Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran recently made the 2016 Guinness World Records Book which comes out on September 10. What record did Swift set? If you guessed she made the respected records book for her almost 52 million Twitter followers, you would be wrong. Someone else got that honor. If you guessed she made it for the most times being disrespected by Kanye West, you would be double wrong. She is a record holder for the most million-selling weeks on U.S. album charts.
She is the only entertainer to achieve three million-selling weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart since the beginning of sales tracking in 1991. Her studio album Speak Now sold 1.047 million copies in 2010 while Red sold 1.208 million in 2012 and her 2014 album 1989 sold 1.287 million copies. Swift has come a long way since her 2006 debut with the song Tim McGraw. In the brief nine-year period she has risen from an instant country singing star to possibly the most popular current singer in the world.
As fate would have it Swift is in the Guinness World Records Book with her close friend Sheeran, the UK sensation who made a guest appearance on her fourth album Red. Sheeran’s record is for the longest climb through the rankings to the top on the U.K. singles chart. His 2014 song Thinking Out Loud started at number 26 but crept slowly through the rankings for 19 weeks before becoming number one on November 8, 2014.
The two records address two phenomena. One is the amazing, meteoric rise of Swift and the other is the incredible tenacity and staying power of Sheeran. Taylor’s Guinness record speaks volumes about how far she has come and how fast her fame has risen since singing Tim McGraw, her first song, in 2006.
The two met when Swift contacted Sheeran in 2012 about helping her write and sing the song Everything Has Changed together. The song was for her Red album. 150 million views later the music video version of the song is still popular. Sheeran was a special guest with Swift on the 2013 Red tour.
Records are not a strange thing to Swift. What other records can she claim? Would you believe the most concurrent U.S. Hot 100 hits by a female artist. That would be eleven hits at one time on the U.S. Hot 100 chart. How about the song We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together making to the iTunes singles number one ranking just 50 minutes after it was released. That’s the fastest-selling digital single in the history of music record keeping.
So what does the future hold for these two record makers whose paths have crossed over the years? Is there a romantic connection or is it just about songs and singing? As for the pop princess the news is spreading that she is seeing Scottish DJ Calvin Harris. They have been seen together recently and in an interview on KISS FM he said that he has never been happier. Meanwhile Forbes has reported that they recently became the world’s highest paid celebrity couple with combined earnings of $146 million over this last year. That averages out to over $16 million for each of the years since Swift began her career in earnest. All of that in one year of doing what she enjoys and now she appears to be sharing it with someone else.
Meanwhile Sheeran’s social media site shows him touring the United States from Houston Texas in early September across the Southern states to Nashville, Atlanta, Florida and up to Minnesota and beyond. Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have made the 2016 Guinness World Records Book together but their paths appear to be going in different directions.
By Lloyd Gardner
Source:
ABC News Radio Online, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift Make 2016 Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records.com, Taylor Swift Enters Guinness World Records 2016
Daily Mail UK, Smitten Calvin Harris-Gushes Insanely Happy Relationship Girlfriend Taylor Swift Dismisses Marriage Rumours
Image source:
Top Photo Courtesy of Craig ONeal Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
