SZA’s SOS needs no saving, as the singer started off the new year by continuing to top the charts, and securing herself a major milestone along the way.
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SZA’s successful sophomore album originally debuted on December 9, 2022, and spent 10 weeks dominating the Billboard 200 chart in late 2022 and early 2023. Then, two years later after the 23-track project arrived, SOS saw a resurgence on December 20, 2024 with the release of its deluxe edition, SOS Deluxe: LANA, which added 15 new tracks. Starting off 2025 making waves and Women’s history while she’s at it, SOS has claimed its 12th nonconsecutive week at No. 1 on the January 11 chart. FYI - Billboard combines all album versions for tracking.
According to Luminate, in the week ending January 2, SOS earned 130,000 equivalent album units in the United States, a 27% drop from the previous week. Streaming activity accounted for the bulk of this total, representing 166.31 million on-demand streams. The album also retains its top spot on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
With its 12 weeks at No. 1, SOS has achieved the longest reign for an R&B or R&B/hip-hop album by a woman since Whitney Houston’s self-titled debut, which led for 14 weeks in 1986. While the last R&B/hip-hop album to rack up at least 12 weeks at No. 1 was Drake’s Views, which led for 13 nonconsecutive weeks in 2016.
With two albums left to deliver under TDE, SZA left the Internet shooketh over the weekend when she shared what that might sound like. “To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music n get outta here . Then go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities,” the singer wrote on X. Whether she’s for real or not, only time will tell. So we’ll just be here hitting “Snooze.”