Taylor Swift’s album “The Life of a Showgirl” has held onto No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 for four straight weeks. The album has now spent 12 of the 13 weeks since its release in October at the top, even throughout the holidays. We haven’t seen an album spend 12 weeks at No. 1 since “I’m The Problem” by Morgan Wallen last year. One more week and “Showgirl” will be tied with SZA’s “SOS.”

Twelve weeks atop the “Billboard” 200 is next after her personal best. It surpasses the 11 weeks of “1989” and “Fearless,” but comes second to the 17 weeks secured by her previous album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Following up a studio album that spends at least 10 weeks at the top with another album that achieves the same is a first for Swift. Only five other artists have achieved the same: Morgan Wallen—who had not two but three in a row—Adele, Whitney Houston, the Monkees, and the Kingston Trio.

Swift has a whopping 15 No. 1 albums to her name. Of those, four topped the chart for 10 or more weeks—something only two other artists, and no other women, have ever achieved. Even when you lower the bar to at least two albums meeting the criteria, only eight other artists are in the same boat: the Beatles and Elvis Presley (four), Whitney Houston, the Kingston Trio, Morgan Wallen (three), Adele, Henry Mancini, and the Monkees (two).

In its 11th and 12th weeks, “The Life of a Showgirl” saw its album sales soar to 55,000 and 97,000 units, respectively. This can be attributed to limited-edition vinyl versions in new colors, sold exclusively through Swift’s website. The limited release comes in three colors and was available for preorder for a single day on November 24. Copies began shipping out around December 19, at which point they were counted as sales. This helped the album hold tight to No. 1 even at the peak of the holiday season.

Let’s take a closer look at just how dominant Christmas albums were on the “Billboard” 200. On the chart dated the third week of December, they made up half of the Top 10. By the fourth week, it was six albums, matching the previous high. In the first week of January, the record was broken when seven holiday albums were in the Top 10. The reason for this was that Christmas fell on a Thursday for the first time since 2014, meaning the peak period for holiday music consumption spanned the entire weekly tracking period from the Friday through Thursday. The highest any Christmas album went was “Ultimate Christmas” by Bing Crosby at No. 2. The album moved 110,000 units, largely driven by 140.7 million streams. In the same week, “The Life of a Showgirl” saw 144,000 units and took No. 1. There was a 34,000-unit gap between the No. 1 and 2 albums, but sales alone of “Showgirl” were up 42,000 copies compared to the week prior.

By the time of the chart for the second week of January, which reflected sales data from December 26 through New Year’s Day, most holiday albums had dropped off. This led to significant jumps for other releases on the chart. “Showgirl,” despite recording a weekly low of 81,000 units, held onto No. 1.

Mariah Carey’s song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” spent three more weeks at No. 1 starting from the third week of December through the first week of January. Since first hitting No. 1 in 2019, it’s now spent a total of 22 weeks at the top, setting a new record. It’s a whole three weeks over the 19-week record previously held by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road” (2019) and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (2024). “All I Want” has also spent a cumulative 26 weeks atop the Streaming Songs chart, breaking its own record. Meanwhile, on Radio Songs, it climbed to a new peak of No. 6.

This is actually the second time that Carey has held the record for most weeks at No. 1. From 1995 to 1996, her duet with Boyz II Men, “One Sweet Day,” spent 16 weeks at the top. She held onto that record for 23 years until Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber surpassed it with “Despacito” in 2017. And now, eight years later, Carey’s reclaimed the throne with a song that’s even older than “One Sweet Day.”

“All I Want for Christmas is You” has spent a total of 79 weeks on the Hot 100, breaking the record for longest-charting song by a female artist, previously held by Dua Lipa’s “Levitating.”

Including “Vision of Love,” Carey’s first chart-topper from back in 1990, the singer has amassed a grand total of 19 No. 1 hits. Her cumulative 101 weeks at No. 1 remain the most in history and place her well ahead of Rihanna (60 weeks), the Beatles (59 weeks), and Drake (56 weeks). Her record-breaking 101 weeks are spread out across 22 separate years scattered between 1990 and today—more than twice the 10 years that tie runners-up Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, and Madonna.

As with the “Billboard” 200, Christmas music dominated the Hot 100 dated for the first week of the year. Nos. 1 through 24 were wall-to-wall holiday hits, surpassing even last year’s record Top 16 Christmas block. By the second week chart, however, more standard fare began returning to the top. Taylor Swift’s single “The Fate of Ophelia” jumped from No. 28 back up to No. 1, claiming its ninth week on top and officially surpassing “Anti-Hero” as the singer’s longest-running No. 1.

Breaking things down, “The Fate of Ophelia” topped streaming for an eighth week, and hit No. 3 and 4 in radio and digital sales, respectively. Helping the single return to No. 1 was a boost from the 26,000 vinyl copies that shipped out during the tail end of the holiday season.

Since 2020, Swift has landed eight songs at No. 1, spending a cumulative 27 weeks at the top—more than any other artist during the same period. By earning her first No. 1 of 2026, she can now claim to have sat atop the chart across 11 different years, placing her closer to Carey’s record than those other artists tied at 10 years.

Once the holiday season came to a close, the Hot 100 had a breakout star on its hands. In the chart dated the second week of January, Ella Langley’s single “Choosin’ Texas” rocketed from No. 48 to No. 5. Although it gained some traction following its October release, the song had been temporarily overshadowed by the flood of Christmas hits. As soon as the holiday season ended, though, “Texas” climbed the chart like no other, earning Langley her first-ever Top 10.

A female country singer reaching the Top 10 is big news. Since the year 2000, only 26 country songs from 12 artists have made it into the Top 10. That’s just 1.7% of the 1,512 songs overall. And the list shrinks significantly when you filter it down to find just those songs rooted in traditional country music. Nine of those 26 hits are Taylor Swift songs, for instance, and when you also take out artists like Beyoncé, Chappell Roan, and Tate McRae with her Morgan Wallen feature, the list is exceedingly short.

As a teen, Ella Langley took influence not only from country classics but also from big names working in other genres, like Bob Marley, Pearl Jam, and the Grateful Dead. This eclectic mix shaped her versatile style, blending the narrative power of traditional country with the raw emotion of rock and a pop sensibility. That mix-and-match approach may seem to align her with other young country artists, but Langley stands out with her particular emphasis on country storytelling. While down-to-earth lyrics about realistic, deeply personal stories are a hallmark of country music, they’ve often been viewed as limiting the genre’s mainstream appeal. In the end, such narratives have become more common in pop, while country has occasionally leaned toward a more serious tone.

It’s no coincidence that much of the response to “Choosin’ Texas” has consisted of appreciative praise for the long-awaited throwback it provides. What more needs to be said about a song where a woman drowns her sorrows as she starts to sense her cowboy might be leaving her for an old flame from Texas? Listeners have already decided what makes this song special—now it’s just a matter of seeing how far it can go.

• In the first week of January, the Huntrix song “Golden” became the first K-pop song ever to top the Radio Songs chart. Before that, the highest any K-pop song had gone was No. 4—ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ duet “APT.” In the second week, “Golden” jumped 24 spots on the Hot 100, reaching No. 2. The song also spent a 20th week at No. 1 on the Global Excl. US chart, pulling ahead of the 19-week record it had been sharing with “APT.”
• In the second week of January, the Saja Boys song “Your Idol” returned to the Hot 100 at No. 41, while Huntrix’s “How It’s Done” returned at No. 45.
• “Gabriela” by KATSEYE reached a new high on the Hot 100 in the second week of January, leaping to No. 22 in the most dramatic jump of the week. “Gnarly,” meanwhile, returned, now at No. 82.
• The second week of the Top Album Sales chart saw “DESIRE: UNLEASH” by ENHYPEN back at No. 21, “THIS IS FOR” by TWICE at No. 34, “HOP” by Stray Kids at No. 36, and the BOYNEXTDOOR EP “The Action” at No. 40.
• The BTS song “Anpanman” made a return to the Digital Song Sales chart for the third week of December, coming in at No. 7.