In the week following ‘Royals’ catapulting Lorde to the top of the US charts, the 16-year-old now reigns supreme on the Australian charts with the release of her debut album.

Lorde’s Pure Heroine, has debuted at the #1 spot on the ARIA Albums Chart, beating out fellow Laneway Festival headliners Haim to the top spot for their own debut LP, Days Are Gone.

Adding to her impressive string of chart-breaking successes, Lorde’s Australian #1 debut marks the Auckland neo-pop singer born Ella Yelich-O’Connor as the first ever female New Zealand solo artist to top the ARIA Albums Chart.

In another milestone, Lorde is also the 10th Kiwi act to ever land in the prime position and follows in the footsteps of the successful Finn family – namely Crowded House’s five #1 albums, Split Enz’ three, and Neil Finn’s solo #1, as Noise11 points out.

Sales of Pure Heroine no doubt gained a boost in light of Lorde arriving for a hotly anticipated four-date tour next week, her last Australian dates before returning as part of the Laneway 2014 festival lineup, with the #2 ARIA Charts-holders, Haim.

The sales success of Days Are Gone once again proves Australia’s love affair with the Californian trio of Haim sisters – Danielle, Este, and Alana – off the back of their celebrated appearance at Splendour In The Grass, including two headline sideshows that sold out faster than you can say ‘sibling band!’; Haim also wrapped up sessions on Days Are Gone in a Sydney studio. Adding to her impressive string of chart-breaking successes, Lorde’s Australian #1 debut marks her as the first female NZ solo artist to top the ARIA Albums Chart…

Joining the two zeitgeist capturing indie artists at the top of the ARIA Charts are three more debut albums, marking a Top 5 compiled entirely of debuts, the first time such a feat has been achieved on the ARIA Albums Chart in 30 years.

At #3 on the Albums Chart is the Hunters & Collectors tribute album Crucible, featuring an all-star cast of Australian artists paying their dues to the recently reformed band; the compilation also received a sales boost in light of Hunters & Collectors’ performance at the AFL Grand Final, along with news of their Australian Tour 2014 and Bruce Springsteen support slots.

Following behind at #4 on the ARIA Charts is The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2, Justin Timberlake’s sequel to his blockbuster comeback album from earlier this year, and Fire Within at #5, the sophomore release from British singer-songwriter Birdy, featuring predominantly original material following the success of her debut album of indie covers.

Back to the crowning heiress, Lorde’s #1 Aussie album debut on the Aussie charts arrives in the same week that she topped the Billboard Hot 100, marking her as the youngest act to top the US Charts since 1987 while earning the pop star a national commendation from New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

The 16-year-old recently gave Fairfax New Zealand’s Sunday Magazine a personalised take on her meteoric rise to fame and the media coverage that accompanies it, which she calls “the sped-up version of my involvement in music.”

Speaking about the “crazy success” of her Love Club EP and the ‘Royals’ single that kick-started her global popularity, Lorde writes about the bizarre “selfishness of it all. Songwriting is selfish – I make music for myself, using it as an outlet, something to fulfil my creative desires – yet the rewards of deciding to write something can keep an artist going for a lifetime, can whip me across datelines, throw me under lights… I constantly ponder the absurdly cool nature of this.”

Lorde also comments about the difficulties of being a teenager thrown onto the global stage. “I’m a teenager, and I’m a girl, and those are factors that can stand in the way of maintaining control. I’ve had more people than I can count talk to my manager in meetings instead of me, like it doesn’t matter what I think. This usually lasts all of 10 minutes, until I insert the kind of dry sentence that makes most adults splutter and blush and reach for their water, and after this they start taking me seriously.”

ARIA Albums Chart Top 5 (Week of 07/10/2013)

  1. Lorde – Pure Heroine
  2. HAIM – Days Are Gone
  3. Various Artists – Crucible: The Songs Of Hunters & Collectors
  4. Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience – 2 Of 2
  5. Birdy – Fire Within

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