CELEBRITY
Taylor Swift spends FOURTH week at number 1 on Billboard 200 chart with her smash hit album The Tortured Poet’s Department
Taylor Swift maintains her stronghold on the pop charts as her album The Tortured Poet’s Department once again claims the top spot. The 34-year-old singer’s 11th studio album has topped the Billboard 200 album charts for a fourth week in a row, via Billboard.
The album is the first to spend its first four weeks atop the album charts since Travis Scott’s Utopia debuted on top for four weeks in a row from August 12, 2023 to September 2, 2023. The Tortured Poet’s Department is the sixth Swift album to reach #1 on the album charts of her 11 albums.
Additionally, Swift secures her 73rd career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, further extending her record for solo artists. (Elvis Presley follows with the second-highest count among soloists, at 67 weeks). In its fourth week, TTPD earned 260,000 units, marking the highest fourth-week performance for any album since Adele’s 25 amassed 825,000 units during its fourth week (chart dated Jan. 2, 2016).
Album equivalent units are comprised of track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). An album equivalent unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported streams or 1,250 paid/subscription streams. When the album debuted on April 19, it landed a whopping 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts.
The pop superstar, whose album was streamed over a billion times in the days after its April 19 release and hit number one on the Billboard 200, also saw her lead single Fortnight feat. Post Malone top the Hot 100, becoming her 12th number one. Per Billboard, the star has upped her all-time career top 10s from 49 to 59, the most among women and has charted 32 songs from TTPD; all 31 from the double album and Cruel Summer – which is the most ever in a single week by a woman.
Swift’s latest album earned 2.61 million equivalent album units in its initial period of release. And her latest success saw the singer become the first music artist to claim 12 number one albums in the 21st century in the UK charts, according to the Official Charts Company. She now has 12 chart-topping albums under her belt and is tied with Madonna as having the most number one albums of any female artist in UK chart history.
The 14-time Grammy winner broke a string of records following the release of her highly anticipated record The Tortured Poets Department. A heartfelt album which is thought to contain references to her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn and The 1975’s Matty Healy. The release was the biggest UK opening week since British singer and friend of Taylor, Ed Sheeran, released his 2017 record Divide – which logged more than 670,000 sales and streams in its opening week.
It took Taylor less than 12 years to secure her 12 chart-toppers, which, in comparison had taken The Beatles 14 years to achieve. The band’s first number one album in the UK was with the 1963 record Please Please Me and their 12th was The Beatles At Hollywood Bowl (1977). In 2022, she secured a chart double with Midnights and its lead single Anti-Hero, and the same happened again in 2023 with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and her re-recorded version of Is It Over Now?
The pop superstar, whose album was streamed over a billion times in the days after its April 19 release and hit number one on the Billboard 200, also saw her lead single Fortnight feat. Post Malone top the Hot 100, becoming her 12th number one. Per Billboard, the star has upped her all-time career top 10s from 49 to 59, the most among women and has charted 32 songs from TTPD; all 31 from the double album and Cruel Summer – which is the most ever in a single week by a woman.
The star celebrated the success of her new record by sharing posts on her Instagram account and Story on Sunday. Swift’s latest album earned 2.61 million equivalent album units in its initial period of release.