It's official: Taylor Swift has set the record for the biggest digital sales week ever for a song by a woman.
"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" sold 623,000 in the week ending Aug. 19 -- according to Nielsen SoundScan -- and it thus debuts at No. 1 on Billboard's Digital Songs chart.
Not only is it the best week ever for a woman, but the second-largest ever overall. Only Flo Rida's "Right Round" has sold more in a week, when it debuted at No. 1 with 636,000 on the Digital Songs chart dated Feb. 28, 2009.
The previous high-water mark among female acts was Ke$ha's "TiK ToK," which moved 610,000 on the chart dated Jan. 9, 2010 (reflecting the busy post-Christmas week of 2009). Swift also nets the largest debut week among women, shattering the 448,000-unit start that was logged by Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (Feb. 26, 2011). ("Born This Way" racked up that figure after only three days on sale -- it bowed Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 and the SoundScan tracking week ends on Sunday of each week. Swift's song starts with a little over six days' worth of sales.)
As for Swift herself, her best previous sales week was racked by "Love Story," which sold 360,000 over Christmas 2008 (Digital Songs chart dated Jan. 10, 2009). Her highest debut week came with "Today Was a Fairytale," which sold 325,000 on the Feb. 6, 2010 chart.
Here is a look at the 10 top overall digital sales weeks, since SoundScan began tracking digital sales:
Sales, Title, Artist, Billboard Chart Date
636,000, "Right Round," Flo Rida, Feb. 28, 2009
623,000, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," Taylor Swift, Sept. 1, 2012
610,000, "TiK ToK," Ke$ha, Jan. 9, 2010
559,000, "Grenade," Bruno Mars, Jan. 8, 2011
542,000, "Somebody That I Used To Know," Gotye featuring Kimbra, April 28, 2012
521,000, "Boyfriend," Justin Bieber, April 14, 2012
509,000, "Born This Way," Lady Gaga, March 5, 2011
509,000, "Firework," Katy Perry, Jan. 8, 2011
493,000, "Payphone," Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa, May 5, 2012
467,000, "Low," Flo Rida, Jan. 12, 2008
As noted above, four of the top 10 largest weeks have been registered in 2012: Swift, Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," and the debuts of Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" and Maroon 5's "Payphone."
Swift's new single is the lead track from her upcoming fourth studio album, "Red," due out Oct. 22 on Big Machine Records. The song already crashed onto a number of Billboard's airplay charts this past Monday, debuting within the top 20 on the Pop Songs, Adult Pop Songs, Country Songs and Adult Contemporary charts.
It's expected that tomorrow, on the all-format Billboard Hot 100 chart, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" will make a huge jump up the tally. It debuted last week at No. 72 owed to airplay only.
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