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Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Hits 15th Week Atop Billboard 200
Plus: Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess climbs 3-2, a new peak.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department reaches a 15th week atop the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 24) — tying Carole King’s Tapestry for the third-most weeks at No. 1 among albums by women. The latter spent 15 frames at No. 1 in 1971. Only Adele’s 21 (24 weeks in 2011-12) and the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard (20 weeks in 1992-93) have more weeks at No. 1 among women.
Tortured Poets earned 85,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Aug. 15 (down 40%), according to Luminate.
Meanwhile, in a quiet top 10 (where no albums debut for the second time in three weeks), Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess hits a new peak for the third week in a row, as it climbs 3-2 with 72,000 units (up 13%), a new weekly high, by units, for the set.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 24, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Aug. 20. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 85,000 units earned in the week ending Aug. 15, SEA units comprise 57,000 (down 1%, equaling 74.77 on-demand official streams of the set’s widely available deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 28,000 (down 67%) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum (up 5%). On the Top Streaming Albums chart, Poets falls 2-3 and on the Top Album Sales chart, it clocks an eighth week at No. 1.
With Tortured Poets — Swift’s longest-leading album on the Billboard 200 — she adds her 84th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 No. 1 albums. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
In the tracking week of Aug. 9-15, news continued to emerge from the foiled terror attack on Swift’s cancelled Eras Tour dates in Vienna. The three Vienna dates (Aug. 8-10) were nixed on Aug. 7 and were the first cancelled shows of the tour, which began on March 17, 2023. On Aug. 15, the tour continued on to its scheduled five-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium (Aug. 15-17, 19-20), for The Eras Tour’s final shows in Europe.
During the last day (Aug. 15) of the chart’s tracking week, Swift introduced one all-new digital album variant of Poets on her official webstore, which was available for six hours and sold for $4.99. The set included the standard album’s 16 songs, plus one exclusive bonus track, “The Prophecy (Long Story Short – Live From Lyon),” recorded during The Eras Tour on June 2.
Also on Aug. 15, for only six hours, Swift’s webstore restocked a $4.99 digital album variant that was available briefly the previous tracking week — it contained the standard album’s 16 songs plus a live version of “thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London),” recorded on June 22 during her The Eras Tour. In the previous tracking week, the same digital album variant was sold in Swift’s webstore, but with one slight difference — the stylization of the letters in the title of bonus live song. It was initially stylized as “thanK you aIMee” (mirroring the studio version on the Poets album), and then on Aug. 15, its stylization changed to “thank You aimEe.” The capitalization of the specific letters in the title — KIM and YE — could reference Kim Kardashian and her ex-husband (and longtime Swift foe), Ye, formerly Kanye West.
In the tracking week ending Aug. 15, Tortured Poets sold nearly 10,000 in digital album downloads across all variants through all sellers (including her webstore, the iTunes Store and others). Even if Poets had not sold a single digital album in the latest tracking week, it still would have been No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The No. 2 title, Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, trails Poets by 13,000 units.
As for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, the album reaches a new peak for a third week in a row, as it steps 3-2 with 72,000 equivalent album units earned (its best week by units earned; up 13%). In the last 10 weeks, the album has steadily inched its way up the list. It broke into the top 10 on the June 22-dated chart, rising 12-10. It has since moved 8-6-5-5-7-8-4-3-2.
The 3-2 ascent for Rise reflects the tracking week that contained a buzzy festival performance from Roan — her Aug. 11 gig at Outside Lands in San Francisco. The latter generated a quasi-viral moment where she chastised the VIP section for not singing along to the album’s “Hot To Go!”
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time climbs 4-3 on the latest Billboard 200 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%). It also claims a ninth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft steps 5-4 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 (up 1%), while Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene climbs 7-5 with 48,000 (though down 6%).
Charli XCX’s Brat is a non-mover at No. 6 (47,000; down 16%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season steps 9-7 (just over 38,000; up 3%); Wallen’s former No. 1 Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 8 (38,000; up 2%); Twisters: The Album rises 10-9 (34,000; down 7%); and Zach Bryan’s self-titled chart-topper returns to the top 10, climbing 12-10 (nearly 34,000; up 6%).
Source: billboard.com