Taylor Swift's re-recorded Fearless album just broke a major country music record
Taylor Swift hasn't been a country music star in many years, but that didn't stop her from coming for the country music record books in 2021.
Fearless (Taylor's Version), the re-recorded version of her 2008 album Fearless, which was released on April 9, became the biggest first-week debut of any country album in nearly six years with 291,000 equivalent album units sold and is the top overall album release of 2021 so far in the U.S., per Billboard.
This marks Swift's ninth consecutive no. 1 album, tying Madonna for the second-most No. 1 albums among women. In less than a year, the singer has notched three new No. 1 albums (Folklore and Evermore being the first two) and she becomes the first woman to do so. These albums also had the three biggest weeks among albums in units earned, according to Billboard.
At the time, the original Fearless was also a huge hit for Swift, catapulting her to the mainstream. In the U.S. alone, it sat atop the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks, was the top-selling album of 2009, and it won Album of the Year at the Grammys, the Country Music Association Awards, and the Academy of Country Music Awards. (The Grammy win made Swift the youngest person at the time to win Album of the Year, a record that was just broken by Billie Eilish last year.)
When it became clear the new album was headed for the record books, Swift celebrated with a hilarious video on her social media. "WELL WELL WELL you all really went out and left my greatest expectations in shambles this week. 😆 Word on the street is you made Fearless (my version) the biggest country album first week of the last 6 years and the top release of 2021 so far," she wrote alongside the video. "Honestly??? How?? Did I get this lucky???? I wanted to say thank you to you so today I will be addressing a very pressing issue.🐈🐈⬛❓"
The "pressing issue" addressed in the video, which you can see below, is what happened to her cat Meredith Grey, who hasn't been as present in Swift's posts of late. Turns out, the feline is just a little camera shy.
Fearless (Taylor's Version) is the first of the singer-songwriter's albums to get the re-recording treatment. The singer plans to remake her first six albums — which also include Taylor Swift (2006), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and Reputation (2017) — in a bid to finally own the masters to all of her work.
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