Aussie Sweep: October 30, 2013..


G'day mates....it's time to head Down Under to check out the songs that are reaching the official singles chart in Australia this week, as Katy Perry hangs in for a ninth non-consecutive week at #1 with "Roar"...

Well, the X Factor Australia's fifth season has finally come to an end on Monday, though the last chart reflects the semi-finals with four acts left....and this week sees six performances from those acts reach the top 100. Surprisingly, by far the biggest of them all, arriving at #2, is from the singer who would come in second on Monday, Taylor Henderson, with his take on the Cyndi Lauper nugget  "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Now mind you this may sound unique, but the acoustic guitar take was even a rip-off when Glee did it, but at least Taylor adds a bit of rhythm and folkiness to it. Cyndi's original went to #1 in this country in 1984.


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Lady Gaga comes in at #21 with the second preview track from her upcoming ARTPOP album, "Do What U Want". Even though it features pedophile R&B singer R. Kelly, the track is more of a power-pop record, though it does sometimes resemble his "Step In The Name Of Love" from a few years back."Applause" stopped right short of the top ten here at #11 a few weeks ago...


British X Factor winners Little Mix return at #33 with the first single from their upcoming sophomore album Salute, "Move". Their debut set sent three songs into the top 40 in this country, with "Wings" reaching #3...


Australian singer/songwriter Tina Arena scores her first top-40 hit in nine years in her homeland as "You Set Fire To My Life", my "Aussie Pick of the Week",  enters at #38. In her career she has had five top-10 singles, with the classic "Burn" (done amazingly as well by American country singer Jo Dee Messina) going to #2 in 1997...


Uncle Jed, a family music group seen on this season's Australia's Got Talent, place their cover of Ed Sheeran's  "Give Me Love" at #39...


Australian hip-hop artist Iggy Azalea comes in at #44 with "Change Your Life" featuring rapper T.I. It's her highest rank in her homeland as yet; she's gone top-20 with three singles in Britain so far..


The third of Justin Bieber's one-off singles, "Hold Tight", arrives on this chart at #48...


The fourth single from Imagine Dragons' debut album, "Demons", drops in at #53. Two of their songs, "On Top Of The World" and "Radioactive", have made the top-10 here...


The winner of this season's X Factor, adorably shy yet vocally powerful Dami Im, has two performances on this week's debuts. First at #61 is her version of  Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball", which went to #2 here and still ranks at #5. That she outpaced Henderson in votes clearly shows the difference in not counting downloads in the scoring for the show (a la The Voice)...


American rapper Tyga pairs up with Canadian hot mess Justin Bieber at #74 with "Wait For A Minute". It already matches the peak of his only other hit in this country as a lead artist, "Rack City"..


A veteran of last year's fourth season of X Factor Australia, Bella Ferraro, ended up fourth, and had a single "Set Me On Fire" reach the top-40 here last year. She's back at #75 with "Forget You"..


Canadian rocker Avril Lavigne and her new husband Chad Kroeger of Nickelback team up at #77 with "Let Me Go", the third single from her latest self-titled album. The first, "Here's To Never Growing Up", went to #15 earlier this year...


Sydney-based indie-rock band The Jezabels are in at #81 with "The End". Two years ago they had a top-40 hit here with "Endless Summer"...


Hardcore metal act The Amity Affliction, from coast of Queensland, rock in at #84 with a cover of Lana Del Rey's "Born To Die"...


Dami Im's second X Factor semi-final performance of Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You" pops in at #85. The original of the song went to #20 in this country in 1985 - it was the late singer's first top-40 hit in Australia...(I like Dami's vocal performance on this more than WB)...


Third-place X Factor finalist Jai Waetford shows up at #89 with his take on Taio Cruz's "Dynamite", which topped the chart here in 2010...


Right under that at #90 is Jai's "teammate" on Ronan Keating's team, Taylor Henderson, with his second performance, "Against All Odds". The Phil Collins original went to #3 in this country in 1984..


The final debut of the week belongs to the X Factor Australia act that went home in the semi-finals, Third D3gree, with Nicki Minaj's "Pound The Alarm" at #96. Nicki's single went to #10 here last year...


That does it for this week's musical outback adventure...I'll return tomorrow with another Song of the Day, 7 of the 70s returns, followed by 8 more from the 80s...

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