Eminem ends Taylor Swift’s 12-week chart run with his 11th No. 1 album
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Eminem's The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace) is his 11th album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW YORK – Eventually, someone had to come along and bump American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from No. 1 on the Billboard album chart – and it was Eminem.
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup De Grace), the latest LP by the 51-year-old American shock-rapper, who has been posting No. 1s regularly for the entire 21st century, opens at the top of the Billboard 200 chart with the equivalent of 281,000 album sales in the United States.
That total includes 220 million streams and 114,000 digital downloads, according to data from the tracking service Luminate.
It is Eminem’s 11th album to reach No. 1, a streak that ties him with American rock legend Bruce Springsteen, singer-actress Barbra Streisand and rapper Ye. The only artistes ahead of them are Canadian rapper Drake (13), American rapper Jay-Z and Swift (14 each) and British rock band The Beatles (19).
Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls to No. 4 after an extraordinary 12-week run at the top, which began with blockbuster vinyl and streaming numbers. The 34-year-old continued to defeat all comers with a strategy of releasing special “versions” of her album, using bonus tracks and variant packaging to entice her fans to buy it again and again.
Also this week, K-pop boy band Enhypen opened at No. 2 with Romance: Untold, which had the equivalent of 124,000 album sales, most from sales of CDs (17 collectible editions were available) and vinyl LPs.
American singer Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene, Swift’s last challenger, fell one spot to No. 3, and American country music singer Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At A Time is in fifth place in its 73rd week on the chart. NYTIMES
