Rihanna Sets Chart Record In UK With ‘Talk That Talk’

Over the past week, Rihanna’s sixth LP Talk That Talk sold 160,000 copies in the UK, enough to land atop the album chart while her Calvin Harris collaboration “We Found Love” also enjoys a sixth week in the peak position on the singles chart. The Barbadian singer has thus become the first female artist to simultaneously have a #1 single and album on the UK charts twice in the same year. (Both Loud and “What’s My Name” pulled off the same feat back in January.) The last time any artist had simultaneous album and singles on top of the UK charts twice in one year was nearly 40 years ago, notes the Official Charts Company, when T. Rex’s Bolan Boogie and “Metal Guru” reached the pinnacle of the respective tallies in 1972.

Additionally, Rihanna is now the first female solo artist in UK chart history to land two #1 albums in the same year. She’s also now spent the most weeks (seven) at #1 on the UK singles chart in 2011.

Here in the States, however, Michael Buble is expected to cause a chart upset in the coming week with his holiday album Christmas, which will leave Rihanna and Nickelback to duke it out for the runner-up position on the Top 200.