SZA’s SOS has tied a record established by Whitney Houston almost 40 years ago on the charts.
The sophomore album by the Top Dawg Entertainment vocalist, which sold about 111,000 album-equivalent units in the previous week, topped the Billboard 200 chart for a seventh consecutive week.
SOS therefore became the first R&B album since Whitney Houston’s Whitney in 1987 to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1. Whitney was the first female-produced R&B album to top the charts when it was released.
SZA’s SOS is also the first album to spend seven consecutive weeks at the top of the charts since the Encanto soundtrack in March 2022, which reigned supreme for a total of nine weeks.
With 2020’s Folklore, which spent its first six weeks at No. 1 before logging two more non-consecutive weeks later in the year, Taylor Swift became the last woman to spend at least seven weeks at the top of the Billboard 200.
Since pop juggernaut Adele’s 25 in 2016, SOS is also the first album by a female artist to spend the first seven weeks at No. 1.
Taylor Swift (Folklore, 1989, and Fearless) and Adele are the only two women who have had albums spend seven weeks at No. 1 in the last 20 years; SZA is one of just three (25 and 21).
