Aussies Perform Strong, But Taylor Swift Reigns For Evermore On ARIA Charts

Taylor Swift has dominated the ARIA charts with her second surprise album of the year, Evermore.

The album itself landed at #1, ending AC/DC's four-week reign at the top with PWR/UP, which was not unexpected. 

Not only is it Swift's second album to reach the peak of the charts this year (Folklore got there back in August), but with two #1 albums in 19 weeks, Swift has broken the ARIA charts record for shortest space between successive #1 albums (the previous record-holder was Ariana Grande, with 25 weeks between Sweetener and Thank U, Next). 

Meanwhile, Folklore is still in the top ten at #9, while her six-years-old album 1989 is at #45 and last year's Lover is at #47.

Swift also made a massive impact on the ARIA Singles chart too. She landed the #1 spot with Willow off Evermore, and overall had 12 of the 15 songs off the album feature in the top 50 - meaning nearly a quarter of the songs in the chart this week belong to her. Champagne Problems was the next best performing song at #12, while others off the album were peppered among the top 50 until final entry Long Story Short at #49.

Aussie acts performed well in spite of Swift's dominance, with five acts in the top ten albums (coming not long after the strong showing of a month ago of seven acts). In fact, the rest of the top five were locals - Delta Goodrem's Only Santa Knows had a sleigh ride into the top ten and hit a new peak at #2, while AC/DC settled at #3 after a month up the pointy end. Next were debuts from The Avalanches at #4 with new album We Will Always Love You and the latest instalment of Cold Chisel's live archive series The Live Tapes Vol. 5: Live At The Bondi Lifesaver Feb 29, 1980 at #5. Guy Sebastian was the final Aussie in the top ten, with T.R.U.T.H holding at #8.

Back in the singles chart, The Kid LAROI reached his highest position there, with Without You hitting #3. He also has So Done still in the top ten at #8.

Meanwhile, off the back of last week's resurgence, many a Christmas themed song and album are still powering up the charts as we head towards the big day. Aside from Delta Goodrem's aforementioned effort, the top 50 also features Michael Bublé's annually resurgent Christmas (#7), Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas (#13), Andre Rieu's Jolly Holiday (#18), Human Nature's The Christmas Album (#24), Robbie Williams’ The Christmas Present (#29), John Farnham & Olivia Newton John’s Friends For Christmas (#31) and Dolly Parton's A Holly Dolly Christmas (#38).

The sheer number of Swift entries this week means the Singles Chart doesn't show as much of a presence of Christmas songs, but the evergreen ones are still there from last week - Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You (#5), WHAM's Last Christmas (#15), Bublé’s It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas (#26) and Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me (#28).