Taylor Swift enters the home straight of 2023 in a familiar place – at No. 1 on Australia’s albums chart.
The most popular artist of the year on Spotify, TayTay enters a fifth week atop the ARIA Chart with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (via Universal), and completes a “Swift Sweep” of the top four with Midnights (up 5-2), Folklore (up 6-3) and Lover (up 10-4), respectively. Swift collects two more top 10 appearances, as Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) climbs 15-8 and Reputation lifts 12-9.
At times this year, Swift has dominated the tally like no one else. In July, she completed an unprecedented sweep of the top 5. The following week, she replaced herself at No. 1, becoming the first artist to do so since the ARIA Charts began in 1983.
Christmas is nearly upon us, proof of which can be seen on the ARIA Charts. A raft of Christmas-themed albums storm the tallies, including Jimmy Barnes’ Blue Christmas (reentering at No. 14 via Bloodlines/ Universal), Michael Buble’s two-time diamond certified Christmas (up 92-45 via Reprise/Warner) and Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas (Columbia/Sony) enters at No. 74.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” returns at No. 15. The modern yuletide favorite peaked at No. 2 following its release in 1994, and finally went to No. 1 in 2018 — returning to the summit Christmas every year since for a total of seven combined weeks, ARIA reports.
Also marching into the ARIA Chart, published Friday, Dec. 1, is Wham’s “Last Christmas” (Sony), reentering at No. 30, and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (Warner/Universal) returns at No. 42.
At the pointy end of the ARIA Singles Chart, is Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me” (Atlantic/Warner), now in its third week at the top, marking the Louisville rapper’s longest-running leader in Australia.
Finally, Ocean Alley’s “Confidence” continues to flow, after the 2018 release went viral on TikTok. “Confidence” returned to the top 40 last week at No. 40, and rises to No. 16. Now, more than five years after its release, “Confidence” is the best-seller on the Australian Singles Chart. Independently-released, with distribution through the Orchard, “Confidence” originally peaked at No. 9 on the ARIA Chart and went on to win triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown in January 2019.
