{"id":4963,"date":"2026-09-21T01:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=4963"},"modified":"2026-09-21T01:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:10:52","slug":"jhene-aiko-achieves-first-no-1-album-on-billboard-200-with-westside-whimsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/?p=4963","title":{"rendered":"Jhen\u00e9 Aiko Achieves First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 with \u2018Westside\u00a0Whimsy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<script>\r\nif( document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ) ) document.getElementById( \"builder-styles-css\" ).insertAdjacentHTML( \"beforebegin\", \"<link rel='stylesheet' href='https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/wp-content\/themes\/themify-music\/themify\/themify-builder\/css\/themify-builder-style.css' type='text\/css' \/>\" );\r\n<\/script>\r\n\t\t\t\n<p>It&#8217;s the first R&amp;B album by a woman to top the chart this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/artist\/jhene-aiko\/\">Jhen\u00e9 Aiko<\/a> achieves her first No. 1 on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/charts\/billboard-200\/\">Billboard 200<\/a> albums chart as <em>Westside Whimsy<\/em> debuts atop the tally dated Sept. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The set earned 74,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Sept. 17, according to Luminate. It\u2019s the first R&amp;B album by a woman to lead the chart in 2026, and the first to rank at No. 1 since SZA\u2019s <em>SOS<\/em> was tops for a 13th and final week in May of 2025. The only other R&amp;B set to hit No. 1 in 2026 was Bruno Mars\u2019 <em>The Romantic<\/em> (March 14 chart). (R&amp;B albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Top R&amp;B Albums chart.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Westside Whimsy<\/em> was released on Sept. 11, after it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/rb-hip-hop\/jhene-aiko-new-album-westside-whimsy-1236335982\/\">announced<\/a> on Sept. 8. The project boasts collaborations with Ab-Soul, Larry June, Kendrick Lamar, Ohma and Tyga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Westside Whimsy<\/em> marks the singer-songwriter\u2019s sixth top 10 overall on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/t\/billboard-200\/\">Billboard 200<\/a>, dating to her first chart entry and top 10, <em>Sail Out<\/em>, which debuted and peaked at No. 8 in November 2013. The new set is Aiko\u2019s first full-length studio album since 2020\u2019s <em>Chilombo<\/em>, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 and was later nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid\/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Sept. 26, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on&nbsp;<em>Billboard<\/em>\u2018s website on Sept. 23, one day later than usual due to observance of Yom Kippur on Sept. 21. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X and Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of <em>Westwide Whimsy<\/em>\u2019s 74,000 first-week equivalent album units, SEA units comprise 70,000 (equaling 71.33 million on-demand official streams of the set\u2019s songs \u2014 it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart), album sales comprise 3,500 (it debuts at No. 25 on Top Album Sales; it was only available to purchase digitally, as physical editions are due in January) and TEA units comprise 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aiko is the second act in 2026 to wait at least 10 years from a Billboard 200 chart debut to a first No. 1. Aiko went 12 years and 10 months from her debut with <em>Sail Out<\/em> (Nov. 30, 2013-dated chart) until her first leader. Earlier this year, Megadeth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/chart-beat\/megadeth-first-number-one-album-billboard-200-chart-1236169046\/\">landed its first No. 1<\/a> with its self-titled set \u2014 nearly 40 years after the metal act\u2019s chart debut in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The last soloist to wait longer for a first No. 1 was Andrea Bocelli in 2018: a little more than 20 years <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/andrea-bocelli-earns-first-no-1-album-billboard-200-chart\/\"><em>for his first leader, S\u00ec<\/em><\/a>. The last woman to wait longer than Aiko was Solange: 13 years and eight months between her chart debut in February 2003 and her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/solange-no-1-album-billboard-200-chart-a-seat-at-the-table-bon-iver\/\">first leader<\/a> with <em>A Seat at the Table<\/em> in October 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for the rest of the top 10 on the latest Billboard 200, it\u2019s a quiet week, as <em>Westside Whimsy<\/em> is the only debuting title in the region. The Nos. 2-8 titles are all former No. 1s, with Ella Langley\u2019s <em>Dandelion<\/em> falling to No. 2 with a little more than 60,000 equivalent album units earned (down 11%). Olivia Rodrigo\u2019s <em>you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love<\/em> dips 2-3 (60,000, down 7%); Morgan Wallen\u2019s <em>I\u2019m the Problem<\/em> is down 3-4 (57,000, down 5%); Noah Kahan\u2019s <em>The Great Divide<\/em> is a non-mover at No. 5 (46,000, down 1%); Drake\u2019s <em>ICEMAN<\/em> rises 9-6 (35,000, down 4%); Ariana Grande\u2019s <em>petal<\/em> slips a spot to No. 7 (34,000, down 24%); and Rod Wave\u2019s <em>Don\u2019t Look Down<\/em> falls 7-8 (nearly 34,000, down 20%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rounding out the top 10, Olivia Dean\u2019s <em>The Art of Loving<\/em> climbs 10-9 (33,000 equivalent album units, down 4%) and Kahan\u2019s <em>Stick Season<\/em> is up 13-10 (nearly 33,000, down 1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: billboard.com<\/p>\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-4963\" data-postid=\"4963\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-4963 themify_builder themify_builder_front\">\r\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<!-- \/themify_builder_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the first R&amp;B album by a woman to top the chart this year. Jhen\u00e9 Aiko achieves her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as Westside Whimsy debuts atop the tally dated Sept. 26. The set earned 74,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending Sept. 17, according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-now","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","no-post-comment","no-post-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jhene-aiko-2026-press-credit-def-jam-billboard-1800.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4966,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4963\/revisions\/4966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicnow.iprorecords.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}