Singles: Welcome to Ed Sheeran world: 9 weeks #1, 9 songs top 20, 16 in top 40
Albums: “Divide” debuts at #1, plus both previous albums explode at #3 and #4
Singles
An incredible week for chart stats and let’s just see how ARIA summarised Ed Sheeran‘s chart monopoly:
For a ninth consecutive week, Ed Sheeran sits at #1 on the ARIA Singles Chart with “Shape Of You”. Ed Sheeran also appears another 15 times in this week’s ARIA Top 50 Singles Chart with “Castle On The Hill” at #2, “Dive” at #5, “Perfect” at #6, “Galway Girl” at #10, “How Would You Feel” (Paean) at #13, “Happier” at #16, “Supermarket Flowers” at #19, “New Man” at #20, “What Do I Know?” at #24, “Eraser” at #31, “Hearts Don’t Break Around Here” at #32, “Barcelona” at #36, “Nancy Mulligan” at #37, “Save Myself” at #38 and “Bibia Be Ye Ye” at #39. With 16 songs charting simultaneously in the top 40, Sheeran sets a new ARIA Charts milestone with the most ever by a single artist. Also, no living act has had more than 14 singles in the top 100 at any given time – Sheeran has 18 this week.
Only one other artist managed to invade the top 50 on debut this week – special congratulations to Lorde for pushing “Green Light” to debut at #4 in a week when clearly music fans had something else on their minds.
One other new arrival in the top 10 – Zedd with “Stay” featuring Alessia Cara climbs from #16 to #9 in its second week on the chart.
Albums
It is Ed Sheeran on this chart too of course with the singer-songwriter/solo performer filling three of the top five sports.
“Divide” has landed at #1 of course on debut with “X” at #3 and “+” at #4. Between them his first two albums have been on the charts for a combined 391 weeks.
Five of the six albums released by Sheeran and Adele fill the top five chart sports. Adele’s first album #19″ just missed the top 10 this week, moving from #20 to #12.
Another reasonably meaningless, yet impressive, chart stat is that the six albums released by the two British superstars have been on the ARIA album chart for a combined 859 weeks.
Sheeran also set the charts alight in the US and the UK. In his home territory, Sheeran becomes the fastest-selling UK male solo artist of all time. The only people to sell more albums in their first weeks were Adele with “25” and Oasis with “Be Here Now”.
Two Australian artists have managed to cut through the superstar sizzle and land their own albums in the top 10 on debut:
#8 All Our Exes Live In Texas with “When We Fall” Debut album from Aussie folkies
#10 Kingswood with “After Hours, Close To Dawn” Second album from Melbourne rockers
Three other albums debuted inside the top 50:
#16 Methyl Ethel with “Everything Is Forgotten” Perth pop trio’s second album
#26 Various Artists “Remembrance” An album dedicated to soldiers who fought in World War I with poetry read by Alan Jones and vocals from Melbourne-based baritone Nathan Lay
#41 Darlene Zschech with “Here I Am Send Me” Live album of Christian tunes from former Hillsong pastor now with Hope Unlimited Church
With Justin Bieber‘s Australian tour under way, his album “Purpose” has re-entered the top 50 at #18 for its 69th week on the chart.