the bands 24th chart entry, and first since their No.30 single from September 2013, “Atlas”, which was from the ‘Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ soundtrack. Pitbull lands a Top 30 entry at No.26 with “Wild Wild Love” featuring G.R.L. (new girl troupe) as guest vocalist. This is Pit’s 29th Top 100 chart entry, and the first since his Top 5 single with Ke$ha “Timber” (TW-30, HP-4)
Lower 50: The Chainsmokers blast up forty-five places to a new peak of No.53 with “#SELFIE”, whilst Imagine Dragons are back up fifteen places to No.55 with “Radioactive”. Lorde holds at No.57 with “Team”, which is now 2x▲ Platinum in sales and currently at No.6 in the US Charts, and with Pharrell in the country his older No.1 songs with Daft Punk and “Get Lucky” (71 to 63) and Robin Thicke “Blurred Lines” (90 to 75) climb back up the chart. Paloma Faith jumps twenty-four spots to a new peak of No.64 with the Pharrell penned track “Can’t Rely on You” and after re-entering last week The Kite String Tangle are up to a new peak of No.77 with “Given the Chance”. Foxes re-enters at No.59 (a new peak also) with “Let Go for Tonight”, and other returning tracks come from current tourist Bruno Mars with “Locked Out of Heaven” (#92) and “For the First Time in Forever” from the ‘Frozen’ soundtrack at #100.
Christina Perri lands her third Top 100 chart entry (fourth if you count the re-done version of her second single, see below) by debuting at No.66 with “Human”, the first single from her forthcoming second album “Head or Heart” (due early April). She has previously charted with the No.2 single “Jar of Hearts” (peaked July 2011) and from the Twilights films “A Thousand Years” (HP-13, peaked Dec 2011), plus the redone version with Steve Kazee (A Thousand Years, Part 2) (HP-39, Nov 2012).
Local hip-hop outfit (from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney) Thundamentals land their first ARIA Singles chart entry by debuting at No.78 with “Something I Said” featuring guest vocals from Thom Crawford. This track is taken from their early May due third album “So We Can Remember”, their second set “Foreverlution” becoming their first albums chart entry, hitting No.64 in August 2011.
John Martin debuts at No.85 with “Anywhere for You”, his first lead solo single, as he has previously appeared on the song “Don’t You Worry Child” (HP-1×2) for Swedish House Mafia, “Reload” for Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash (HP-20) and the Tinie Tempah single “Children of the Sun” (HP-74, Nov 2013).
U2 were up for an Oscar for their song from the newly opened film here “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”, and that song “Ordinary Love” debuts at No.88 this week, becoming the bands 46th Top 100 Singles chart entry. Lastly making their first appearance on the ARIA Charts are Fitz & the Tantrums from America, with the song “The Walker”.
Gavin Ryan reports with thanks to Australian-Charts.com
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