Harry Styles and the Weeknd top ARIA’s list of highest-sellers

ARIA have released Australia’s highest selling album and singles of 2020, with some big surprises.

Harry Styles and the Weeknd were Australia’s favourite musical artists of 2020.

British singer Styles’ Fine Line was ARIA’s highest selling album of last year, with the Weeknd’s Blinding Lights the No. 1 single of the year.

Fine Line was released in December 2019 and has never dropped lower than No. 12 after 56 weeks on the ARIA chart, spawning hits Watermelon Sugar, Golden and Adore You.

Styles kept Taylor Swift’s surprise lockdown album Folklore to No. 2, with Billie Eilish, AC/DC and US country singer Luke Combs making up the Top 5 albums.

Canadian artist The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights, released at the end of November 2019, spent 11 weeks at No. 1 to become our most popular song of last year. The song has never left the ARIA Top 20 since its release 58 weeks ago.

Canadian musician The Weeknd had the year’s biggest single. Picture: Universal

Despite being streamed 1.9 billion times on Spotify alone Blinding Lights received no nominations for this year’s Grammy Awards. The Weeknd’s album After Hours was the year’s ninth highest seller in Australia.

Australian acts continue to struggle to compete with international acts on the singles charts, which are dominated by listening figures supplied by streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Only five Australian songs made ARIA’s Top 50 singles of 2020 – Tones And I’s Dance Monkey, 2019’s No. 2 single, was No. 4 in 2020, her other 2019 single, Never Seen the Rain, made No. 24 last year (up from No. 39 in 2019).

Flume and Vera Blue’s Running Back was No. 27, The Rubens’ Live in Life was No. 34 and newcomer Sam Fischer’s This City made No. 36.

Australian acts fared much better on the album charts, with AC/DC, Tame Impala, Guy Sebastian, The Kid Laroi, Keith Urban, Lime Cordiale, Tones and I, Dean Lewis and Delta Goodrem making the Top 50, as well live albums from the Fire Fight Australia concert and the Music From the Home Front live stream, and Cold Chisel and INXS compilations.

Taylor Swift’s Folklore was a surprise and a success. Picture: Republic Records

Harry Styles’ Fine Line has barely left the Top 10 all year. Picture: Sony Music

Vinyl continues its resurgence as a formidable physical format in the era of streaming, now being purchased by original vinyl lovers as well as a new generation looking for something more tangible.

Tame Impala’s latest release, The Slow Rush, was the year’s highest-selling album on vinyl, followed by Powderfinger’s 20th anniversary reissue of Odyssey Number Five and Queen’s perennial favourite Greatest Hits. The vinyl Top 10 also includes AC/DC, Kylie Minogue and Nirvana as well as younger artists Billie Eilish and Harry Styles.

In the UK last year 4.8 million vinyl albums were sold — the highest figure since the early 90s, with one in every five albums sold being on vinyl.

While ARIA have yet to release Australia’s vinyl sales figures, sources say vinyl sales increased significantly in 2020 from the previous year.