Four months and 18 days after folklore debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, its surprise sister album evermore has opened atop the same list. As Billboard notes, that’s the shortest gap between new No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart by a female artist since Nielsen Music/MRC Data began tracking data in March 1956. As folklore currently still sits at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, Swift is also the first female artist to have two albums concurrently in the top three since 1963. (BTS also scored two number ones this year with BE and Map of the Soul: 7.)
Having earned 329,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending December 17, evermore marks the singer’s eighth No. 1 album of her career overall. Barbra Streisand currently holds the all-time record among women with 11 No. 1 albums, followed by Madonna with nine.
evermore also charted at number one in the UK, setting a new record by achieving six UK number one albums in eight years. The previous record-holder was Madonna, who accumulated six UK number one albums in over 11 years (between 1997 and 2008).
Check out where folklore and evermore landed on our 50 Best Albums of 2020 list.
