Taylor Swift has broken Madonna’s record as the female artist with the most No 1 albums in the UK, as her new live album Lover (Live From Paris) becomes her 13th chart-topper.
It means she draws level with Elvis Presley as the international artist with the most No 1s. Still outpacing her are the Rolling Stones with 14, then Robbie Williams and the Beatles, joint top with 15.
Featuring performances from the studio album of the same name, Lover (Live from Paris) is Swift’s fourth live album, and the first to reach No 1. It was originally released in limited quantities for Valentine’s Day in 2023, and reached No 90, but 47,000 sales of a new heart-shaped double vinyl version – the latest of the ever more elaborate and numerous physical editions of Swift albums – took it to the top. It’s the biggest opening week for an album this year.
Lover (Live from Paris) has never been released on streaming services as a whole album (though its tracks are individually available), and it’s rare to get a No 1 album without streams. In fact, the last person to do it was Taylor Swift. Eight years ago she released Reputation, and got to No 1 solely from sales of the album, before putting it on streaming a few weeks later.
It took Swift until her fourth album, 2012’s Red, to score her first UK No 1, and her tally has since been helped by her project to rerecord her albums, with new versions of Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989 all topping the chart. Fans are now anticipating the last in this series, Reputation. Swift, however, may be enjoying some time off after her Eras tour, which became – by some distance – the highest-grossing concert tour of all time when it concluded in December.
In at No 2 in this week’s chart are rock band Inhaler, fronted by Bono’s son Elijah Hewson, with their third album Open Wide. Kendrick Lamar jumps back into the Top 3 from No 31, buoyed up by the physical release of his album GNX and his much-discussed Super Bowl half-time show.
The Super Bowl also propelled Lamar’s Drake diss track Not Like Us up the singles chart to No 2, the highest placing for any Lamar track, though Lola Young’s Messy remains at the top for a fourth week.
The five Grammy awards won by Not Like Us will have helped its chart performance, and other Grammy winners have experienced a boost. Best new artist winner Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club reaches a new high of No 4, while Benson Boone’s former No 1 Beautiful Things vaults up to No 6 off the back of his acrobatic viral performance of the song at the awards. Doechii’s Denial Is a River was another much-shared performance, and the track becomes her first Top 10 hit, at No 9.
