Taylor Swift is no stranger to breaking records, but she’s managed to outdo even herself with her latest album The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD).
Swift, 34, dropped the surprise double album on Friday after announcing it during a Grammys acceptance speech in February.
Within hours, TTPD started smashing streaming records, including becoming Spotify’s most streamed album in one day. TTPD got 300 million streams in a 24-hour period, Spotify revealed on its social media.
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This broke the previous record which Swift also held with her album Midnights which achieved the feat of 185 million listens in a day.
Swift’s record-breaking with TTPD did not stop at just album streams. Her song “Fortnight” featuring the rapper Post Malone set the record as the most-streamed song in a single day.
Prior to its release TTPD was breaking records, including the most pre-saved album on Countdown Pages, a Spotify feature which allows users to preview track lists before an album release.
Swift also took the title for the biggest pop album of all time by first-day streams on Apple Music and also most-streamed album on its first day alone on Amazon Music.
Since its release, Swift’s fans, known as Swifties, spent hours combing over the album looking for Easter eggs about her love life, feuds with other celebrities and other clues about the singer’s life.
One of the Easter eggs seems to be a nod to Swift’s favorite number, 13.
“I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks,” she told MTV News in 2009.
The second part of TTPD is called The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology and includes 15 extra songs. If you add this to the 16 tracks on the first part of TTPD, it brings the total number of songs to 31.
Fans took to X, formerly Twitter, to point out that 31 reversed is 13 and what they deem proof as a deliberate choice by Swift.
“Of course it’s 31 songs. Because we all know she could never write just 13. That’s our little tortured poet,” one fan wrote.
“GUYS THE FULL ALBUM IS 2HRS AND 2MINS LONG WITH 31 SONGS; 13 backwards and also 3-1=2 PLUS A DOUBLE ALBUM. The f****** 2 situation SHES A MASTERMIND,” a third user commented.
Aside from planting clues throughout her album for fans and smashing streaming records, Swift also has the potential to make history on the Billboard charts.
TTPD could help Swift tie with Jay-Z for the most #1 albums on the U.S. Billboard charts. If it hits the top of the charts, which are released on Tuesday mornings, she will have had 14 No. 1 albums, the same as Jay-Z.
Only The Beatles have more with 19 number one Billboard albums.
Aside from that, if TTPD does premiere in the number one spot, she will not only extend her record for the most consecutive No. 1 Billboard albums, but also the most consecutive albums to debut in the top spot.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.