Harry Styles Dumps Ed Sheeran From Australian Chart Summit
"Shape of You" tied the record for longest streak at No. 1.
Ed Sheeran’s reign is over, Harry Styles is now in charge.
Styles, the One Direction singer, bows at No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart with his debut solo song “Sign Of The Times” (Columbia/Sony), forcing Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” (Asylum/Warner) into second place.
With his explosive start, Styles becomes the second 1D member to have a solo No. 1 Down Under after Zayn’s “Pillowtalk” hit the top in February 2016. It’s Styles’ second stint at the top after 1D’s post-Zayn track “Drag Me Down” opened at the summit in August 2015 (the group’s previous best was No. 2 with “Live While We’re Young” from October 2012).
Sheeran’s streak at the top ends at 13 consecutive weeks, though the English singer should feel anything but unlucky with his achievement. The track is quadruple-platinum and its 13-week run is good enough to equal the record for the longest stint the summit, an honor it shares with Coolio’s 1995 hit “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
Rounding out the top five is The Chainsmokers & Coldplay’s “Something Just Like This” (Columbia/Sony), Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” and Zedd featuring Alessia Cara’s “Stay” (Interscope/Universal), respectively.
Also on this week’s chart, Clean Bandit snatches a third top 10 single with “Symphony” (EastWest/Warner), which climbs 14-9. The British trio is one of just three acts to top the singles chart this year (with “Rockabye”), all of them English (Sheeran and now Styles are the others).
He may have relinquished his singles chart crown, but Sheeran’s still ruling the national albums chart. The singer and songwriter’s Divide (Warner) is No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart for a sixth week, as the ARIA Hall of Famer Tina Arena’s
Greatest Hits & Interpretations (EMI) retrospective double-album starts at No. 2. Homegrown rockers The Smith Street Band crack the top 10 for the first time with their fourth album, More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me (Inertia), while The Chainsmokers debut Memories…Do Not Open begins at No. 4 and Adele’s nine-times platinum 25 (XL/Inertia) dips 4-5.