ARIA Charts: The Weeknd the big story on both Singles and Albums

Mediaweek editor James Manning takes a look at the ARIA Charts for the week starting April 2.

• Singles: The Weeknd chart attack – six new tunes invade top 50
• Albums: The Weeknd manages to invade Ed Sheeran’s world at #3

Singles

Drake has now topped the chart for a 10th week with “God’s Plan”.

There was plenty of new music invading the chart this week, even if it was all from the same artist – The Weeknd. All six tracks in fact from the new EP “My Dear Melancholy” found their way into the top 50 – the highest climbing to #3. They were the only new songs that landed in the top 50 and The Weeknd was the only newcomer to the top 10 too. This is where the various tracks landed this week.

#3: “Call Out My Name”
#23: “Wasted Times”
#24: “Try Me”
#37: “Hurt You” featuring Gesaffelstein
#40: “I Was Never There” featuring Gesaffelstein
#45: “Privilege”

Albums

The Weeknd is the big talking point here too, although three other artists managed to debut in the top 50 too this week.

The six-track EP “My Dear Melancholy” debuted at #3 after two previous The Weeknd albums made it to #1 – September 2015 with “Beauty Behind The Madness” and December 2016 with “Starboy”.

No change at the top of course where Ed Sheeran and “Divide” and the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman were locked in their spots. These two albums have been #1 and #2 for 10 weeks this year with both albums taking turns at #1 in those weeks.

Sheeran’s three albums all remain top 10 and they have now spent a combined total of 560 weeks on the ARIA Album chart – “Divide” for 57 weeks, “Multiply” for 198 weeks and “Plus” for 305 weeks.

To see how long Sheeran has been charting in the UK and the US read here.

This week’s other ARIA new entries:

#20: Hayley Kiyoko with “Expectations”: First album after single and EP first surfaced in 2013.
#25: Kacey Musgraves with “Golden Hour”: Latest album from the US country artist causing debates over that classification – influences here from Bee Gees to Tame Impala.
#39: Escape The Fate with “I Am Human”: Fifth album from Las Vegas-based rockers.