• Singles: Ariana holds at #1, most of top 10 stuck in chart cement
• Albums: Bublé debuts at #2 with Love, but two albums top 20
Singles
Not a single new release made the top 50. To go in search of a charting new release we scrolled further down the chart. We went all the way to the 90s where just two new arrivals made it onto this week’s ARIA singles chart:
#95 No Candle No Light from Zayn featuring Nicki Minaj
#96 Beach House from The Chainsmokers
At the top of the chart there was little movement – the top seven songs were unchanged from last week.
Ariana Grande spent another week at #1 with Thank U, Next, which is the only time she’s had a second week on top of the chart.
Editorial credit: Jack Fordyce / Shutterstock.com
The chart’s biggest mover, and the only bullet performer this week, was P!nk with A Million Dreams, which is up from #47 to #27.
Albums
The album charts were seething with action by comparison this week. Nine new releases charted inside the top 50 with four of them inside the top 10 and eight of them inside the top 20.
Michael Bublé must have been favoured to debut at #1 this week, but in a chart upset the soundtrack to A Star Is Born has hung on at #1 for a fifth consecutive week.
Editorial credit: Kyle Besler / Shutterstock.com
Bublé’s Love is new at #2. It’s not a bad debut, but a carefully crafted global promo strategy meant a #1 could have been a chance. The Australian pre-album buildup included a Sydney stadium show, TV concerts for Sunrise and Foxtel plus a smoothfm performance.
As ARIA notes this week, Bublé is no stranger to #2 on the chart. His previous album Nobody But Me peaked there in November two years ago. From 10 albums Bublé has managed five #1s. Sales and streams of his Christmas album might have held back the new release – Christmas is up from #30 to #16 this week.
The greatest chart feat perhaps this week though is The Greatest Showman soundtrack, which occupies two spots in the top 10. The Greatest Showman: Reimagined is new at #4 while the original soundtrack album is still top 10 after 50 weeks at #9.
The Reimagined album features contemporary artists presenting their interpretations of tracks – performers include Panic! At The Disco, Kelly Clarkson, Kesha, Years & Years, Jess Glynne, Missy Elliott and P!nk’s A Million Dreams, which was the only notable mover on the singles chart this week.
Other new arrivals on the albums chart this week:
#5 Mumford & Sons with Delta. Fourth studio album and follow-up to 2015’s Wilder Mind, which peaked at #1.
#8 Little Mix with LM5. Fifth studio album from the British girl group and their fifth top 10. Follow up to Glory Days, which peaked at #2 exactly two years ago.
#14 Mark Knopfler with Down The Road Wherever. The ninth solo album from the former Dire Straits hit machine.
#15 Mariah Carey with Caution. Fifteenth studio album with three of them peaking at #1 and four of them not making the top 10.
#18 Kip Moore with Room To Spare: The Acoustic Sessions
#20 Anderson .Paak with Oxnard
#32 Roy Orbison & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Unchained Melodies