Taylor Swift Spends Record-Extending 57th Week Atop Artist 100 Chart

Taylor Swift continues her command of the Billboard Artist 100 chart as she logs a record-extending 57th week at No. 1 (on the list dated Dec. 17).

Swift holds as the top musical act in the U.S. thanks to her latest album Midnights, which ranks at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart after five weeks at No. 1 with 143,000 equivalent album units earned in the Dec. 2-8 tracking week, according to Luminate.

Swift scores nine albums on the latest Billboard 200, the most among all acts. After Midnights, she appears with Folklore (No. 26), Lover (No. 42), Red (Taylor’s Version) (No. 43), Evermore (No. 45), 1989 (No. 71), Reputation (No. 111), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (No. 116) and Speak Now (No. 195).

Swift also places five songs from Midnights on the Billboard Hot 100, led by former six-week No. 1 “Anti-Hero” at No. 6.

Swift has now spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Artist 100 in 2022, passing The Weeknd for the second-most this year after Bad Bunny (eight).

Elsewhere on the Artist 100, Metro Boomin re-enters at No. 3, a new high, thanks to his new sophomore LP Heroes & Villains. The album launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming his third leader, after 2018’s Not All Heroes Wear Capes and 2020’s Savage Mode II, with 21 Savage.

Plus, BTS’ RM re-enters the Artist 100 at No. 8, a new high, thanks to his debut solo album, Indigo. The set arrives at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 (31,000 units), while its single “Wild Flower,” with Youjeen, starts at No. 83 on the Hot 100, becoming his first solo entry outside BTS. The K-pop boy band has spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Artist 100, the most among groups and the fourth-most overall after Swift, Drake (37) and The Weeknd (28), dating to the survey’s 2014 inception.

RM is the sixth BTS member to hit the Artist 100 solo, after Jung Kook (No. 47 peak, earlier in December), Jin (No. 10, November), J-Hope (No. 9, July), V (No. 57, January) and Suga (No. 57, December 2021, after he soared to No. 4, billed as Agust D, in 2020).

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