Taylor Swift Rules Billboard Artist 100 Chart for Record-Extending 61st Week
Taylor Swift extends her record run at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Jan. 21), as she tallies her 61st week as the top musical act in the United States.
Swift continues her dominance as her hit “Anti-Hero” logs an eighth week atop the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing the seven-week reign of “Blank Space” in 2014-15 to become her longest-leading No. 1 on the chart. “What on Earth,” Swift marveled on Instagram, sharing a post from Billboard about the feat. “I love you guys.”
Follow-up single “Lavender Haze” places at No. 30 on the Hot 100, with “Bejeweled” at No. 91. Both tracks are from Swift’s album Midnights, which ranks at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 81,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate, after spending five weeks at No. 1. Swift places nine sets on the latest Billboard 200, the most among all acts: Midnights, Lover (No. 28), Folklore (No. 30), 1989 (No. 41), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 43), Evermore (No. 60), reputation (No. 64), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 136) and Speak Now (No. 143).
Rounding out the top five of the Artist 100, SZA holds at No. 2, as her album SOS spends a fifth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200; Morgan Wallen repeats at No. 3; The Weeknd keeps at No. 4; and Drake rises 7-5.
Elsewhere on the Artist 100, BTS vaults 77-8, returning to the top 10 on the strength of its 2017 album Love Yourself: Her. Following the set’s release on vinyl, it re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 13 (21,000 units, up 1,817%; it hit No. 7 in October 2017) and launches at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart (18,000 copies sold on vinyl), where it’s the group’s first leader (and entry).
The Artist 100 measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay and streaming to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Xander Zellner
Billboard