Australia Has Chosen Its Favourite Song on Taylor Swift’s "Folklore"

Let's just say "the last great american dynasty" was robbed.

We should have known that when Taylor Swift surprise-dropped her eighth studio album, folklore, all other musical artists would have to briefly step aside while she lived rent free in our heads for a while.

One week after folklore suddenly appeared on streaming services, all 16 songs have landed in the ARIA Top 50, meaning every single track has placed on our local singles chart. Only Ed Sheeran and Michael Jackson have ever had better weeks, each enjoying 17 tracks featuring in the ARIA Top 50 at one time.

Still, Swift’s achievement here is huge, and marks the most debuting songs by one artist in a week.

But which tune took out the top spot, and, by extension, can we call listeners’ overall fave?

That’d be lead single "cardigan", which notched Swift’s sixth career #1 in Australia (after "Look What You Made Me Do", "Bad Blood", "Blank Space", "Shake It Off" and "Love Story").

Of course, getting a music video and being the lead single no doubt helped "cardigan" hit the top spot, as did its position as track two on the album (later songs charted much lower than earlier ones). However, these weren’t obstacles for "exile", which is track four on folklore but the second-highest charting song, at #3, followed by album opener "the 1", at #4.

"the last great american dynasty" and "my tears ricochet" both cracked the top 10, at #7 and #8 respectively, while "august" (#13), "mirrorball" (#14), "seven" (#16), "this is me trying" (#18) and "invisible string" (19) all fell within the top 20. They were followed by "illicit affairs" (#21), "betty" (#22), "mad woman" (#25), "epiphany" (#29), "peace" (#33) and closer "hoax" (#43).

Behold, the domination in all its glory:

We know what you’re thinking: 'the entire premise of this article is bunk’. Are you meant to assume that "Look What You Made Me Do" was actually the most beloved song on reputation, which is an absolutely insane opinion to hold (the correct answer is "Delicate")? No. But it’s important to note that, unlike in that case, all of folklore’s songs were dropped at once, letting listeners effectively decide which one they wanted to replay on loop. ("Look What You Made Me Do" was Swift’s first post-1989 song, released ahead of the album, at a time of great curiosity. There is no other explanation for it reaching #1.)

So, while "cardigan" may only be the second-best song on folklore, this week at least, Aussie listeners put it on and said it was their favourite.

No word on whether or not it would have topped our Metal chart if we had one.

Header Image: YouTube (Taylor Swift)