LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 05: SZA speaks onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at … [+]
Once again, SZA is in charge of the Billboard 200 with her unstoppable blockbuster release SOS, which continues to make history with each passing week.
This time around, the set claims its ninth nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the upcoming Billboard 200 albums chart. In the week ending February 16, SOS earned another 93,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate (data published by Billboard). Despite a slight decline from the frame prior, SOS still holds steady, easily beating out the No. 2 title.
This time around, Paramore’s comeback album This Is Why debuts in second place, though it wasn’t very close to beating SZA. The rock band’s latest effort opens at No. 2 with 64,000 equivalent units shifted.
SOS has now accrued the most weeks atop the Billboard 200 for an album by a woman in nearly seven years. It has earned the best streak since Adele’s 25 spent 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 between December 2015 and March 2016, and it’s not done yet.
Throughout the past decade, only a trio of albums by women have spent at least nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. They are: SOS, 25 (10 weeks between 2015 and 2016), and Taylor Swift’s 1989 (11 weeks throughout 2014 and 2015).
Moreover, SOS now claims the most weeks at No. 1 for an R&B or hip-hop album by a woman since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut managed 11 weeks—all consecutively—in charge of the Billboard 200 back in 1991.
Looking beyond just female talents, SOS has now collected the most frames at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for an R&B album by any act since Usher’s Confessions ruled for nine nonconsecutive weeks in 2004.
SZA earned her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in December 2022, as SOS started atop the list with one of the biggest debuts of the year. The set launched with 318,000 equivalent album units and also garnered the largest streaming week ever for any R&B album in U.S. history.
SOS is still going strong thanks to immense popularity at streaming services, and both the full set and a number of songs featured on it are still performing brilliantly. Currently, the R&B superstar fills nine spots on the Hot 100. The pack is led by lead single “Kill Bill,” which has been stuck behind Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” in its attempt to become SZA’s first leader on the ranking. Every song from SOS has appeared on the Hot 100 for at least one frame, but the fact that nine of them remain on the chart nearly two months after the album first dropped is a true testament to its ongoing success.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/02/19/with-sos-sza-puts-herself-on-the-same-level-as-taylor-swift-and-adele/