Chart Analysis December 21, 2017

ARIA Chart Predictions: Now is the time for Shania Twain

Charts & New Music Editor

ARIA ALBUMS CHART

After a 15-year absence, country-pop queen Shania Twain has resurfaced and is looking to score her third ARIA Albums Chart #1 with new recordNow. She’s been at the top before with 18x Platinum record Come On Over in 1997, and her most previous album Up!.

Twain’s view of #1 is severely obstructed by The Killers, Foo Fighters and Macklemore who make up the current Top 3. It’s unlikely any of them will fall many frames (if any), and will pose a serious threat to her #1.

Other debuts vying for the Top 10 this week are Demi Lovato’s Tell Me You Love Me, Miley Cyrus’s Younger Now, as well as Rick Price & Jack Jones’ California Dreaming. In light of The Killers’ recent success with Wonderful Wonderful, their compilation album Direct Hits is seeing a resurgence towards the Top 10 this week.

ARIA SINGLES CHART

Macklemore’s performance at the NRL Grand Final on Sunday was, in his words, “a career highlight”, and it’s no wonder then that ‘Same Love’ ft. Mary Lambert is on the up this week. The track is currently at #3 but looks a form contender to pluck the top position from Post Malone’s ‘rockstar’ ft. 21 Savage after one solitary week.

The introduction of Beyoncéon J Balvin’s Latin crossover hit ‘Mi Gente’ has made an instant sales and streaming impact. The new version is currently at #33 on the chart following its surprise release last Friday, and will likely shoot up more than 20 frames this week towards the Top 10.

There’s only one debut single this week and that’s P!NK’s ‘Beautiful Trauma’, the title track from her newly released album. It will most likely land somewhere around the #20 mark.

OVERSEAS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Shania Twain will go head-to-head withEnglish four-piece Wolf Alice for the #1 spot on this week’s UK Albums Chart. As of yesterday, Wolf Alice’s Visions of A Life was running ahead of Twain by roughly 1000 sales.

It’s possible that the entire UK Top 5 will be made up of debuts as David Gilmour’s Live At Pompeii, Michael Jackson’s Scream and Demi Lovato’s Tell Me You Love Meare tussling to get ahead of The Killers and Foo Fighters.

While Sam Smith is enjoying his third week at the top of the UK Singles Chart, the lurking Post Malone may deny the Englishman a fourth #1. ‘rockstar’ ft. 21 Savage spectacularly shot to #1 in Australia last week and is currently at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, receiving the biggest gain in airplay among all songs on the chart. Although ‘rockstar’ is trailing both ‘Too Good At Goodbyes’ and Camila Cabello’s ‘Havana’ right now in the weekly sales department, the track already has a history of getting over the line at the death.

In other news, BTS have recorded the highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 title ever by a K-pop group with ‘DNA’ jumping to #67 from #85. That beats Wonder Girls’ 2009 hit ‘Nobody’ which reached #76.