When Adele’s album “25” came out 10 years ago — featuring the hit “Hello” — it sold nearly 3.5 million copies out of the gate, breaking longstanding opening-week sales numbers. An astonished music industry assumed that in the new age of streaming, no album could ever top it.
Then came Taylor Swift.
“The Life of a Showgirl,” which came out Friday, has now surpassed Adele’s decade-old record. According to initial sales reports collected by the tracking firm Luminate, and reported to Billboard, “Showgirl” has logged the equivalent of at least 3.5 million sales in the United States in its first five days on sale, and it still has two days to go before the opening-week sales period ends on Thursday.
The success comes even as Swift navigates a mixed reaction to “Showgirl.” For an artist accustomed to receiving heavy helpings of praise from critics and fans, the responses have been all over the map, including some notably harsh reviews — Pitchfork gave it 5.9 out of 10, The Guardian two stars out of five — and many disappointed hot takes on social media among the usual hosannas.
“I welcome the chaos,” Swift said of the reactions in a video interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music. “I’m not the art police,” she added.
The rollout for “Showgirl” included an 89-minute “release party” in movie theaters over the weekend, which featured the premiere of a music video and behind-the-scenes segments that some critics compared to DVD extras. It drew $33 million at box offices in the United States and Canada, clobbering the total for the “The Smashing Machine,” the latest picture from the action star the Rock.
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The post Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Has Already Sold 3.5 Million, Beating Adele appeared first on New York Times.
