For the first time in more than 10 years, the top three albums on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart are all by solo women.
On the list dated Aug. 28, Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever is No. 1, followed by Doja Cat’s Planet Her and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour.
The last time the top three albums were credited to solo women was on the Dec. 18, 2010-dated chart, when Susan Boyle’s The Gift was tops, followed by Taylor Swift’s Speak Now and Jackie Evancho’s O Holy Night.
Honorable mention goes to the July 23, 2011, chart. That week, Beyoncé’s 4 and Adele’s 21 were Nos. 1 and 2. The No. 3 album that week was When the Sun Goes Down, credited to Selena Gomez & The Scene. (The Scene was Gomez’s backing band, comprised entirely of men. Gomez recorded three albums that were billed to Selena Gomez & The Scene: Kiss and Tell in 2009, A Year Without Rain in 2010 and When the Sun Goes Down; Gomez’s first solo-billed effort was 2013’s Stars Dance.)
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 28, 2021-dated chart (where Eilish, Doja Cat and Rodrigo are Nos. 1-3) will be posted in full on Billboard’s website on Aug. 24. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
