Taylor Swift Breaks Billboard Chart Record That Whitney Houston Held for 37 Years

Taylor Swift is no stranger to breaking records, and she’s just broken another one. According to new reports, Swift’s newest album The Tortured Poet’s Department has officially reached its 12th week at the no. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. That particular chart ranks albums by their overall popularity.

The last time a musician held that coveted spot for that long was when Whitney Houston’s 1987 self-titled record became the first album by a female artist to spend 12 weeks at the no. 1 spot. Houston has held that record for a whopping 37 years, until now.

Before beating out Houston’s record, Swift’s previous albums 1989 and Fearless spent 11 consecutive weeks at the no. 1 spot following their respective releases in 2014 and 2008.

Swift’s 2024 album has broken a number of additional records, too. It broke the record for the highest number of one-day and one-week worldwide streams for any album on the streaming platform Spotify. The Tortured Poet’s Department has also broken records for the most single week vinyl sales, the fastest an album has ever hit one billion streams on Spotify, and more.

Taylor Swift Has Beaten a Whitney Houston Record Before

Taylor Swift has actually beaten another Whitney Houston-held chart record before. Her 2020 album Folklore earned the massive pop star the most cumulative weeks at the no. 1 spot for a female artist in 2020. Altogether, Swift has earned an accumulated 81 weeks at the no. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. Currently, the only artist/band with more cumulative weeks than Swift at the no. 1 spot would be The Beatles, who boast 132 at no. 1.

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When it comes to soloists, though, Taylor Swift has more weeks at no. 1 than any other artist; including Elvis Presley. Eminem’s recent album release The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) could knock Swift out of the race, as Eminem currently has a 10 consecutive album streak since the year 2000. We’ll have to wait and see!

Photo by Kevin Winter

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