To the surprise of no one, Taylor Swift‘s third album in her re-recording project, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), has debuted on top of the Billboard chart with huge numbers.
The album scored the biggest week of the three re-recorded albums Taylor’s released so far, selling 716,000 units. Red (Taylor’s Version) debuted with 605,000 units, while Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sold 291,000 units in its first week. Speak Now is also the biggest debut and the biggest sales week of any album released in 2023.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor’s 12th number-one album, breaking her tie with Barbra Streisand for the female artist with the most chart-toppers. She and Drake now both have 12, and only two other acts have more: The Beatles, with 19, and Jay-Z, with 14.
Taylor also sets a new record for albums in the top 10 at the same time. She now has four: Speak Now, followed by Midnights, Lover and folklore. She’s the first living act to have four albums in the top 10 simultaneously since trumpet player Herb Alpert did it in 1966.
The only other artist ever to have done it is Prince, who had five albums in the top 10 after he died in 2016.
Plus, Taylor’s now the only act ever to have scored a number one album in each of the past five calendar years, from 2019-2023. 2019 brought us Lover, while 2020 brought us folklore and evermore. In 2021, she had Fearless and Red, both Taylor’s Versions, and in 2022, it was Midnights.
Of Taylor’s entire recorded output, she’s now had nine albums to have sold at least 500,000 copies in a single week. She’s the only artist ever to achieve this since those records started being kept in 1991.
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