STREISAND's ELEVENTH #1 ALBUM

Brooklyn, can you hear me? Pretty sure they heard and loved Barbra Streisand when she brought her Barbra — The Music … The Mem’ries … The Magic! Tour to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Aug. 11, 2016. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage for BSB)

Barbra Streisand lands her 11th #1 album as Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway enters the Billboard 200 in the top spot. It beats out new albums by Florida Georgia Line (whose “H.O.L.Y.” is the year’s biggest country hit) and Britney Spears (whose “Make Me…” returns to the top 20 this week). To mark the achievement, here are 11 quick facts about Streisand’s album.

1. Streisand has the longest span of #1 albums in chart history, just shy of 52 years. She first topped the chart in October 1964 with People. Elvis Presley is in second place, with a 46-year span of #1 albums (May 1956 to October 2002).
2. Only three other artists have had 11 or more #1 albums: The Beatles (19), Jay Z (13), and Bruce Springsteen (11). Streisand and Jay Z were both born in Brooklyn. There must be something in the water.
3. Streisand expands her lead over Madonna as the female artist with the most #1 albums. Madonna has had eight. Madonna has twice come within one #1 album of catching Streisand, but Streisand will simply not be caught. Babs has added landed two more #1s to her total since Madonna last topped the chart (with 2012’s MDNA).
4. This is Streisand’s second studio album in a row to reach #1. She also topped the chart with 2014’s Partners. This marks only the second time in Streisand’s long career that she has reached #1 with back-to-back studio albums. She first accomplished the feat with 1993’s Back to Broadway and 1997’s Higher Ground.
5. Streisand, 74, is the second-oldest artist ever to notch a #1 album in the U.S. Tony Bennett was 85 when he topped the chart in October 2011 with Duets II.
6. Streisand has now had more #1 albums in the 2010s than she did in the 2000s — or the 1960s, the decade in which she soared to stardom. You probably know that Streisand has had at least one #1 album in every decade since the 1960s. She had one #1 album in the ’60s, three in the ’70s, two in the ’80s, two in the ’90s, one in the 2000s, and now has had two in the 2010s.
7. Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway is Streisand’s third album devoted to Broadway songs. All three have reached #1. The Broadway Album logged three weeks at #1 in early 1986. Back to Broadway debuted at #1 in July 1993. Only two other artists have hit #1 with a trilogy of albums linked by a common word in their title. The Beatles hit #1 with all three of their Anthology albums. Jay Z has hit #1 all three of his The Blueprint albums. (Lil Wayne has hit #1 with two of his four Tha Carter albums.)
8. This is the third time out of her past four studio albums that Streisand has beat out strong — seemingly unstoppable — competition to debut at #1. Love Is the Answer beat out albums Paramore and Mariah Carey (whose two most recent studio albums had debuted at #1). Partners edged out albums by Chris Brown (whose two most recent studio albums had debuted at #1) and Tim McGraw. Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadwayedges out albums by Florida Georgia Line (whose most recent studio album had debuted at #1) and Britney Spears.
9. The album also debuts at #1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart. It’s Streisand’s fifth album to reach #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., following A Star Is Born, Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2, Guilty, and Love Is the Answer.
10. This is Streisand’s 34th top 10 album. Since March 1956, when the album chart became a weekly feature in Billboard, only one artist has had as many or more top 10 albums. That’s the Rolling Stones, with 36. (Interestingly, the Stones haven’t added to their top 10 tally since late 2005. In that time, Streisand has amassed six top 10 albums — four studio albums, a compilation, and a live album. Who would have thought that, at this stage of their careers, the Stones would rest on their laurels, while Streisand would show some hustle?)
11. Streisand’s latest Broadway album arrives in what has been a very strong year for Broadway. Two Broadway albums, Hamilton and Sara Bareilles’s What’s Inside: Songs From Waitress, have made the top 10 in the past year. Hamilton, of course, has been a phenomenon. In June, it won 11 Tony Awards. The top award, Best Musical, was presented by… Barbra Streisand.

Florida Georgia Line’s Dig Your Roots debuts at #2. It just missed becoming the duo’s second #1 album in a row, following 2014’s Anything Goes. Dig Your Roots enters Top Country Albums at #1, displacing Dolly Parton’s Pure & Simple. (The cover of Dig Your Roots features childhood photos of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, the members of the duo. Streisand has already done this. The cover of 1965’s My Name Is Barbra was a photo of her at age five.)

Britney Spears’s Glory debuts at #3. It’s Spears’s 10th top five album. Glory debuted a bit higher than Spears’s previous studio album, Britney Jean, which debuted and peaked at #4 in 2013.

Top Songs

The Chainsmokers’ “Closer” tops the Hot 100 for the third straight week. “Closer” also moves up to #1 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart. It displaces Major Lazer’s “Cold Water” (featuring Justin Bieber and MØ), which spent five weeks on top. “Closer” is the first song by a duo to reach #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K. since Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s “Thrift Shop” (featuring Wanz) in 2013.

“Closer” heads Top Digital Songs for the fourth week, having sold 208K copies in the past week. That’s the heftiest weekly total since Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” debuted with sales of 379K in May. “Closer” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” are the only two songs to log four or more weeks at #1 on the digital sales chart so far in 2016. Timberlake’s smash headed the chart for 10 weeks.

“Cold Water” holds at #2 in its sixth week on the Hot 100. This is its fourth week at #2. Will it ever reach #1? Stay tuned.

The Chainsmokers’ previous hit, “Don’t Let Me Down” (featuring Daya), rebounds from #7 to #5 in its 29th week. This gives the Chainsmokers two songs in the top five simultaneously. The Chainsmokers are just the third duo to put two songs in the top five simultaneously. They follow Outkast, who doubled up for 14 weeks in 2003-04 with “Hey Ya!” and “The Way You Move”; Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who scored for three weeks in 2013 with “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us”; and twenty one pilots, who scored just last week with “Heathens” and “Ride.” (This week, “Heathens” jumps from #4 to #3 in its 11th week, while “Ride” drops from #5 to #7 in its 25th week.)

The Chainsmokers and twenty one pilots aren’t the only acts with two songs in the top 10 this week. Rihanna also rejoins the club. Calvin Harris’s “This Is What You Came For” holds at #6 in its 18th week, while her solo hit, “Needed Me,” returns to the top 10 by jumping from #11 to #10 in its 31st week.

Adele’s “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” drops out of the top 10 this week.

Britney Spears’s “Make Me…” (featuring G-Eazy) rebounds from #58 to #17 in tis seventh week in the wake of their performance of the song on the VMAs. This equals the song’s debut position.

Ariana Grande’s “Side to Side” (featuring Nicki Minaj) is this week’s top new entry at #31. The two stars performed the song at the VMAs. They previously teamed for the smash “Bang Bang” (which also featured Jessie J). That song reached #3 in 2014.

Lukas Graham land their all-important second top 40 hit as  “Mama Said” jump from #47 to #36 in its seventh week. “7 Years” logged four weeks at #2 earlier this year.

The Weeknd’s “The Hills” tops the 3 million mark in digital sales this week. The song topped the Hot 100 for six weeks in the fall of 2015. Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” tops the 2 million mark in digital sales this week. The song entered the Hot 100 at #1 in May.

Top Albums

Young Thug’s JEFFERY debuts at #7. It’s his second mixtape in a row to reach the top 10. Slime Season 3 hit #7 earlier this year.

Beyoncé’s  Lemonade rebounds from #13 to #8 in its 19th week in the wake of her performance and awards sweep at the VMAs.

Five albums drop out of the top 10 this week: Tory Lanez’s I Told You, Lindsey Stirling’s Brave Enough, Adele’s 25, DJ Khaled’s Major Key, and the Hamilton cast album.

Travis Scott’s sophomore album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, is expected to debut at #1 next week.