Taylor Swift takes on ex Harry Styles in the charts for number one album
SEVEN years after their bitter break-up, popstar exes Taylor Swift and Harry Styles are going head to head once again.
The former couple, whose whirlwind three-month romance had their rabid fanbases hooked between 2012 ad 2013, are locked in a battle for this week’s No1 album.
Taylor is currently leading the way with her second surprise record of 2020, Evermore, which already spent a week at the top before Christmas, while Harry is right behind her with his sophomore LP Fine Line.
The record, which peaked at No3 following its release in December 2019, has enjoyed a boost in sales after Harry danced with Fleabag star Phoebe Waller Bridge in the glitzy video for Treat People With Kindness, which premiered on New Year’s Day.
Taylor and Harry split after an “almighty row” on a disastrous holiday to the British Virgin Islands over New Year’s 2013, after which both parties aired their dirty laundry in songs.
Harry is said to be the inspiration for Taylor’s Out of the Woods - which she admitted was about “a relationship living day by day, wondering where it was going, if it was going to go anywhere” - and Style from her 2015 record 1989.
Harry, meanwhile, took aim at an ex who used him as “someone to write your break-up songs about” in One Direction's penultimate single Perfect.
Finally opening up about Taylor’s tracks last March, the heartthrob claimed: “I think about what it means to me to write a song about somebody else, and for someone else to do that, I think it’s flattering.
“Even if the song isn’t that flattering, you still spend time on it, and ultimately, using Taylor as an example, she’s a great songwriter.”
TAYLOR VS. HARRY
NO 1 ALBUMS
Taylor: Six
Harry: Five (four with 1D)
TOP 10 SINGLES
Taylor: 17
Harry: 18 (14 with 1D)
RECORD SALES
Taylor: 200 million
Harry: 88 million (with 1D)
SOCIAL MEDIA FANS
Taylor: 308.2 million followers
Harry: 87.2 million followers
NET WORTH
Taylor: £264 million
Harry: £63 million
RECORDS
Taylor Swift: Female artist with the most weeks at No1 on the US charts, fastest female artist to score six UK No1 albums.
Harry Styles: Biggest one-week album sales by a UK male artist in the US, first solo male to cover Vogue.
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Despite Taylor insisting that her new releases have been less autobiographical, fans have even speculated that she sings about Harry on Evermore, accusing her of adopting a British accent for the track Closure, which is about her rejecting a “fake” and “unnecessary” apology from an ex “reaching across the sea”.
The singer is now loved-up with her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn, who she has been with for three years.
Meanwhile, The Sun revealed today that Harry is dating Olivia Wilde - who is 10 years his senior.