Kylie Minogue, the queen of pop, is crowned on Australia’s albums chart with Tension II.
The new collection is Kylie’s ninth leader on the ARIA Chart, fifth in succession, and second in a year; its predecessor, Tension, logged one week at the summit in September 2023.
Tension II is the Melbourne-raised pop icon’s 17th studio album, and with its fast start on the chart, pushes Kylie to No. 9 on the list of acts with the most No. 1s in Australia, a tally that includes Light Years (from 2000), Fever (2001), X (2007), Kiss Me Once (2014), Golden (2018), Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (2019), Disco (2020) and Tension.
She also has 10 No. 1 singles in Australia, from “Locomotion” in 1987 to “2 Hearts” in 2007, ARIA reports, and she’s on the brink of a 10th No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart.
“It is so awesome to see Australia’s OG pop queen continuing to dominate globally and at home, bringing joy and disco into our lives,” comments ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd. “Huge congratulations to her and her team for such a phenomenal career, five consecutive No. 1 albums, and continuing to represent Australia on the world stage.”
Also new to the ARIA Chart, published Friday, Oct. 25, is Dean Lewis’ The Epilogue, at No. 2. It’s a third top 10 for the triple ARIA Award winner, a tally that includes a No. 1in 2019 with A Place We Knew.
Meanwhile, New South Wales indie rock duo Skegss start at No. 4 with Pacific Highway Music, their third full-length album. Skegss now have four top 10s under their belts: 2015 EP 50 Push Ups For A Dollar peaked at No. 4; My Own Mess hit No. 2 in 2018, and 2021’s Rehearsal went all the way to No. 1.
ARIA Award winner Thelma Plum’s lands in the top 10 with I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back, new at No. 7. It’s the Brisbane singer and songwriter’s followup to debut Better In Blak, which peaked at No. 4 in 2019.
Confidence Man impact the top 40 with 3AM (La La La), on which the Aussie electro-pop act takes a time-machine back to ’90s rave and clubland. 3AM (La La La) is new at No. 40.
It’s a Melbourne double on the ARIA Charts as Rosé opens at No. 1 on the singles tally with her Bruno Mars collaboration, “APT.” That’s a record-breaking feat, making Rosé the first solo female K-pop artist to lead the chart. She’s just the second solo K-pop singer to rule the ARIA Chart after PSY’s “Gangnam Style” spent six weeks at the top back in 2012.
Rosé was born in Auckland and raised in Melbourne, before making the move to South Korea, where she joined Blackpink and smashed records everywhere. In Australia, the foursome owns the highest-debuting single by a K-pop group in ARIA Chart history, when “Pink Venom” went to No. 1 in 2022.
