SZA’s ‘SOS’ Scores 100th Week at No. 1 on Top R&B Albums Chart
Written by djfrosty on January 8, 2025
SZA’s unsinkable SOS sails to a new milestone on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart, reaching its 100th week at No. 1 on the list, which began in 2012. The album – far and away the record holder for the longest run atop the chart – has more than double the weeks of any other title in the top slot and has spent only eight of its first 108 weeks on the chart outside the penthouse.
SOS crosses the triple-digit mark on the chart dated Jan. 11, with 130,000 equivalent album units in the corresponding Dec. 27, 2024 to Jan. 2, 2025, tracking week, according to Luminate. While its first 98 chart-topping weeks were exclusively from its standard issue, the last two frames received a boost from the SOS Deluxe: Lana edition, which arrived Dec. 20 and added 15 new cuts to the original 22-song tracklist. (All versions of the album are combined into one entry for data tracking and chart positions.)
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With SOS’ latest achievement on Top R&B Albums, here’s a review of the projects with the most weeks at No. 1 on the 12-year-old chart:
Weeks at No. 1, Album Title, Artist, First Week at No. 1
- 100, SOS, SZA, Dec. 24, 2022
- 40, After Hours, The Weeknd, April 4, 2020
- 33, 24K Magic, Bruno Mars, Dec. 10, 2016
- 27, Planet Her, Doja Cat, July 10, 2021
- 25, The Highlights, The Weeknd, Feb. 20, 2021
- 19, Lemonade, Beyoncé, May 14, 2016
- 18, American Teen, Khalid, Aug. 5, 2017
Released in December 2022, SOS was the long-awaited follow-up to SZA’s well-received 2017 full-length debut, Ctrl. The five-year wait sparked immediate fan fervor, causing SOS’ No. 1 entrances on the all-genre Billboard 200 and Top R&B Albums charts. The album quickly established dominance in the R&B sphere, spending its first 48 weeks on Top R&B Albums at No. 1 as hit singles such as “Kill Bill” and “Snooze” clocked 30 weeks and 32 weeks, respectively, atop the Hot R&B Songs chart. Thanks to its strong reception and high consumption numbers, SOS was the year-end No. 1 title on the Top R&B Albums chart for both 2023 and 2024.
While its standard edition already generated record-breaking results, the Lana deluxe addition should only expand SOS’ chart legacy. With 130,000 units in the latest tracking week, SOS pulled more than seven times the unit total of this week’s runner-up (which, by the way, is SZA’s Ctrl.) The Lana chapter could further extend well into the spring and summer, when SZA and Kendrick Lamar’s Grand National tour reaches nearly two-dozen stadiums in the U.S. and Canada.
Plus, even more music may be on the way. On Jan. 5, Terrence “Punch” Henderson Jr. — the president of SZA’s record label, Top Dawg Entertainment — posted on X, “Waiting for some clearances to clear up for the additional joints on the SOS Deluxe: LANA. Soon as that’s done it’s up!”