Swift Gets First #1 On Hot 100

One of the only elusive honors in Taylor Swift's enviable career is a reality at last, as the country/pop superstar scores her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" blasts from No. 72 to the summit in its second week.

Swift had claimed accolades including Billboard's Woman of the Year (2011) and No. 1s on the Billboard 200, Digital Songs, Radio Songs, Pop Songs, Country Songs and Country Albums charts, among others. She's sold 17.8 million albums in the U.S. and 50 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, since arriving with her self-titled debut album and introductory single, "Tim McGraw," six years ago.

Now, Swift has her first No. 1 on the Hot 100 (the 1,018th leader in the chart's 54-year history), where she had previously reached No. 2 twice, with "You Belong With Me" (2009) and "Today Was a Fairytale" (2010). Her multi-format smashes "Mine" (2010) and "Love Story" (2008) reached Nos. 3 and 4, respectively.

"Never," the lead single from Swift's fourth studio album, "Red," due Oct. 22 on Big Machine Records, soars to No. 1 on the Hot 100 fueled by a record 623,000 downloads sold in its first week, according to SoundScan. The sum marks the highest one-week digital sales total by a female artist and is second among all acts only to Flo Rida's "Right Round," which sold 636,000 the week of Feb. 28, 2009, also its debut frame. "Never" instantly becomes Swift's fourth No. 1 on the Digital Songs chart.

After the song was released late Monday (Aug. 13), the first two days of radio airplay for "Never" (aided by promotional play on more than 300 Clear Channel Media and Entertainment-owned stations) enabled the song's No. 25 start on Radio Songs last week (40 million all-format audience impressions, according to Nielsen BDS). Following is first full week of radio availability, "Never" jumps 25-14 (52 million, up 29%) on Radio Songs. As previously reported, the song enters a host of genre airplay charts this week, including Country Songs, where its No. 13 launch is the highest by a woman in the 22 years that BDS data has powered the survey.