Lorde is officially the first Kiwi – and the third woman in a row – to top the Billboard album chart

As you can imagine, New Zealand was doing haka double somersaults over news that Lorde’s Melodrama debuted at #1 on the Billboard US album chart this week.

She was hailed as the first Kiwi to do so. There was the case of one Keith Urban who’d scrambled up that totem pole before – but the NZ media wasn’t having that. “He’s an Australian-American,” said one crisply, ending that debate.

Melodrama almost missed its top spot, getting there with just 3000 sales over 2 Chainz’ Pretty Girls Like Trap Music.

Current charts show strong support for Lorde’s bittersweet party-themed concept album, with Melodrama overthrowing Ed Sheeran’s Divide at #1 on the ARIA charts this week.

The TMN Hot 100 chart, as is to be expected, shows that airplay for the singles have slipped a bit since their release, with a 20th placing for Green Light and a 33rd spot for Perfect Places. Green Light is sitting pretty at #15 on the ARIA singles chart, and is certified Platinum.

It’s no surprise that New Zealand has shown love for their local girl, placing Melodrama firmly in the number #1 position on the Official NZ Music Charts.

The album did 109,000 sales (82,000 in traditional format) in its first week – which was actually less than her debut album Pure Heroine’s US first week tally of 129,000 and peaked at #3.

The highest Kiwi albums on the Billboard chart before now have been hip hop act Savage’s Savage Island (2008) and Crowded House’s debut (released 1986 and hitting its chart peak the following May), both topping out at #12.

Whether Crowded House could be considered a Kiwi act – given there were two Aussies and one Kiwi and they formed in Australia – is something we’ll allow others to beef about.

Melodrama marks the third album by a woman in a row at #1, following the chart-topping debuts of Katy Perry’s Witness and Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. The last time the chart last three women in a row was back in December 2012, when Taylor Swift’s Red returned to #1 (Dec. 22), following No. 1 bows by Alicia Keys’ Girl On Fire (Dec. 15) and Rihanna’s Unapologetic (Dec. 8).