Just eight weeks after the release of her 10th album Midnights, Taylor Swift makes global music history as the only artist to have five albums with more than one million units sold during release week. Midnights has sold six million units total, including three million in the U.S. alone, within eight weeks of its release.
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Midnights became the fastest-selling album of Swift’s career, helping her break a number of records in streaming, physical and vinyl album sales worldwide. The album sold a record 1.6 million units within its debut week and is also the first release to sell more than one million physical albums since 2015.
To date, Swift has sold 22.4 million albums and has had 36.6 billion combined streams of her music. Within its first week of release, Midnights, alone, had more than one billion streams.
She was also the first artist to fill the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with tracks from Midnights.
“Taylor’s achievements over the past year have been absolutely spectacular,” said Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Republic Records, in a statement. “With more than two dozen historic milestones set by Midnights, it’s nearly unimaginable for any artist to sell more than six million albums in less than eight weeks during any era of our business. These accomplishments further exemplify Taylor’s prowess as the consummate artist and storyteller defining a generation.”
Described by Swift as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout [her] life,” Midnights features collaborations with Lana Del Rey and Zoë Kravitz. The project includes her No. 1 single “Anti-Hero,” a song Swift considers one of her favorites that she has ever written.
“I don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before,” said Swift. “I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized, and not to sound too dark. I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person. This song really is a real guided tour throughout all of the things I tend to hate about myself.”
Swift is set to embark on her The Eras Tour in 2023, which will hit stadiums in key cities in support of Midnights. The trek will feature a collection of supporting artists, including Paramore, HAIM, GAYLE, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, MUNA, OWENN, beabadoobee, and Gracie Abrams.
Photo: Beth Garrabrant / Universal Music Group
