In Australia, Cardi B is Not Yet Bigger Than Kylie

Collaboration now, please.

If you spent any time on the internet last week, you would have seen some piece of Cardi B-related content. And for that, you should be grateful, because Cardi B is a delight.

Maybe it was her Saturday Night Live performance of "Be Careful", where she revealed her surprise baby bump.

Maybe it was her chirpy Tonight Show co-hosting gig.

Maybe it was Denzel Washington giving an impromptu red-carpet rendition of "Bodak Yellow".

Maybe it was Nicki Minaj stoking the feud-flames over the lack of credit she received for their "Motorsport" collaboration.

Or maybe you just listened incessantly to her newly-released album Invasion of Privacy.

Actually, scrap that last one. In Australia, despite the wall-to-wall media coverage, Cardi could only manage a sixth-place debut on the ARIA charts, suggesting she wasn’t streamed all that much Down Under.

Cardi landed beneath a new album of Elton John covers (#5), the sixteenth appearance of The Greatest Showman’s soundtrack (#4), Ed Sheeran’s unkillable ÷ (#3) and Hillsong Worship’s There Is More (#2). Awake, by Aussie DJ Alison Wonderland, finished seventh, one spot beneath Cardi.

It’s a disappointing result for an artist who has spent the past year tipped as the biggest, non-Canadian thing in hip-hop.

Of course, she lived up to the hype in the United States, where "Bodak Yellow" topped the Billboard 100 for several weeks: Invasion debuted in first place with a massive 255,000 units sold. It also broke the record for "biggest streaming week ever by an album for a woman."

 

Thank you sooo much everybody !!!Im super exited!! It wouldn’t happen with out yaaa❤️❤️❤️I love ya so much.A dream come true. Check out #invasionofprivacy !!...The devil calls me but God hugs me !!

A post shared by Cardi B Official IG (@iamcardib) on Apr 15, 2018 at 1:21pm PDT

Here, however, another queen took pole position: Kylie Minogue, with her country revamp Golden.

It marks Kylie’s fifth #1 album on the ARIA charts, though the success of Golden is somewhat surprising, given the change in musical direction for Ms. Minogue, and the fact its lead single, "Dancing", peaked at a limp #46 on the ARIA Singles charts.

But there’s no denying Kylie’s mythic status in Australian culture, and it apparently seems Cardi’s ‘American dream’ success story didn’t have quite the same traction here as it did in the U.S.

Some may want to read more into the placings, saying country sells better than hip-hop in Australia. That is one hilarious and flatly incorrect take-away. "God’s Plan" by Drake has spent almost three months at the top of the ARIA singles charts, and Post Malone's trap-infused "rockstar" dominated late-2017. It’s also worth noting that Cardi’s lead-off single, “Bodak Yellow”, outsold “Dancing” handily, going Gold and peaking at #33, while her collaboration with Bruno Mars, "Finesse", is Platinum. ("Finesse", unfortunately, isn't on Invasion of Privacy, so those streams don't count towards it.) She has four more songs in the ARIA Urban Singles chart to boot.

Kylie, meanwhile, doesn’t even have a song in the Australian Artist Streaming Singles chart, suggesting fans aren’t flocking to her record on Spotify. Not that she needs to worry. Apparently, her stans are still willing to shell out $20 for a physical copy of an album, which is more than can be said for many artists. After almost thirty years in the game, Kylie can still make people turn-up to record stores (after making them Google, "Are there still any record stores near me?").

Ultimately, it just seems Kylie’s status as a national treasure cannot be pierced by any comers and has nothing to do with genre or even the changing cultural mood. Kylie is a queen, and Australia is not yet willing to become a republic.

Though Cardi’s sixth-place debut is a deflated balloon of an opening, there are still many months for Invasion of Privacy to become a hit in Australia. Still, with a baby on the way, an Aussie tour—even a whistle-stop one—seems unlikely. And if her irresistible Instagram presence wasn’t enough to get her into ARIA’s Top Five, it’d be unreasonable to expect that to suddenly change as the weeks roll on.

If Cardi's songs keep getting pride of place on Spotify’s trend-setting "Rap Caviar" playlist, those streams could keep her hopes alive. Otherwise, she’ll instead need to rely on a hit single or another high-profile feature instead. Is it too late for Drake to squeeze her onto a remix of "Nice for What"? Or, better yet, can Kylie get her onto "Dancing"?

Photo: YouTube (KylieMinogueonVEVO & Cardi B)