Republic Records
It’s not clear whether or not Taylor Swift‘s new album Lover will hit the one-million mark in its first week in stores, but it’s certainly off to a huge start.
As Billboard notes, according to initial sales reports to Nielsen Music, Lover sold about 450,000 copies Friday, the first day it was available. That’s beats the number of units The Jonas Brothers‘ comeback album Happiness Begins — previously the record holder for the biggest sales week of 2019 — sold in an entire week.
Taylor’s sales figure means Lover’s already had the biggest sales week for any album since her 2017 album, Reputation, which debuted at #1 with 1.216 million copies sold. While Billboard notes that Lover will easily debut at #1, it’s projected to sell around 700,000 album units in its first week. Or course, a last-minute rally, or a huge boost from Monday night’s MTV VMAs — on which Taylor will perform — could send that total higher.
Meanwhile, an insightful interview with Taylor in the U.K. paper The Guardian finally explains why she stopped having her famous July 4th parties. Turns out it wasn’t anything to do with her “squad” — it was because, in the wake of Donald Trump, Taylor felt disillusioned about America.
“The things that happen to you in your life are what develop your political opinions,” she explains. “I was living in this Obama eight-year paradise of, you go, you cast your vote, the person you vote for wins, everyone’s happy! This whole thing, the last three, four years, it completely blindsided a lot of us, me included.”
Pinpointing the moment when she began to feel conflicted about her country, Taylor tells The Guardian, “It was the fact that all the dirtiest tricks in the book were used and it worked.”
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