Shania Twain is giving up a long-held record to Taylor Swift, but there’s no “Bad Blood” over the han-doff. On the contrary, Twain says she’s “proud” of the younger star’s achievement.
Swift has now spent more weeks atop the Billboard Top Country Albums chart than any other female artist. With 99 weeks in total at the top of that chart, she has edged out Twain, who previously held the record with 97 weeks.
“Let’s Go Girls!!! Proud of you [Taylor Swift],” Twain wrote on social media.
“Historical records are meant to be made and then broken. The baton is meant to be passed on to new generation,” she added. “Unstoppable young female artists are [fire emoji] inspite [sic] of the hurdles. #trailblazers”
It was Red (Taylor’s Version) that pushed Swift over the edge of the milestone — it has spent seven weeks and counting atop the Top Country Albums chart. Previously, Swift spent 24 weeks on top with her self-titled debut; 35 weeks on top with Fearless; one week with her Beautiful Eyes EP; 13 weeks with Speak Now; and 16 weeks with the first version of Red.
Red (Taylor’s Version) was the singer’s second project to hit No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart in 2021; the first was her Taylor’s Version of Fearless.
Twain topped the chart for her first week ever with her self-titled album from 1993, then returned to the top spot for 29 weeks with The Woman in Me and a whopping 50 weeks with Come on Over.
Up! spent six weeks on top, and Twain’s Greatest Hits project clocked in as an 11-week chart-topper. Most recently, the singer rounded out her tally with Now, which hit the top of the Top Country Albums chart for a single week in 2017.
Swift and Twain’s mutual fandom has been well-documented in recent months. In a September TikTok video, Swift took on the viral “Mama Said” challenge, which called on users to share the song along with pictures of someone who inspired them to break boundaries. For Swift, that person was Twain: She started by filming herself with the caption “Country girls can’t go pop,” shrugged her shoulders and then shared a series of photos of Twain.
Not only did Twain see Twain’s tribute clip, but she paid it forward on her own TikTok page, posting the same caption, “Country girls can’t go pop,” followed by photos of another trailblazer: Dolly Parton.