Nicki Minaj Finally Claims #1 In Australia After 12 Years

After twelve years of charting, Nicki Minaj lands her first-ever #1 single in Australia as her sampled track Super Freaky Girl climbs into the top spot locally this week. 

Super Freaky Girl (Young Money/Republic) becomes the 1117th #1 Single in Australia (1940 to 2022), the 552nd for ARIA (1983 to 2022), the eleventh #1 for 2022, the first for Nicki and now the 17th for the record label Republic (through Universal). 

2022 saw its first NEW #1 single in the second week of April (the latest it's ever occurred), and it took Australia until the end of August to see it land a ninth #1 for this year for BLACKpink, and now with a new #1 single again this week, it's now a fifth week in a row that a different song has appeared at the top after Kate Bush landing her last week (Aug. 15th), followed by a returned Harry Styles (Aug. 22nd), then BLACKpink debuting at the top (Aug. 29th), with last week's Elton and Britney top-spot entry (Sept. 5th), and now this week another new #1 song, with the last time this occurring being in June to July 2012 between Karise Eden (June 25th), Flo Rida (July 2nd), Resse Mastin (July 9th), P!nk (July 16th) and then FUN. (July 23rd) (thanks to Jesse'77 for the lead).

This is the first time that the word 'Super' or 'Freaky' has appeared in a #1 single, although there were close matches for Jamelia and Superstar (1 week on 8th of March, 2004) and two 'Freak' tracks for Chic (5 weeks from Feb. 26th, 1979 with Le Freak) and also Silverchair's Freak (debuted at #1 holding for two weeks from Jan. 26th,1997), with it now the 20th appearance in a #1 song title for the word 'Girl'. Another first which Nicki achieves is that she is the first act from Trinidad and Tobago to land a #1 single in Australia, and while Billy Ocean was born on those islands, he was raised in England, whereas Nicki started her career there in the early 2000s, plus she is also the 159th Solo Female Act to hit #1 in Australia and the fifth for 2022 (Mariah Carey, Dua Lipa, Kate Bush and Britney Spears were the other four).

Super Freaky Girl has previously spent a single week at the top in America (Aug. 29th) and is the #1 song in New Zealand this week for a third consecutive time, while Australia is now the third country to make it a chart-topper. The song has jumped into the UK Top 10 (11 to #6), climbed to a new peak in Ireland (8 to #7), while it's also in the Top 10 in several European countries this week too. The song is also taken from Nicki's first collection of hits called Queen Radio: Volume 1, which entered the ARIA Album Charts last week at #61.

Nicki first charted in 2010 on the Will.i.am track Check it Out (HP-21, late September 2010) had the hook for Video Killed the Radio Star for Buggles (last #1 of the 1970s, 7 weeks from Dec. 3rd, 1979), and her first Top 10 was with Super Bass (#6x2, August 2011, no samples), while her first big hit was with Starships (HP-2x5, March 2012) which sampled Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. And now the sample from the 1982 single Super Freak from Rick James is featured in her first #1 single, making it the second time that a piece of that song has made it to the top in Australia, as MC Hammer first sampled it for U Can't Touch This (5 weeks from July 22nd, 1990), which was also the first rap/hip hop song to ever make it to #1 in Australia (Young MC's Bust a Move was issued prior to MC Hammer, but it didn't make it to #1 here until October 28th, 1990.

The former NZ #1 single for OneRepublic and I Ain't Worried has climbed two spots this week to land at a new peak of #2 in Australia, surpassing the three broken weeks of its former peak of #4, while a second sample-heavy track makes a leap into the Top 3 this week, as David Guetta and Bebe Rexha with I'm Good (Blue) jumps up sixteen spots to land at #3, while the song has also leapt in NZ (26 to #5), England (7 to #2), Ireland (6 to #2), Germany (12 to #4) and debuted at #8 in Canada and #81 in the U.S.A. this past week. The new Top 10 becomes the sixth for Bebe (and third Top 3) and the 18th for David Guetta (9th Top 3 hit). 

After 22 weeks within the Top 3, Harry Styles' As It Was drops to its lowest position by dipping one spot to #4, while the song has held for a twelfth broken week at #1 in the U.S.A., it was finally dethroned in Canada after 17 weeks by another Top 10 entry here this week. Last week's #1 entry for Elton John and Britney Spears with Hold Me Closer has dropped four spots this week to #5, while the song has entered this past week at #3 in Canada and #6 in the U.S.A., while locally the track also created another chart feats last week for both acts (which I forgot to mention), it places Britney sixth on the unusual listing for 'Biggest Gap between first and latest #1 Single', as she first hit #1 in Australia 23 years and 5 months ago (Feb 1999 with ...Baby, One More Time), just ahead of Frank Sinatra (22 years, 11 months), while ahead of her are Louis Armstrong (#5), Elvis Presley (#4), Paul McCartney (#3), Kate Bush (#2) and Elton John (#1 with a gap between first {Aug 30th, 1976} and last {Nov 8th, 2021} of 45 years and 2 months), which also extended last week to be 46 years and 6 days thanks to his new #1 song.

Still keeping their Top 10 tally rolling along are Glass Animals, who've now racked up 83 weeks and running within the Top 10 for Heat Waves, which drops back one spot to #6 and is now 12x▲Platinum in sales, while the new #2 in single in America is here down one spot to #7 and scoring its first certification of Gold (●) in sales; Bad Habits for Steve Lacy. 

The new No.1 single in Canada this week is Sunroof for Nicky Youre and dazy, while the track climbs to a new peak of #5 in America, it holds at its peak of #8 here for a second week, while it also climbs to a new chart height in New Zealand of #19. Spending a second week at No.3 in NZ is the Chris Brown track Under The Influence, which in Australia has jumped up four spots to land at #9, becoming Brown's sixteenth Top 10 single locally, and his first since Go Crazy (HP-9, June 29th, 2020), after which is a three-place dip to #10 for Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), which might not leave the Top 10 next week thanks to a physical release for the Stranger Things Season 4 soundtrack on Friday (Sept 9th). 

UP

Doja Cat's teaming with Post Malone on I Like You (A Happier Song) remains on hold at #11 this week, while she rebounds with her ELVIS soundtrack entry Vegas (16 to #13, newly ▲Platinum), while her namesake song Doja by Central Cee is back up one place to #16. The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber 17 week running #1 song Stay is back up a spot to #14, plus newly certified as 11x▲Platinum in sales, while Ed Sheeran's Shivers logs its one-year chart anniversary by not moving from #20, plus his duet Bam Bam with Camila Cabello is a non-mover at #48, its fourth time in that position in the past five weeks (Aug 15th and 22nd, then Sept 5th and now 12th). 

Leaping fifteen places this week to land at a new peak of #21 is the current UK (2nd week) and Irish (4th week) #1 song B.O.T.A. (Baddest of All Time) by UK female DJ Eliza Rose along with producer and remixer Interplanetary Criminal, while the track debuted this week at #27 in New Zealand. Thanks possibly to his new movies about to be released, the Harry Styles track Late Night Talking has leapt back to #5 in England, while here it is back up two spots to #22, while the previous UK #1 single to Eliza Rose is also climbing up our charts, as Afraid to Feel for LF System scores a new peak at #23.

SNAP' (HP-20) for Rosa Linn is back up three spots to #24, after which the next climbing tracks are a one-spot rebound to #32 for Betty (Get Money) by Yung Gravy and a two-place climb to #35 for Latto's Big Energy', after which Numb for Marshmello and Khalid returns to its former peak of #38 (Aug. 29th) for a second stay. 

Two songs leap into the Top 50 this week, making their first appearance this high on the charts. Lizzo's new single from her Special album is 2 Be Loved (Am I Ready), which initially charted at #68 for a week within the Top 100 on July 25th, the week her new album came out, and last week the song re-entered the chart at #69 and this week it leaps up twenty-seven places to #42, helped by two factors, the video clip was issued a few weeks ago, and last week she performed it at the MTV VMAs. The other climber is the first ever Top 50 appearance for the US country singer Zach Bryan called Something in the Orange, which is propelled up thirty-seven spots to land at #46, having first charted on May 30th at #71, it spent six broken weeks within the Top 100 before returning last week at #83, now logging its eighth week within the Top 100.

DOWN

Two songs leave the Top 10 this week, with Lizzo's About Damn Time (HP-3x3, WI10-17) falling three spots to #12, the same position it debuted at 19 weeks ago, meaning this is the song's first week outside of the Top 10 since it climbed into the ten on May 16th. Pink Venom (HP-1x1, WI10-2) for South Korea's BLACKpink drops a further nine places this week down to #19 (it also fell nine last week 1 to #10). Two further dropping former #1s within the Top 20 are Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) for Elton John and Dua Lipa (12 to #15) and Glimpse Of Us for Joji (14 to #17). 

Ed Sheeran's Bad Habits and Lost Frequencies' Where Are You Now both drop four places each to #26 and #27 respectively, while there are two place dips to #28 and #29 for Another Love by Tom Odell and Sway My Way for R3HAB and Amy Shark, which is newly certified Gold (●) in sales this week. Drake's Jimmy Cooks falls five places to #34 and his guesting on Future's Wait For U is down one to #41 and newly ▲Platinum in sales. The Weeknd drops down with Save Your Tears (34 to #37), Die For You (42 to #43) and Blinding Lights (41 to #47), while The Hills is now 10x▲Platinum (LW-92).

NEW ENTRY

* #44 - New Gold by Gorillaz feat. Tame Impala & Bootie Brown (Parlophone) is the second track lifted from the February 2023 due eighth studio album from the British act, as the title track Cracker Island with Thundercat was issued at the start of August, while the band's 2005 single Feel Good Inc. returned to the chart on August 1st while they were touring the country, landing at #91 for a single week within the Top 100. This new entry for Gorillaz is their now tenth Top 100 appearance, and their first since 2010's Stylo (HP-48, March 2010, their last Top 50 appearance), On Melancholy Hill (HP-94) and their last entry was Doncamatic (HP-60) featuring Daley, from their Singles Collection 2001-2011. 

NEW CERTIFICATIONS

Heat Waves by Glass Animals ▲12

Bad Habits by Steve Lacy ●

Under The Influence by Chris Brown ●

Vegas by Doja Cat ▲

Stay by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber ▲11

Sway My Way by R3HAB and Amy Shark ●

Wait For U by Future feat. Drake & Tems ▲

Heartless by Kanye West ▲4 (was 1P) 

The Hills by The Weeknd ▲10

In Da Club by 50 Cent ▲10 (was 2P)

Hate It Or Love It by The Game ▲3 (first cert)

HP = Highest Position

LW = Last Week

WI10 - Weeks in Top 10

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 2nd to the 8th of September 2022.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.