Amy Shark makes it three successive No. 1s in Australia with Sunday Sadness (Sony).
The Gold Coast-raised singer and songwriter cruises to the summit of the ARIA Chart, published Friday, Aug. 16 with Sunday Sadness, her fourth studio effort.
Her debut 2012 album, It’s A Happy City, released under the name Amy Cushway, didn’t chart, notes ARIA. As Amy Shark, she roared to No. 1 for one week in 2018 with Love Monster, and led the survey in 2021 for two weeks with Cry Forever.
“Words cannot explain how much this No. 1 means to me,” she comments. “Sunday Sadness has been three years in the making and I’m so glad you all love it as much as I do. Today is a day I’ll never forget”.
Sunday Sadness completes a trilogy of No. 1s for homegrown acts on the national chart (after recordings by Lime Cordiale and Tones & I), burying a 10-month dry spell.
Also, it’s one of four Australian-made albums to debut in the top 20, for Australian music’s “most successful week of 2024,” ARIA claims.
“Huge congratulations to Amy, her team, and her incredibly devoted fans on a third No. 1 album and a career that continues to reach new heights,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd.
“Amy at the top of the chart marks three weeks of Aussies at No. 1, on top of that, four homegrown debuts in the top 15 is an unbelievable result that our whole industry should be proud of. What a week for Ausmusic.”
Those homegrown hits include Grinspoon’s eighth studio album, Whatever, Whatever (Universal), new at No. 3; King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s 26th studio album Flight b741 (VMG/UMA), new at No. 8; and First Nations hip-hop collective 3%, new at No. 12.
Meanwhile, Filipino-British singer and songwriter Beabadoobee lands her first top 10 in Australia with This Is How Tomorrow Moves (Dirty Hit/Universal), new at No. 6. That bests the No. 19 peak for her 2022 release Beatopia. Finally, DICE rolls to No. 27 with Midnight Zoo (VMG/UMA), the Perth, Australia quartet’s debut album.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Billie Eilish scoops her third solo No. 1 as “Birds Of A Feather” flaps its wings, up 2-1. Eilish replaces herself on top, as her guest appearance on Charli XCX’s “Guess” dips 1-3.
Earlier, Eilish reigned over the chart for two weeks in 2019 with “Bad Guy” and for three weeks with 2023’s “What Was I Made For?” Eilish’s third and latest studio LP, Hit Me Hard And Soft (Interscope/Universal), holds at No. 2.
Finally, as Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine slices up the global box-office, one of the songs from its soundtrack powers into the top 40: NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” (Jive/Sony). Released in 2000, the song originally spent five weeks at No. 1. Thanks to its sync to the bloody opening scene of the superhero smash, “Bye Bye Bye” returns to the chart at No. 20.