SZA’s ‘SOS’ Returns to No. 1 on Billboard 200 After Deluxe ‘LANA’ Edition Release
Written by djfrosty on December 29, 2024
After 22 months, SZA’s chart-topping SOS returns No. 1 on the Billboard 200, as the set jumps 15-1 on the Jan. 4-dated chart. It bolts back to the top thanks largely from activity generated by the album’s deluxe reissue on Dec. 20 (dubbed SOS Deluxe: LANA) that added 15 additional songs to the album. The set was originally released on Dec. 9, 2022, with 23 tracks. All versions of the album, old and new, are combined for tracking and charting purposes and continue to chart under the title SOS.
SOS surges to No. 1 with 178,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 26 (up 297%), according to Luminate. With its return to No. 1, the set collects an 11th nonconsecutive week atop the list, and its first since the March 4, 2023-dated chart. That 22-month gap between weeks at No. 1 is the longest for any album since the Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956.
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Notably, had the 15 new songs on the LANA deluxe edition of the album been released as a new stand-alone album, its track activity alone would have been enough for that stand-alone set to debut atop the list. (The 15 new songs generated 105,000 in SEA and TEA units. The No. 2 title this week, Michael Bublé’s former leader Christmas, earned 100,000 units from SEA, TEA and traditional album sales combined.)
SOS debuted atop the Billboard 200 dated Dec. 24, 2022, and logged 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the list through the March 4, 2023-dated chart. It has never left the weekly top 20 of the chart during the 107 consecutive weeks that it has spent on the list. SOS closed 2024 at No. 6 on the year-end Billboard 200 Albums chart, after it was No. 3 on the year-end list in 2023.
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200 chart, Frank Sinatra scores his first top 10-charting in over a decade, as his holiday compilation Ultimate Christmas vaults 17-10.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Jan. 4, 2025-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Dec. 31). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of SOS’ 178,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 26, SEA units comprise 167,000 (up 341%, equaling 220.22 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs; it hits No. 1 on the year-old Top Streaming Albums chart for the first time), traditional album sales comprise 10,000 (up 44%, rising 39-23 on Top Album Sales) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (up 1,744%).
A deluxe reissue of SOS had been in the works since at least February of 2023, and SZA first mentioned LANA as the name of the expansion in September 2023. The deluxe reissue was preceded by the Billboard Hot 100-charting hit “Saturn” (one of the 15 added tracks), which debuted and peaked at No. 6 in March.
The last R&B/hip-hop album with at least 11 weeks atop the Billboard 200 was Drake’s Views, which notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2016 (May 21-Oct. 8). SOS has the most weeks at No. 1 for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman, or an R&B album by a woman, since Mariah Carey’s self-titled debut spent 11 weeks, all consecutively, at No. 1 in 1991. (Honorable mention to the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to The Bodyguard, which logged 20 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1992-93. The 12-track album has six songs by Houston and six songs by other artists.) SOS has the most weeks at No. 1 for any R&B album since The Bodyguard’s 20-week reign. (R&B/hip-hop and R&B albums are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Top R&B Albums charts, respectively.)
At No. 2 on the latest Billboard 200, Michael Bublé’s former leader Christmas jingles 5-2 with 100,000 equivalent album units earned (up 47%). The set spent a total of five weeks atop the list in late 2011 and early 2012, following its release in October of 2011. It has climbed to No. 2 in four of the last six holiday seasons. With 100,000 units earned, Christmas tallies its largest week, by units, since the Billboard 200 began ranking by units in December 2014.
The Jan. 4-dated Billboard 200 is set to be the last chart of the holiday season to showcase high-ranking Christmas efforts, as the tracking week for the chart closed on Dec. 26, the day after the Christmas Day holiday.
Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas rallies 6-3 on the new Billboard 200, marking the late entertainer’s highest-charting effort since the Jan. 5, 1959-dated chart, when his former No. 1 Merry Christmas ranked at No. 2. Merry Christmas had previously spent a week at No. 1 on Jan. 6, 1958-dated chart.
Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song moves 11-4, matching its peak, with 84,000 equivalent album units earned (up 56%). Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping GNX falls 2-5 (76,000; down 24%), Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas rises 10-6 (nearly 76,000; up 36%), and Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 The Tortured Poets Department dips 3-7 (74,000; down 13%).
The Wicked film soundtrack falls 7-8 on the Billboard 200 with 71,000 equivalent album units earned (up 9%) and the festive compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector climbs 16-9 with 70,000 units (up 60%).
Rounding out the top 10 is Frank Sinatra’s Ultimate Christmas, climbing 17-10 with 63,000 equivalent album units earned (up 55%). The title — which previously peaked at No. 12 and reaches the top 10 in its 52nd week on the chart, dating to its December 2017 debut — is the late legend’s first visit to the top 10 since August 2012, when his 2008 hits package Nothing Best the Best returned to the top 10 (re-entering at No. 3 on the Aug. 25, 2012-dated list after sale pricing and promotion). Nothing had previously debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the May 31, 2008-dated chart.
Ultimate Christmas becomes Sinatra’s 33rd top 10-charting effort, the most among solo males. The Rolling Stones have the most top 10s, with 38. They are followed by Barbra Streisand (with 34), Sinatra and The Beatles, whom he passes (32).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.