Taylor Swift sets new records with 'Speak Now (Taylor's Version),' past albums
MANILA, Philippines — Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is now the first female artist to have 12 different albums hit the No. 1 spot of the Billboard 200 albums chart, with her newest release "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" becoming the 12th album to reach the top spot.
The re-recorded version of 2010's "Speak Now" earned the biggest week for any album in 2023 so far and in reaching No. 1 allowed Swift to overtake celebrated singer Barbra Streisand for the title.
Swift now ties with rapper Drake for the third-most No. 1 albums, with only rapper-producer Jay-Z and British rock band The Beatles ahead of them with 14 and 19, respectively.
Additionally, Swift is currently the only woman to have four albums in the Billboard 200's Top 10 since the chart fused together two different lists in 1963.
The four albums are chart-topper "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," Swift's 2022 album "Midnights" which dropped one spot to No. 5, her 2019 album "Lover" which rose a spot to No. 7, and the surprise 2020 album "folklore" which broke into the 10th spot from No. 13 the previous week.
Related: Taylor Swift is first living artist to have 7 albums in Billboard 200 Top 40
The last time a living person had at least four albums in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 was Herb Alpert way back in 1966, and the only other time was Prince in 2016 when five of the late singer's albums were in the Top 10 following his death.
In fact, Swift has a total of 11 albums in the Billboard 200, another first for a woman and for any living soloist.
The ones outside the Top 10 are "Red (Taylor's Version") at No. 18, "1989" right after, "reputation" at No. 21, "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" at No. 23, "evermore" at No. 38, the original "Speak Now" at No. 67, and her namesake album being the only one outside the Top 100.
Because of that, she is the only living artist with six albums in the Top 20 and 10 albums in the Top 100 — Prince had six and 15 respectively when he passed away in 2016 — and the only one ever to have nine in the Top 40.
Swift's latest achievement don't stop there as she is also the first woman to have five No. 1 albums in consecutive years, from 2019 to 2023, breaking a tie with Miley Cyrus which included the latter's titles as Hannah Montana.
The only other artists to have done the same or with more are Jay-Z (2000-2004) and Drake (2015-2019), singer-songwriter Paul McCartney (1973-1977), and the Beatles at seven years (1964-1970).
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