On December 9, 2022, SZA released SOS, her latest album. Since it was chart-eligible, the LP has not known what it’s like to be anything but No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It debuted in the top spot of the chart, and that’s where it remains on the latest rank: Billboard announced today (January 23) that on the new chart dated January 28, SOS is No. 1 for a sixth total week.
That’s the most weeks at No. 1 on the chart among R&B and hip-hop albums since Drake’s Views logged 13 non-consecutive weeks in 2016. Narrow the scope to just R&B albums and SOS has the most chart-topping weeks since Usher’s Confessions was No. 1 for nine total weeks in 2004.
Furthermore, this is a notable moment for women artists. In the last decade plus, the only women with albums to spend at least six weeks at No. 1 are Adele, Taylor Swift, and now SZA. The last album by a woman besides those three to have at least six No. 1 weeks was Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed A Dream in 2009 and 2010. When it comes specifically to women in R&B, SOS has the most weeks at No. 1 since Mariah Carey’s Daydream, which had six non-consecutive weeks on top in late 1995 and early 1996.
