Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department Debuts at UK Number One, Breaking Sales Records and Equaling The Boss's Chart-Topping Feat
Taylor Swift's latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department," has broken UK chart records with the biggest first-week sales in seven years.
The 31-track double album sold 270,000 UK chart units, surpassing Swift's previous best of 204,000 for her 2022 album, "Midnights." This is the first time an album has sold more than 270,000 copies in its first week in the UK since Ed Sheeran's "Divide" in 2017.
Swift now matches Madonna as the female artist with the most UK number one albums.
Swift's impressive career includes numerous Grammy records and reaching billionaire status.
Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen have both achieved 12 chart-topping albums in their careers, making Swift the fifth artist to reach this milestone.
Last week, Swift released two surprise albums, "The Tortured Poets Department" and "The Anthology," totaling 31 tracks.
These albums reflect her personal experiences with heartache, criticism, and fame over the past two years.
The reception was mixed, with critics like Olivia Horn from Pitchfork and Larisha Paul from Rolling Stone suggesting Swift was rehashing old themes.
The text discusses the contrasting opinions of music critics Rob Sheffield and Helen Brown regarding Taylor Swift's latest album.
While some critics saw it as a "wildly ambitious" and "most personal album yet," others considered it lukewarm.
Despite this, fans showed overwhelming support, leading the album to break numerous sales records in its first week of release.