Why nannas and nice songs take charge at Christmas

IT'S one for the nannas.

Last week, music fans bought albums in record numbers in stores across the country and the top-selling album did not come from Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams, Powderfinger or even Madonna.

Instead, 85,925 people last week bought an album of cover songs by a frumpy, 51-year-old singer from Scotland. It's been three years since one title earned such high sales figures and that came from Australian Idol's twinkly-eyed Irishman Damien Leith.

The extraordinary success of Susan Boyle, who in three weeks has sold 159,848 albums locally, speaks to an underlying trend in this year's ARIA charts: the buying power of retirees, especially at Christmas time, when the dump bins at KMart and Target are full of grandma's favourite music.

Ms Boyle is a new media star, launched by 310 million YouTube views of her performance on Britain's Got Talent.

But tellingly, the second biggest-selling album on this week's ARIA charts, Michael Buble's Crazy Love, shifted 25,708 units, another blockbuster week of sales. Buble's album has sold 139,507 copies in almost two months.

The superannuation set is increasingly valued by record companies. While younger acts are more susceptible to illegal filesharing and downloading, Boyle's fans are not freeloaders. They pay top dollar for tickets to see their favorite act and if the right record comes along, they will pay up by going into stores.

Just 1.3 per cent of Boyle's album buyers this week downloaded the albums from online outlets such as iTunes or BigPond.

Derek Durrant, music product manager for Australia's biggest music retailer, JB Hi-Fi, said yesterday the market was "blown away" by the appetite for Boyle's album.

"She is a one-off," he said. "The (market) has decided she is the real deal."

Still, for all of her success, even Boyle trails the king of the nanna market, Andre Rieu.

In Australia, the Dutch violinist is a virtual money-printing machine. Initially shunned by both local promoters and record labels, Rieu began promoting his own tours, generating millions for his now-bulging coffers.

Last year, he sold 2 million albums and DVDs, and this year Rieu has cleaned up again.

Six weeks ago, 30,179 people attended his four shows at Rod Laver Arena, spending $5.3 million on tickets.

Nationally, Rieu generated an eye-popping $15.7 million at the Australian box office and played in front of 91,768 fans through October and November.

Impressive figures, considering he had already lured more than 500,000 fans out for his stadium tour just 12 months earlier.

And the power of nannas was emphasised earlier in the year when Ronan Keating's shameless pitch for the market, Songs for My Mother, sold 60,000 copies in the month leading up to Mothers' Day.

It's clear that this year, hundreds of thousands of Australian Christmas lunches will be eaten to the strains of Boyle or Buble.

"I don't think anybody will take her away from No.1 for the rest of the year," Mr Durrant said.