Taylor Swift breaks UK chart records with album The Life Of A Showgirl

US pop superstar Taylor Swift has broken a string of UK chart records following the release of her 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl.

The singer has enjoyed the biggest opening week of her career, ending it with 423,000 combined chart units, the Official Charts Company said.

This is the biggest opening week for an album in the UK since Ed Sheeran’s Divide in 2017, and is the biggest for an international album in the UK this century.

Swift, 35, now has 14 number-one albums, meaning she has overtaken Elvis Presley’s record as the international artist with the highest number of chart-topping albums in the UK.

She matched this record earlier in the year and now pulls level with The Rolling Stones, who also have 14 number-one albums.

Since 2012, Swift has averaged more than one chart-topping album per year, and it has taken her just under 13 years to reach her 14th chart-topper.

This is the fastest time taken for any artist to notch up 14 number ones, according to the Official Charts Company.

The only artists to have obtained more number one albums are The Beatles and Robbie Williams, who both have 15.

The Life Of A Showgirl has also become the UK’s fastest-selling album on vinyl this century and has had the most UK album streams in a week, the Official Charts Company said.

The singer has also dominated the UK singles chart, with this week’s top three filled by three of her songs.

Catchy pop tune The Fate Of Ophelia, which debuts in the top spot, has earned the biggest first week for any Swift song, having amassed 132,000 chart units, the Official Charts Company said.

The song’s music video was released on October 6 and takes viewers behind the scenes of the life of a performer in a series of set-pieces and dance numbers, showing Swift as a platinum starlet reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, a 1960s-style go-go dancer and a bathing beauty in a Busby Berkeley–style musical.

It also shows her as the Ophelia of the John Everett Millais painting, which depicts the Shakespearean character from Hamlet.

At number two in the singles chart is Swift’s track Opalite, a song fans have speculated could be about Swift’s fiance, Travis Kelce, whose birth stone is opal.

Fans have speculated that a number of other songs could be about the NFL star including Wood and Eldest Daughter.

Swift has shed light on some of the lyrics following the album’s release and revealed that Elizabeth Taylor, which has debuted at number three, was inspired by a conversation she had with Kelce.

The song, named after the Cleopatra actress, follows in a long history of her songs referencing other famous people.

The Fate Of Ophelia is Swift’s fifth number-one single in the UK after Look What You Made Me Do, Anti-Hero, Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version), and Fortnight, featuring Post Malone.

The Life Of A Showgirl is Swift’s third album to top the chart in 2025, following Lover (Live From Paris) in February and The Tortured Poets Department, when it returned to number one in April.

It is also the first record she has released since she announced her engagement to Kelce in August and revealed in May that she had regained control over her back catalogue.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts, said: “What an incredible week for Taylor Swift, which has topped the many other incredible weeks of her career.

“Her list of achievements this week is extraordinary, not least the fact that The Life Of A Showgirl has just registered comfortably the biggest first week in the UK of her career.

“Taylor is bigger than she has ever been in the UK – and shows absolutely no sign of letting up.”