Pink, Carly Rae Jepsen Top Australia's Year-End Sales

The Associated Press, Wednesday, January 9, 2013, 10:00am (PST)

Billboard -- International acts have again dominated Australia's year-end sales charts, which are led by a pair of female North American pop singers -- P!nk and Carly Rae Jepsen. P!nk has proven again she's this country's Queen of Pop. According to the full-year sales charts published by trade body ARIA, Pink landed the best-selling album title for the second time in three years. The U.S. superstar's five times platinum-selling set "The Truth About Love" comes out on top of the ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart in 2012, repeating her list-topping achievement in 2010 with her "Greatest Hits … So Far" set. In 2009 and 2008, P!nk's explosive hit "Funhouse" (Sony) was runner-up on the year-end list. Her previous set "I'm Not Dead" also completed the years 2007 and 2006 as the No. 2 ranked album.

P!nk's success here is no fluke. Much of her mainstream appeal has been driven home by a string of military-scale touring expeditions. In 2009 she played 58 arena shows. Her upcoming tour of these parts has now grown to 42 dates, with more than 400,000 tickets sold. One Direction arrives in second place with the triple platinum-selling "Up All Night", while 2011's best-seller, Adele 's "21," also featured again in 2012 at No. 3 on the year-end chart. Rounding out the top five are albums by Michael Buble ("Christmas") and Ed Sheeran ("+") The year-end ARIA albums chart can be found here. Homegrown acts accounted for 27 of the top 100 selling albums, up from 22 in 2011, but down from the 30 listed in 2010. "The Voice" winner Karise Eden is the best-performer among the Australians, grabbing the No. 6 position with her debut "My Journey." Carly Rae Jepsen 's infectious pop hit "Call Me Maybe" did business Down Under, holding off PSY 's global smash "Gangnam Style" to take the top spot on the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart.

Local pop star Guy Sebastian comes in at No. 3 with "Battle Scars," one of just 11 Australian-made tunes in the year-end singles chart, a figure up from just nine in 2011 but down from the 14 listed in 2010. Flo Rida rounds out the 2012 top five with "Whistle" and "Wild Ones" respectively. The year-end ARIA singles chart can be found here. During a year in which the likes of Guy Sebastian, Missy Higgins, The Temper Trap, Justice Crew, Karise Eden, Reece Mastin and Hilltop Hoods all achieve No. 1s on home turf, the paltry 11 homegrown tracks which made the year-end chart seems to supports calls from the many industry leaders here who are rallying commercial radio for greater support for Australian acts. ARIA compiled its year-end charts using sales data accumulated from charts between Jan. 9, 2012 and Jan. 7 2013, inclusively.

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