Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' breaks records en route to UK No.1

Nothing and no one could stop Taylor Swift's unstoppable run to No.1 in the UK as Department of Tormented Poets (via EMI) starts a record.

The clear leader at the halfway mark, Tormented poets roars to No. 1 at Official Chartpublished on Friday, April 26, for its 12th UK leader.

As previously reported, the new collection posts a career-best start for Swift, shifting 270,000 across the chart week, surpassing her previous personal best of 204,000 when Midnight topped the chart in 2022.

This is the biggest opening week for any album in seven years – since Ed Sheeran's 2017 hit ÷ (Division)which locked in 670,000 first-week chart units in the UK.

This is a longer first week volume than Adele's 2021 album 30which drew 261,000 in its initial run, the official charts company said.

With a dozen leaders, Swift is tied with Madonna as the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in Official Albums Chart history. Only four acts in chart history have amassed more: The Beatles (16), The Rolling Stones (14), Robbie Williams (14) and Elvis Presley (13).

Tormented poets unites Red (2012), 1989 (2014), reputation (2017), Lover (2019), folklore (2020), forever (2020), Fearless (Taylor Version) (2021), Red (Taylor Edition) (2021), Midnight (2022), Speak Now (Taylor Edition) (2023) and 1989 (Taylor Edition) to her collection of back-to-back chart toppers.

No other artist has scored a top 12 in such a short period of time, doing so in just 11 years and 6 months. That beats The Beatles, who hit No. 1 14 years and 1 month apart Please thank me (May 1963) and The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in June 1977.

Swift also extends her record as the only artist to claim 12 No. 1 albums of the 21st century, all of which came consecutively.

In non-TayTay news, Pearl Jam earn their best UK performance in 11 years with Dark matter (Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records), new at No.2, while British reggae act UB40's 21st studio album UB45 (Sono Recording Group) bows at No. 5.