Ed Sheeran Retains Australian Chart Crown With ‘Subtract’

Ed Sheeran holds off The Amity Affliction on Australia’s albums survey, as Subtract (via Atlantic/Warner) starts a second week at No. 1.

With the British singer and songwriter’s latest chart feat, he racks-up 44 weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Chart across his full-length six albums, all of them best-sellers.

Heavy stuff is close behind. Homegrown metalcore group The Amity Affliction open at No. 2 with Not Without My Ghosts (Warner), their eighth studio effort.

The hard rockers this year celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and now boast seven top 10 appearances, including four ARIA No. 1s: Chasing Ghosts (from 2012), Let The Ocean Take Me (2014), This Could Be Heartbreak (2016) and Misery (2018). In the decade from 2010, the Gympie, Queensland heavyweights amassed five ARIA Award nominations, though none culminated in a pointed trophy.

Completing the podium on the latest ARIA Albums Chart, published May 19, is Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights (Universal), up 4-3.

Further down the list, veteran Australian artist Kate Ceberano debuts at No. 6 with My Life Is A Symphony (ABC/Orchard), a collaboration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It’s Ceberano’s 17th ARIA top 50 album, according to the trade body, and seventh top 10, including 1989’s Brave, which peaked at No. 2.

Legendary local rockers Midnight Oil cook up a 17th ARIA top 10 with Live at the Old Lion, Adelaide (MGM), new at No. 7. Peter Garrett and Co. have led the ARIA Chart with seven titles: Red Sails In the Sunset (1984), Species Deceases (1985), Diesel and Dust (1987), Blue Sky Mining (1990), 20,000 Watt R.S.L. (1997), The Makarrata Project (2020) and Resist (2022).

The Eurovision Song Contest is done for the year, though the music lives on. A collection from the 67th annual event, The Eurovision Song Contest Liverpool 2023 (Universal), debuts at No. 15 on the albums tally. The compilation includes Australia’s representative for the 2023 Eurovision, Voyager with “Promise.” The plucky pop-rock outfit from Perth finished ninth in the annual competition, held last Saturday (May 13) at Liverpool’s M&S Arena.

Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Morgan Wallen clocks up a sixth consecutive week at No. 1 with “Last Night” (via Republic/Universal). It’s now just one frame from matching the seven weeks Billy Ray Cyrus logged at No. 1 with “Achy Breaky Heart” in 1992, a record for a single by a male American country singer here since the official ARIA Charts were launched in 1983.

“Last Night” leads an unchanged top three, closed out by Fifty Fifty’s “The Beginning: Cupid” (Warner) and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” (Columbia/Sony), respectively.

The top debut belongs to New York City-based drill rapper Lil Mabu with “Mathematical Disrespect” (Independent) new at No. 21. Lil Durk‘s “All My Life” (Sony) featuring J. Cole isn’t far behind; it debuts at No. 23.