Carrie Underwood makes chart history
Carrie Underwood just became the first female country artist to have four No. 1 albums at the top of the all-genre charts, according to Billboard.
“Cry Pretty” topped the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending September 20, selling 266,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. Of that, 251,000 were traditional album sales.
Billboard reported that Underwood’s latest album is “the biggest for any country album since Aug. 29, 2015, when Luke Bryan’s ‘Kill the Lights’ bowed at No. 1 with 345,000 units earned.”
” ‘Cry Pretty’ also had the biggest overall week for a country album by a woman since the charts began ranking albums by equivalent album units in late 2014,” the publication said.
In addition to her latest, the singer also topped the charts with “Carnival Ride” in 2007, “Play On” in 2009 and “Blown Away” in 2012.
Underwood broke the record over Faith Hill, Linda Ronstadt and Taylor Swift, who had hit the top of the charts with three albums each.
While Swift actually has had five No. 1s on the Billboard 200, only three also reached the Top Country Albums chart. Her two latest albums, “Reputation” and “1989,” were pop.
Garth Brooks reigns with the most country albums topping the Billboard 200, with nine.
Underwood also surpassed the previous record of biggest sales week by a female artist so far in 2018.
That title had been held by rapper Cardi B’s album “Invasion of Privacy,” which debuted at No. 1 in April with 255,000 units sold.