Taylor Swift had 10 Top 10 singles; Australia had none
by Jeff Jenkins
No Australian song hit number one in 2025. In fact, an Australian single failed to crack the Top 20. It’s believed to be the first time in chart history that a homegrown hit has not reached the Top 20.
The dire chart performance has alarmed industry insiders. As Dean Ormston, the CEO of APRA AMOS, noted in November, “Without genuine collaboration and action, we risk losing an entire generation of Australian artists … the time to act is now.”
The year’s highest-charting homegrown hit was Vance Joy’s Riptide, which reached number 21 in January. That song – which is 12 years old – was also the year’s most-streamed Australian song in Australia.
Riptide is no longer eligible for the main ARIA chart.
ARIA introduced new chart rules in September, with the chart now featuring only titles that have been released in the past two years.
The new rule didn’t do much for local singles. Just 11 homegrown hits reached the Top 40 in 2025 – the same number as 2024.
But only two of the 11 songs – Dom Dolla’s Dreamin’ and Tame Impala’s Dracula – were released in 2025.
An Aussie single hasn’t cracked the Top 10 since February 2024 when Dom Dolla’s Saving Up spent a single week at number 10.
And it’s been more than three years since a local title has topped the charts. The last local chart-topper was Joji’s Glimpse of Us, which hit number one in June 2022 (ARIA classifies Joji, who was born in Osaka and grew up in Japan, as an Australian artist because his dad is an Aussie).
In 2025, one artist beat an entire nation – again.
Taylor Swift had 10 Top 10 singles, including one chart-topper, and 13 Top 40 hits.
Swift’s songs spent a combined total of 83 weeks in ARIA’s Top 40 in 2025; the combined total for every Australian single was 34 weeks.
In the past decade, eight Australian songs have hit number one; Taylor Swift has had nine chart-toppers.
2025’s longest-running number one single was Alex Warren’s Ordinary, which spent 17 weeks on top.
The longest-running local hits in 2025 were Vance Joy’s Riptide and Tame Impala’s Dracula, which both spent eight weeks in the Top 40.
Of the 52 weekly charts in 2025, 31 of them failed to feature a single Australian song in the Top 40.
The high-water mark came in the August 4 chart – following triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs – when there were five Aussie titles in the Top 40.
The Australian story was slightly better on the albums chart.
Eight weekly charts failed to feature an Australian album. But since the ARIA chart changes, the Top 40 has featured an average of nearly seven local albums.
Six Aussie albums hit number one in 2025 – by Ball Park Music, Bliss n Eso, Jimmy Barnes, Calum Hood, Hilltop Hoods and 5 Seconds of Summer.
This was the same number as 2024, but down from nine in 2023 and 13 in 2022.
Overall, 43 Aussie albums made the Top 10 in 2025, compared to 38 in 2024. And 103 Aussie albums cracked the Top 40, up from 73 in 2024, and the best result since 2021.
But of the 43 Aussie albums to hit the Top 10, only 12 spent longer than one week in the Top 40.
The year’s longest-charting local album was Royel Otis’s Hickey, which spent 18 weeks in the Top 40.
The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack was the year’s longest-running number one album, spending nine weeks on top.
But Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl, which spent seven weeks at number one, was ARIA’s top album for 2025.
Six Swift albums appear in ARIA’s Top 100 for 2025 before the first Aussie entry – Cold Chisel’s 50 Years best-of at number 59.
Overall, 2025’s Top 100 features seven Swift albums and just five Aussie titles – from Chisel, Spacey Jane, Hilltop Hoods, INXS and The Kid LAROI.
Will things improve in 2026?
To boost the number of Aussie acts on the charts, the “Ausify Your Algo” campaign was launched at the end of October, encouraging music fans to search for more local music on streaming services.
Backed by Music Australia, the campaign proclaimed: “The more you push it, the more local acts turn heads; more kids dare to find their voice; more diversity is spread; more gigs are attended; and the arteries of our airwaves stop narrowing.”
Less than 10 per cent of music streamed by Australians is homegrown.
Lamenting the lack of local artists on the charts, Ben Lee said, “We have become the global poster child for what market failure looks like.”
The Aussie albums that topped the charts in 2025
Ball Park Music – Like Love
Bliss n Eso – The Moon (The Light Side)
Jimmy Barnes – Defiant
Calum Hood – Order Chaos Order
Hilltop Hoods – Fall From The Light
5 Seconds of Summer – Everyone’s A Star!
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