This is also the first album by a female artist to win the first 12 consecutive weeks at number 1. This achievement surpasses Whitney Houston’s 11 consecutive weeks with the soundtrack album The Bodyguard. Commentators say that Taylor Swift is trying to surpass the achievement of 15 consecutive weeks achieved by singer-songwriter Carole King with the iconic album Tapestry in 1971.

Sales of The Tortured Poets Department increased 43% last week to reach 163,000 album units. That increase was driven by the singer’s addition of several album variants in her online store, as well as the release of three additional digital variants that included exclusive bonus tracks.

This has “robbed” male country singer Zach Bryan of the number 1 position with his new album The Great American Bar Scene and sales of 137,000 albums. Previously, a series of artists were also “pushed” to second place by Taylor by releasing new versions, including Billie Eilish ( Hit Me Hard and Soft ), Gunna ( One of Wun ). , Dua Lipa ( Radical Optimism ) and Gracie Abrams ( The Secret of Us ).

This new news causes Taylor to also face many accusations that he is behind the scenes to prevent opponents that could threaten his performance. Most recently, she was also said to have made a move to prevent Charli XCX’s Brat album from taking over the album charts in the UK market.

At that time, Brat was expected to debut at No. 1 on the UK charts, dethroning Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department after five weeks at the top. However, in the middle of the chart week, Taylor surprised fans by suddenly releasing several versions of the album exclusively in the UK – causing album sales to skyrocket and surpass Charli’s. Oddly, the new versions were only available temporarily and were removed over the weekend following the chart.

Many people analyzed: “I understand when an album is released, there are many plans scheduled. But these variations are not global versions. It is created to target customers. In the UK alone, that certainly means it’s chart-related.

Up to now, Taylor Swift has not released a physical version of the double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Antology, and many people believe that the above version is the “last shot” if any artist could threaten the Blank Space singer’s path to 15 consecutive weeks of position.