SZA Makes History and Matches Country’s Biggest Hitmaker

SZA’s SOS becomes the first album by a female artist to spend 100 weeks inside the Billboard 200’s top 10. SZA at Variety Hitmakers, Presented By Sony Audio held at Nya West on December 2, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

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More than two and a half years after it was initially released, SZA’s SOS is somehow still counted among the most successful albums in America. The R&B superstar’s massively popular project doesn’t just perform well on Billboard’s genre rankings — it appears inside the top 10 on every tally in America on which it finds space. That includes the Billboard 200, the most competitive albums roster, and as it earns another stay inside the uppermost tier, the set makes history.

A Historic First Among Female-Led Albums

SOS dips from No. 8 to No. 10 on the Billboard 200. The project barely manages to hold on inside the top 10, but as it does, Billboard notes that it becomes the first album by any female artist to live inside the chart’s uppermost region for triple-digit frames.

SZA Joins Morgan Wallen

Looking specifically at albums pushed by individual artists – as opposed to soundtracks and cast recordings – SOS is just the third release in American history to rack up 100 turns inside the Billboard 200’s top 10. The other two are by country powerhouse Morgan Wallen, who’s managed the feat twice. His album Dangerous: The Double Album leads all titles with 165 turns inside the top 10, while One Thing at a Time earned 121.

SOS Holds Inside the Top 10 on Multiple Charts

The Billboard 200 is the only chart in the U.S. where SOS falls. SZA holds in the runner-up spot on the Top R&B Albums ranking and at No. 3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tally. SOS is steady in seventh place on the Top Streaming Albums chart, which is not focused on any one style, but rather lists the most played collections regardless of length, language, or genre in America.

13 Weeks at No. 1

SOS has spent 140 weeks on the Billboard 200, and only 40 of those have been somewhere outside of the top 10. The project, which arrived on the chart in December 2022, spent 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 throughout several years. It lags behind Ctrl as her longest-running win, as that No. 3-peaking behemoth has thus far collected 427 stays somewhere on the Billboard 200.