The seven-week long chart championship of SZA‘s sophomore album, ‘SOS,’ has quite a few historic stats attached to it, but a standout is its surprising relationship to Whitney Houston‘s eponymous sophomore effort, 1987’s ‘Whitney.’
Housing hits like ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ ‘Didn’t We Almost Have It All,’ ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go,’ and more, Houston’s project – which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide – is the first female album to launch four Hot 100 #1 singles and also the first female LP overall to debut atop the Billboard 200.
Uniquely, ‘Whitney’ also sits in history books for being the first album by a Black woman to spend its first 7 weeks at the Billboard 200’s summit. The record went untouched for nearly 35 years until this week.
As reported here, the refreshed Billboard 200 sees SZA at #1 for a seventh consecutive week thanks to additional sales of 111,000.
The extended stay puts the songstress (born Solana Rowe) in unique company as one of only four women over the last three decades who can boast having spent at least seven weeks (consecutive or non-consecutive) at No. 1 on the tally – Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore‘ (2020), ‘1989‘ (2014), ‘Red‘ (2012), and ‘Fearless‘ (2008), Adele’s ‘25‘ (2015) and ‘21‘ (2011), Alanis Morissette’s ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (1995), and Houston’s ‘Bodyguard’ (1992-93). In fact, the last album by a woman with seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 was Addy’s ’25,’ which spent its first seven weeks at the chart’s pinnacle in late 2015.
Among Black women, Houston’s ‘Whitney’ was the last studio album to spend its first seven weeks atop the Billboard 200 (and would ultimately tap out of the spot after its 11th week).
Could SZA be on her way to matching or surpassing the longtime record of The Voice? Time will tell. Until then, look below to see who joins her in this week’s TGJ Chart Check.
Billboard 200 This Week