No. 1 position for 5SOS
HOMEGROWN SUCCESS: Sydney band 5 Seconds of Summer is the first Aussie act in 14 years to have the biggest selling single of the year on the ARIA charts. Queen propelled back into the top 10 off the back of the phenomenal success of Bohemian Rhapsody.
ABBA also ended the year with two of their best-of compilations in ARIA’s end-of-year list off the back of the Mamma Mia! sequel.
Eminem and P!nk also got assists back into the highest selling albums with their hits collections thanks to their successful new releases with Kamikaze and Beautiful Trauma, which made the top 10 for the year.
Unfortunately, no Australian artist albums cracked the top 10. Only 19 locally produced records made the grade, including old greatest hits offerings from INXS, Cold Chisel and Crowded House.
Amy Shark’s Love Monster was the highest selling homegrown record, coming in at No. 14, with Vance Joy’s Nation of Two at No. 18 and Keith Urban’s Graffiti U at No. 19.
“I put my heart and soul into this album, I’m so grateful to everyone who got Love Monster last year and made it the highest selling Australian artist album. This means so much to me,” Shark posted.
But it remains a struggle for local artists to make an impression on the Top 100 singles. Only 11 songs made the grade in 2018 – up from nine in 2017.
Dean Lewis made it to No.4 with his breakthrough smash Be Alright.
And then it was a long way down to the next local entry, with Amy Shark’s I Said Hi at No.31.
ARIA will continue to lobby streaming platforms to give local artists greater prominence on the influential playlists which are dominated by American and British singers and songwriters.
Commercial radio stations are also being challenged to give new songs a decent hearing on their playlists.
It was another cracker of a year for Ed Sheeran, who had two records in the top 10 and four singles in the top 100, including Perfect at No.4.
Post Malone was everywhere thanks to his Beerbongs & Bentleys smash hit record and a phenomenal seven songs in the ARIA Top 100 singles, including I Fell Apart and Psycho in the top 10.
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