There’s a reason why you heard so much Ed Sheeran last year

ED SHEERAN had three of the Top 5 selling songs in Australia last year and three of the Top 15 selling albums. But not one single Australian act scored a No. 1 single in 2017 as streaming starts to change the chart landscape.

IT’S official: Ed Sheeran dominated music sales in Australia last year.

Sheeran had three of the four highest-selling singles of 2017 and the No. 1 album of the year.

The UK musician’s unavoidable hit Shape of You was Australia’s No. 1 single of last year, selling over 630,000 copies.

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It spent 15 weeks at No. 1, breaking the record ABBA’s Fernando had held since 1976.

Sheeran’s Castle on the Hill was the No. 3 single of the year, while his ballad Perfect was No.4.

The three different versions of Perfect — the original album version, the Beyonce duet and the Andrea Bocelli remake — are aggregated together to count as the one song for the singles chart.

Last year there was Ed Sheeran, then daylight, then everyone else. Picture: Warner

Only Luis Fonsa’s Justin Bieber-assisted Latin anthem Despacito at No. 2 and the Coldplay/Chainsmokers collaboration Something Just Like This keep Sheeran from blitzing the entire Top 5.

Sheeran’s divisive Galway Girl was the No. 7 song of the year.

Sheeran’s third album ÷ (or Divide), released in March, sold over 420,000 copies to be the No. 1 album of 2017 in Australia.

His closest competition was Pink’s Beautiful Trauma, which has sold 280,000 copies since its release in October.

Taylor Swift’s Reputation, released in November, was the No. 3 album of 2017.

However her No. 1 single Look What You Made Me Do only made No. 61 on the year-end list.

Swift’s pop rival Katy Perry had an ordinary — her No. 1 album Witness only made No. 35 on the year-end list, while her only single to make the Top 50, her Calvin Harris collaboration Feels, wasn’t even on her own album.

Sheeran’s music sold so well last year that his 2014 album x was the No. 7 album of 2017 and his 2011 debut + the No. 12 album.

His March stadium tour, which will play to nearly a million fans in Australia and New Zealand, will see his sales boosted even further.

Adele’s Australian tour saw her album 25 just keep on selling. Pic: Getty Images

Adele’s national tour last year saw her album 25 become the fourth-highest seller of 2017 — it was the No. 1 seller for both 2015 and 2016 in Australia.

It was a terrible year for Australian artists in the singles chart — Pnau’s Chameleon at No. 32 was the highest-ranked local act, aside from Sydney’s William Singe as guest vocalist on UK DJ Jonas Blue’s track Mama at No. 26.

Local acts Dean Lewis (Waves at No. 34), Starley (Call on Me at No. 37) and Amy Shark (Adore at No. 40) scraped into the Top 40. Only nine local acts feature in the Top 100.

In a worrying trend, no Australian singles reached No. 1 in 2017 — the first time that has occurred since 1999.

Paul Kelly’s Life is Fine was the highest-selling Australian album of 2017, reaching No. 14 on the year end chart. It became his first ARIA No. 1 album and has gone gold.

Jessica Mauboy’s Secret Daughter 2 soundtrack (No. 20), John Farnham & Olivia Newton-John’s Friends for Christmas (No. 22), The Very Best of INXS (No. 24), Keith Urban’s Ripcord (No. 25), Bliss N Eso’s Off the Grid (No. 29) and Tina Arena’s Greatest Hits (No. 33) are the only Australian albums to make the Top 40 of 2017.

Pink sold lots of albums fast during the second half of 2017. Pic: Sony

Paul Kelly was the No. 1 Oz album seller last year. Pic: Martin Philbey

2017 was the first year streaming figures counted for both the ARIA singles and album chart, as well as physical sales and digital downloads.

It was designed to reflect the way many Australians now consume music — including streaming sites where they can listen to music for free.

Streaming has not only made it difficult for Australian acts to get No. 1 singles, it has also led to tracks spending longer on top as it generally takes longer for new releases to break into the streaming charts.

Three songs clocked up nearly half a year on top — Shape of You with 15 weeks at No. 1, Despacito with 13 weeks at No. 1 and Post Malone’s Rockstar with seven weeks at No.1.

Sheeran also notched up another three weeks at No. 1 with Perfect.

Not since 1999 have so few songs reached No. 1 — that year only nine songs reached the top thanks to long stints on top.

Two years ago, in 2015, there were 19 different No. 1 songs.

Jessica Mauboy had one of the biggest Australian albums of last year Pic: AAP Image

In other 2017 chart post mortems, while they all had tracks in the year end Top 100 Liam Payne won the battle of former One Directioners. His song Strip That Down (written by Ed Sheeran) was the No. 11 song of 2017, beating former band mates Niall Horan (Slow Hands at No. 12), Zayn (I Don’t Wanna Live Forever at No. 17) and Harry Styles’ Sign of the Times at No. 56 — despite the track being a No. 1 hit.

Zayn’s collaboration with Sia, Dusk Til Dawn, was No. 67 while Louis Tomlinson’s Back to You scraped in at No. 93.

Ed Sheeran had five songs in the Top 100, Justin Bieber, Chainsmokers and Post Malone all had three tracks.

Continuing his 2017 dominance, as well as Liam Payne’s Strip That Down, Sheeran wrote Rita Ora’s Your Song at No. 44.