Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department ties her best performance with 11 WEEKS atop the Billboard 200 chart… but she still has weeks to go to break the record
Taylor Swift tied her personal best on the Billboard 200 album chart this week.
The 34-year-old singer achieved her 11th week at number one on the charts with her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, Billboard reported on Sunday.
That makes Swift’s longest stay at number one on the chart, after her previous LPs 1989 and Fearless also spent 11 weeks at number one.
The feat was noted on the Billboard 200 edition on July 13, and if the hugely popular album holds up, it will be her longest consecutive run at the top of the album chart.
However, Taylor, who was booed in absentia during Ice Spice’s performance on Sunday, still has a few weeks to go if she hopes to beat another music icon.
Taylor Swift, 34, tied her personal best on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week with an 11th week at number one for her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, Billboard reported Sunday; seen on July 5 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Swift shares the longest-standing position at the top of the chart with The Tortured Poets Department (pictured), after her previous LPs 1989 and Fearless also spent 11 weeks at number one.
Carole King currently holds the longest consecutive number one spot on the Billboard 200 for a female solo artist thanks to her iconic singer-songwriter album Tapestry.
That 1971 album stayed at number one for a whopping 15 weeks, according to Billboard.
According to the publication, the last album by a woman to spend 11 weeks at number one was 1989. The album also achieved this feat in 2014 and 2015, but not consecutively.
But the last time a woman topped the chart for the same number of consecutive weeks was in late 1992 and early 1993, when Whitney Houston topped the Billboard 200 chart for 11 straight weeks with her soundtrack to The Bodyguard.
The soundtrack ultimately spent a whopping 20 weeks at number one.
While King holds the record for women with 15 consecutive weeks, other women have spent many more weeks at number one without consecutive runs.
The outlet notes that if Taylor’s latest album spends another week at number one — following its May 4 debut — she’ll become the first woman to spend at least 12 weeks at number one since Adele scored a whopping 24 non-consecutive weeks in 2011 and 2012 with her album 21.
In the week ending July 4, The Tortured Poets Department generated 114,000 album-equivalent units, according to Luminate. That’s down one percent from the previous week.
Billboard also notes that the increased sales may have led to a slight decline in Swift’s album streaming numbers. In June, she offered two CD versions of her album for pre-sale on her website, but they quickly sold out.
Billboard also notes that the increased sales may have fueled the slightly declining streaming numbers for Swift’s album, as she had two CD variants of her album available for pre-sale on her website in June, which quickly sold out.
Swift has a few weeks left if she hopes to break Carole King’s record of 15 consecutive weeks at number one with her classic album Tapestry
According to the publication, the last album by a woman to spend 11 weeks at number one was 1989, which achieved that feat in 2014 and 2015, although the periods were not consecutive
If Taylor’s latest album stays at number one for another week, she will become the first woman to spend at least 12 weeks at number one since Adele scored 24 non-consecutive weeks with her album 21 in 2011 and 2012.
Both releases contained the standard 16-song track listing from the standard edition on one CD, along with another acoustic bonus track at the end. One version contained Fortnight featuring Post Malone, while another contained the song Fresh Out The Slammer.
Taylor recently surprised fans during her Eras Tour by performing an old song, Mary’s Song, for the first time in 16 years.
The song, which was heard as the penultimate track on her 2006 self-titled debut LP as Mary’s Song (Oh My My My), was surprisingly heard again during her performance in Amsterdam on Saturday.
She had not previously performed the song live, having discontinued it following a performance in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2008.