Taylor Swift is back at No. 1 on charts all around the world with her new project The Tortured Poets Department. The highly-anticipated set debuts atop the albums ranking in the U.K., and as it does, the singer makes history and breaks a record that hasn’t been touched in more than half a century.
The Tortured Poets Department marks Swift’s twelfth No. 1 album in the U.K. According to the Official Charts Company, the superstar has now racked up a dozen leaders on the competitive tally faster than anyone in the history of the country.
Swift earned her first No. 1 album in the U.K. back in 2012. That year, her full-length Red hit the top spot. Eleven and a half years later, she’s snagged her twelfth champion.
Before this week, the record for the fastest accumulation of 12 No. 1 albums in the U.K. belonged to the hometown heroes, The Beatles. Their winning streak began in 1963 and wrapped in 1977–just over 14 years.
The Official Charts Company also notes that The Tortured Poets Department helps Swift make history in another, similar fashion. She’s now the first musician to collect a dozen rulers in the twenty-first century, as of course The Beatles managed their performance much earlier.
The Tortured Poets Department arrives at No. 1 with the largest debut in years in the U.K. The title opens with 270,000 equivalent units shifted, which also marks the most impressive start of her career in that territory.