Kanye West’s 19-year streak of Number One album debuts broken by Taylor Swift
Kanye West’s 19-year streak of Number One album debuts has been broken by Taylor Swift this week.
Swift’s The Tortured Poet’s Department has now spent 14 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 in the US.
Meanwhile, West’s new album, ‘Vultures 2’ a collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, debuted at number two, ending West’s 19-year reign of achieving number one debuts.
The last time West didn’t debut at number one was for his debut, ‘The College Dropout’, which debuted at number two in 2004.
West, now known as Ye, and Ty, real name Tyrone Griffin Jr., released their first collaborative album, ‘Vultures 1’, under the name ¥$ on February 10, before ‘Vultures 2’ arrived earlier this month (August 4) – months after its planned original release date in March.
Swift recently released another variant of ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
After her album returned to Number One on the Billboard charts, fans speculated that the ‘Anti-Hero’ singer was priming for a further chart run by strategically releasing another limited-time-only variation.
Some fans speculated the release was timed in an effort to block both Charli XCX and Billie Eilish from charting with their recently released albums, ‘Brat‘ and ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft‘.
When both artists teamed up on ‘Guess’, Swift released another variant of the album.
The release has now also blocked West from achieving a Number One.
Initially, Swift’s album spent its first 12 weeks on the chart at Number One, then fell briefly to Number Four for two weeks. It returned to pole position for the 13th consecutive week – which Swifties thought was linked to 13 famously being Swift’s lucky number.
The latest limited-time-only variation of ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ has a “First Draft Phone Memo” version of ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’, which was available for just 24 hours.
Aside from her chart domination, Swift has been busy praising Team USA in an Olympics promo video, urging them: “Never be afraid to show them who you are, especially when the whole world is watching. Because there is no one way to be the best. No one way to inspire everyone else who will someday follow.”
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Elizabeth Aubrey
NME
