Anyone who ever doubted or shrugged at Taylor Swift’s ascent to megastardom was schooled by 2023, which took the singer-songwriter’s fame into orbit thanks in part to The Eras Tour and its Golden Globe-nominated concert film. There’s much to look forward to by way of upcoming music and other projects, but Swift managed to sneak one last Huzzah into 2023 by breaking a longstanding charts record previously held by Elvis Presley.
With quite a few holiday-infused purchases assumedly in play, the album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) returned to the top of the Billboard 200, marking its fifth nonconsecutive week at #1. Not only is that a big win for the album itself, but it gives Taylor Swift the most weeks atop the charts for any solo artist, according to Billboard. Across her 13 albums released so far, she’s spent a whopping 68 weeks as the queen of the mountain.
Hitting that magical number of 68 put Swift ahead of all other solo artists in the history of Billboard’s rankings, breaking her tie with rock and roll legend Elvis Presley, who held the honor of 67 weeks at #1 across 10 different albums, from 1956-2002. (The collection ELV1S: 30 No. 1 Hits was released in September 2002, as bolstered by the remixed version of “A Little Less Conversation” by DJ JXL.)
This would have been a lot different had the chart swap happened in 2022, which featured the release of Baz Luhrmann‘s highly lauded biopic Elvis, with Austin Butler starring as the King himself. But now that we’re all distanced from that film, it’s only right for Swift to rise in the ranks, and she’s nowhere near finished, so fans can expect her to continue capitalizing on that honor for years to come.
Here’s a handy rundown of all the Taylor Swift albums that hit the top spot, and how long they each reigned for.
- Fearless – 11 weeks (2008-2009)
- Speak Now – 6 weeks (2010-2011)
- Red – 7 weeks (2012-2013)
- 1989 – 11 weeks (2014-2015)
- Reputation – 4 weeks (2017-2018)
- Lover – 1 week (2019)
- Folklore – 8 weeks (2020-2021)
- Evermore – 4 weeks (2020-2021)
- Fearless (Taylor’s Version) – 2 weeks (2021)
- Red (Taylor’s Version) – 1 week (2021)
- Midnights – 6 weeks (2022-2023)
- Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) – 2 weeks (2023)
- 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – 5 weeks (2023)
Will 1989 (Taylor’s Version) continue to hold strong in the opening weeks of 2024, or were the holidays the main cause for its return to the top of the charts?
Who Holds The All-Around Record For Most Weeks At #1?
Though Taylor Swift now holds the crown when it comes to solo artists, she still has a ways to go before becoming the all-around artist with the most Billboard-topping weeks. The pop star will need to take down one of music’s most celebrated quartets, The Beatles, in order to secure that honor.
It’ll be a difficult challenge, though not an impossible one, with The Beatles having spent 132 weeks in the No. 1 spot, across 19 different albums released between 1964-2001. That’s nearly twice as many weeks as what Swift currently boasts, but with the way the music industry has gone in the time that she’s been releasing music, Swift could very well be one of the only musicians still making any money from album sales a decade from now. So staying at #1 presumably won’t be quite as difficult as it was in previous years.
Of course, Taylor Swift has been making headlines for plenty of moments that have nothing to do with album sales or music in general. She’s been a fixture at Kansas City Chiefs games in support of her current sweetie Travis Kelce, despite her presence getting fans riled up in anger at times. And the recently released-from-prison Gypsy Rose Blanchard, whose tragic real-life situation was dramatized for Hulu’s The Act, credited Swift with helping her cope during her years behind bars, with the hope that she could one day meet the musician in person to share that sentiment.