May 2022 · NZ #1
In the air
L.A.B.
By May 2022, "In the Air" had been living in the NZ charts for over two years. Released in November 2019 and reaching #1 in March 2020, it became the soundtrack to a very particular moment, the first pandemic summer, when New Zealanders were stuck at home and streaming obsessively. The song met that moment perfectly.
It was the first independently released single to reach #1 in New Zealand since Flight of the Conchords' "Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)" in 2012 — a fact that says as much about the music industry as it does about L.A.B. The band had built their following the hard way, through relentless touring and a grassroots fanbase, with no major label infrastructure behind them.
The song is a melodic pop track featuring smooth guitars and guest vocals from NZ singer Lisa Tomlins, recorded at a home studio in Wellington. There's nothing complicated about it, which is exactly the point. It sounds like a summer afternoon that refuses to end.
By the end of 2022 it was still sitting at #6 on the year-end chart, three years after release. It would go on to become New Zealand's all-time best-selling single, certified 15× platinum, a record that may stand for a very long time.
How we choose the #1
Each entry represents the song with the most weeks at number one on the New Zealand charts during that calendar month. Where two songs share the same number of weeks, we apply a tiebreaker based on peak chart position, then chart run longevity.
Entries marked as inferred indicate months where primary RIANZ/RMNZ chart data is unavailable. These are reconstructed from contemporary music press, radio playlists, and secondary archival sources, and are clearly labelled.
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