Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ spends six consecutive weeks at No 1

Album tops chart around the globe

Standing out as the top-selling record of 2020 worldwide, Taylor Swift’s critically-acclaimed, five star album, Folklore, has achieved “the longest consecutive run at No. 1 since 2016” with six straight weeks atop the Billboard 200.

This success has translated worldwide as the record clinches No. 1 on three continents. Across the pond, the album notably became “the only album in the UK to spend three consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2020,” and Swift emerged as “the first international artist since May 2019 to log three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Official Album Chart in the UK.” Down under, she became “the first female artist since February 2019 to hold No. 1 on the Official Album Chart in Australia for four consecutive weeks.” In addition, folklore captured No. 1 on the Official Album Chart in Ireland for four nonconsecutive weeks and seized No. 1 for three weeks in Canada.

Folklore is nearing three million worldwide album equivalents and two billion streams in a little over a month. Upon release, it reached No. 1 on iTunes in 90 countries. These latest achievements follow a series of records set by Folklore. During release week, it shattered the global record for first-day album streams on Spotify by a female artist with 80.6 million streams and delivered the most-streamed pop album on Apple Music in 24 hours with 35.47 million streams. Additionally, Folklore set the U.S. and Worldwide Amazon Music Indie/Alternative Streaming Record. It raised the bar with the biggest first week album streams by a female artist in the UK in 2020 and biggest first week album streams of Swift’s career in the UK.

The lead single from the album, “Cardigan,” debuted No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and the Global Spotify chart, claiming the most daily Spotify streams in 2020. It also soared to No. 1 on iTunes song chart and was the most added song at Top 40 and Hot AC radio airplay charts nationwide. The song was also added straight to the A list on BBC Radio 1 in the UK.

Swift is the only artist to have seven albums each sell at least 500,000 copies in a single week (Fearless, Speak Now, RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover and Folklore). She is also the first and only female artist in the 21st century to score five No. 1 studio albums in the UK.

Folklore is the ten-time GRAMMY Award-winning, record-breaking superstar’s eighth album.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com