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Taylor Swift beamed up to a historic debut on the Billboard 200 with The Tortured Poets Department, the ambitious 31-song collection that she apparently wrote, recorded and released while preparing for and embarking on The Eras Tour (and, to quote track 13, she did it “with a broken heart”).
“What do you MEAN,” she wrote in her immediate reaction to the headline published by Billboard, which she reposted on Sunday (April 28).
As reported earlier, Swift not only has the 14th No. 1 album of her career with TTPD, and the top-selling album of 2024 so far, year-to-date — but also the largest streaming week ever, the second-biggest week for any album by units earned, the third largest sales week in the modern era, and the biggest sales week for vinyl in the modern era.
The Tortured Poets Department launched with 2.61 million equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its first week.
“My mind is blown,” Swift posted on her various social media platforms (X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) Sunday afternoon. “I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album. 2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”
“I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough,” wrote Swift, who took the opportunity to upload some behind-the-scenes photos from the making of the album, including snapshots with Post Malone and Florence Welch.
Of The Tortured Poets Departments’ 2.61 million sum, traditional album sales (purchases of digital download albums, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes) comprised 1.914 million, SEA units comprised 683,000 (equaling 891.37 million on-demand official streams) and TEA units comprised 14,000. Get the full breakdown on the numbers, and why it’s a historic release for Swift, here.
Swift’s May 9 shout-out is for her return to tour after a two-month break. Some are guessing she’ll work in at least some kind of a Tortured Poets era, tracing the evidence in a tour rehearsal clip set to “Fortnight” that Swift shared on Friday. (Looking at you, railing designed like the TTPD logo, and dancers practicing an unfamiliar top-hat-and-cane number.)
She’ll bring The Eras Tour to Paris for a series of four consecutive concerts at La Défense Arena from May 9-12 as she sets off on the European leg of her career-spanning trek, with Paramore opening the show.
Eras will also make its way to Sweden, Portugal, Spain, the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria by the end of the summer. All of Swift’s upcoming tour dates are listed on her official website.
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