Taylor Swift breaks female record for most cumulative weeks spent at #1

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Taylor Swift has broken another record, now holding the title for most cumulative weeks spent at Number One for a female artist on the Billboard 200.

Her recent album ‘folklore’ returned to Billboard’s top spot this week after turning over another 87,000 units, nine weeks after release. With this, Swift has now totalled 47 weeks at Number One.

Whitney Houston previously held the record, raising the bar back in 1987 with her second studio album, ‘Whitney’.

Swift is preceded by The Beatles (132 weeks), Elvis Presley (67), Garth Brooks (52) and Michael Jackson (51), as male artists hold the highest number of non-consecutive weeks atop the charts.

• Read More: Taylor Swift’s new album ‘Folklore’: all the hidden meanings and Easter eggs

‘folklore’ was released back in July to critical acclaim. NME gave the surprise album a four-star review, labelling the sonic shift an “extraordinary indie-folk makeover” and praising Swift’s collaborations with Bon Iver and The National’s Aaron Dessner.

More recently, Taylor Swift performed fan favourite ‘Betty’ at the 2020 Academy of Country Music Awards. The live recording was released on streaming services last week, opening the artist’s latest “chapter”, titled ‘folklore: the yeah I showed up at your party chapter’.

This segment of the album also features tracks ‘the 1’, ‘mirrorball’, ‘the last great American dynasty’, ‘invisible string’ and lead single ‘cardigan’.

Earlier this month, ‘folklore’ became the first album in four years to top the Billboard 200 for six weeks in a row. Swift’s achievement marked the longest time an artist had spent at Number One since Drake’s ‘Views’, which totalled 13 non-consecutive weeks back in 2016.

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