Taylor Swift’s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ earns biggest opening week on UK albums chart of 2023

Taylor Swift‘s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ has reportedly earned the biggest opening week on the UK Albums chart this year.

• READ MORE: Taylor Swift – ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ review: her best album will never go out of style

Swift originally released ‘1989’ in 2014, when the album scored 90,000 sales in its opening week. In 2023, she has sold more than double that amount with her re-recording. The Official Charts Company has reported that ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ sold 184,000 units in its opening week, making it the biggest opening week for an album this year.

This makes ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ her eleventh album to hit Number One in the UK charts. Previous chart-topping albums include Red (2012), 1989 (2014), reputation (2017), Lover (2019), folklore (2020), evermore (2020), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021), Midnights (2022) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023).

Additionally, Swift scored her third UK Number One single with ‘Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)’. Tracks ‘SLUT! (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)’ and ‘Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)’ also made an appearance in the Top Ten, coming in at Number Two and Five respectively.

‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ was released to critical acclaim on October 27, where NME gave it a five-star rating: “As we’re witnessing the biggest year of Swift’s career so far, the artist’s ability to reinvent herself while honouring her core blueprint is only becoming more impressive. By journeying into the past, it’s a reminder that the future of Taylor Swift may hold so much more that will continue to surprise us.”

The rerecording of ‘1989’ also broke two Spotify records, with Taylor Swift becoming the most-streamed artist on a single day in the platform’s history. The album was also the most-streamed album in a day, a record Swift previously held with ‘Midnights’.

Swift is due to embark on on the Latin America leg of her ‘Eras’ tour next week, where fans have been camping outside the venue since June. The camping fans have called it a positive experience, with one interviewee saying: “What am I going to do with so much time at home, now that I won’t have to be making friendship bracelets all day inside a tent? Return to being a normal person?”

In other news, record labels are reportedly trying to prevent artists from rerecording their albums like Swift. According to a report by Billboard, top music attorneys are saying that they have been seeing contracts that expand that timeframe up to 30 years.

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