Britney Spears Returns To #1 In Aus After 18 Years

Elton John and Britney Spears' newly issued collaboration "Hold Me Closer" has landed its first week at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart this week. 

"Hold Me Closer" (Mercury/EMI) becomes the 1116th No.1 Single in Australia (1940 to 2022), the 551st for ARIA (1983 to 2022), the 134th to debut at No.1 (and the fourth for 2022), the tenth chart topping single for 2022, the 35th for the record label 'Mercury' and the sixth No.1 in Australia for both Elton and Britney.

The new collab and remix of Elton's 1972 B-Side of 'Rocket Man', his now classic "Tiny Dancer", made it to No.13 for two weeks in late July and again in late August of 1972, while the song saw it's first ARIA Chart entry as a digital track which hit No.42 on April 2nd, 2007, followed in June 2009 by a remix by Ironik feat Elton as "Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer)" (HP-64, June 2009 and returns for a new peak of No.41 in June of 2010). The first time an Elton John version charted a solo release was from the biopic soundtrack for 'Rocketman' on June 10th, 2019 (HP-79). 

The new No.1 single for Elton and Britney also becomes their sixth No.1 singles in Australia each, while the song has only had its top-spot placing here in Australia (so far), it has landed first week at No.2 in both Ireland and Iceland, No.3 in England and No.4 in New Zealand. Within Elton's 51 year chart career which started on 1st of Feb 1971 with "Your Song" (HP-11x3), he has now racked up his sixth No.1 single, plus his second for 2022 (only act to do so), with five of those six No.1's being duets, plus he moves to 34th on the list for 'Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Singles', sandwiched between Eddie Fisher (20 weeks from 7 #1's) and Billy Ray Cyrus (20 weeks from 2 #1's), and listed below are Elton's previous No.1 appearances (* = debuted at No.1)

30-Aug-1976 - Don't Go Breaking My Heart (with Kiki Dee) (1 week)

03-Mar-1986 - That's What Friends are For by Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Elton John & Gladys Knight (1 week)

05-Oct-1997 - Candle in the Wind '97 / Something About the Way You Look Tonight (6 weeks)

22-Aug-2005 - Ghetto Gospel (2Pac feat.) (1 week) *

08-Nov-2021 - Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) (with Dua Lipa) (2 weeks)

13-Dec-2021 - Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) (with Dua Lipa) (3 weeks)

10-Jan-2022 - Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) (with Dua Lipa) (3 weeks)

21-Feb-2022 - Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) (with Dua Lipa) (2 weeks / 10 in total)

05-Sep-2022 - Hold Me Closer (with Britney Spears) (1 week) * 

As you can see from Elton's six No.1's, he has only debuted at the top once before, his 2Pac teaming from 2005, although with his 1997 No.1 'Something' was already charting as a single, but once 'Candle 97' was added it shot to No.1, whereas this is the fourth No.1 debut for Britney, although most of hers occurred in the first five years of her career. This is also the first chart entry for Britney in six years, as in the first week of September 2016 she was sitting at No.43 with "Make Me...", which dropped out of the Top 100 two weeks later, making this new entry her 34th Top 100 appearance in Australia.

It has been 18 years and two months since Britney took the No.1 spot in Australia, and now she joins the unique listing for 'Longest Gap Between #1's' (of which Elton is sitting at No.1), as she lands on that list at No.8, just behind The Beach Boys (18 years, 6 months gap) and ahead of George Harrison (16 years, 11 months), while she finally moves up the list for 'Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Singles (1940 to 2022) to 42nd, just ahead of The Platters, Kesha and Adele (all 17 weeks from 3 #1's), plus listed below are Spears' No.1 singles locally. 

22-Feb-1999 - ...Baby, One More Time (9 weeks)

29-May-2000 - Oops!... I Did it Again (2 weeks)

17-Nov-2003 - Me Against the Music (feat. Madonna) (2 weeks) *

15-Mar-2004 - Toxic (2 weeks) *

28-Jun-2004 - Everytime (1 week)

05-Sep-2022 - Hold Me Closer (Elton John feat.) (1 week) *

So the sixth No.1 for both acts moves them up to equal ninth on the listing for 'Most No.1 Singles (1940 to 2022)' alongside Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, The Rolling Stones, ABBA and modern acts like Mariah Carey, Guy Sebastian and Ed Sheeran, with Elton and Ed now sitting at No.1 for the British Solo Male Artist with the most chart-topping singles in Australia, just ahead of George Michael's five. For Solo U.S. Female singers Britney is now equal fourth alongside Mariah, ahead of her are Taylor Swift (8 #1's), Pink (9) and Madonna (11). 

This is only the third time that the word 'Closer' has appeared in a No.1 song title, as The Chainsmokers from August 15th, 2016 spent nine weeks at the top with "Closer", while for 'Hold' this is now the sixth time and for 'Me' it's the 72nd such occurrence. Plus with Elton again at the top in 2022, this is the first time he's ever had back-to-back No.1 singles in Australia, it's only his second No.1 debut, but first as the lead artist, and of the 36 chart weeks so far in 2022, this is the 28th week that an English act has held the top in Australia (still an expanding record, but this hasn't occurred during this century), while Elton's 80th Top 100 entry (AMR + ARIA chart info) also boosts his weeks at No.1 during this decade to 11 (10 for Cold Heart, 1 for the new entry), placing him equal third for this decade for 'Accumulated Weeks at No.1: 2020 Singles', alongside Olvia Rodrigo (11 weeks from 2 #1's).

The two to four spots are all on hold this week, with Nicki Minaj's "Super Freaky Girl" holding it's No.2 peak for a second week, as it also holds for another (2nd) week at No.1 in New Zealand, it loses it's top spot in The U.S.A. to MTV VMA 'Album of the Year' winner this past week Harry Styles' "As it Was", with the track also picking up 'Best Pop Video' and 'Best Cinematography' awards too, with that track sitting here at No.3 again, while it's climb back to the top in America is for an eleventh week, it also holds for an 18th week at the summit in Canada. 

Holding at No.4 for it's third stay in that peak spot are OneRepublic with "I Ain't Worried", after which is a two place rebound to No.5 for "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals (WI10-82), which pushes down one spot each "Bad Habit" for Steve Lacy and "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" for Kate Bush to No.6 and No.7 respectively. Climbing one spot to a new peak of No.8 is "Sunroof" for Nicky Youre and dazy, which the remains on hold at No.2 in Canada and up to No.6 in The U.S.A., while it swaps places with Lizzo's "About Damn Time" (another MTV VMA winner) down one spot to No.9, while last week's No.1 debut for "Pink Venom" by BLACKpink drops nine places to land at No.10, while the song this past week also took out No.1 spots in Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, plus it took out the top spot on the 'World Digital Sales Chart' too.

UP

Thanks to scoring the new No.1 single this week, Elton's previous No.1 "Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)" breaks out of it's five-week stay at No.14 and climbs back up two places to No.12, while the current NZ No.3 single for Chris Brown and "Under the Influence" is here up four places to a new peak of No.13, while the Kid LAROI and JB track "Stay" is on hold at No.15 for a third week.

After eight weeks at No.1 in England, LF System's "Afraid to Feel" is dethroned, while here the song has climbed to a new peak of No.25, plus the song that is now the UK's No.1 single (and sitting for a third week at the top in Ireland) is the Eliza Rose and Interplanetary Criminal track "B.O.T.A. (Baddest of All Time)", which flies up fourteen spots to No.36 after debuting here last week. 

In between those two dance tracks is a six place rise to a new chart height of No.26 for Tom Odell's "Another Love", it's first week within the Top 30, while the only other climb of significance is for Vance Joy's "Clarity" track (HP-41), which returns to the Top 50 by climbing back up nine places to No.45, it's first T50 appearance since the end of June and it's third overall week within the fifty. 

DOWN

Leaving the Top 10 this week is the track that's been sitting at No.10 for the past four weeks, Post Malone and Doja Cat with "I Like You (A Happier Song)" (HP-7, WI10-7a), which dips one place to No.11, while Doja's other Top 20 placements also drop down this week, with "Vegas" falling three to No.16 and "Doja" for Central Cee falling six places to land down at No.17.

Beyoncé and her "Break My Soul" track leave the Top 20 for the first time since their initial debut at No.32 (June 27th) eleven weeks ago, with the song down three places to No.21, while five place drops within the Top 30 occur for "SNAP" by Rosa Linn and "Jimmy Cooks" for Drake to No.28 and No.29 respectively.

While Kid Laroi's "Stay" does just that at No.15, his most recent release "Thousand Miles" falls down eight places to No.35, while also diving eight to No.44 is the DJ Khaled track "Staying Alive", while it's parent album "God Did" has debuted at No.9 on this week's ARIA Albums Chart survey, with the last major drop occurring for Tate McRae's "She's All I Wanna Be", which has fallen nine spots this week to No.50.

FURTHER NEW ENTRY

* #19 - I'm Good (Blue) by David Guetta feat. Bebe Rexha (What a DJ/Warner UK) is the third teaming to chart for the French DJ and producer and the U.S. pop singer, having previously charted with "Hey Mama" (HP-5, May 2015) and "Say My Name" (HP-70, 1st of October, 2018) plus this track also samples the last No.1 single of the 20th century, "Blue (da be dee)" by Eiffel 65 (9 weeks at No.1 from 9th of November, 1999). This new track has landed its first week of release by entering at No.1 in Norway, plus Top 10 berths in Ireland (#6), England and Sweden (both #7).

HP = Highest Position

LW = Last Week

WI10 - Weeks in Top 10

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 26th of August to the 1st of September, 2022.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.