Taylor Swift's 'Lover' could be top-selling album of 2019
It's not clear whether or not Taylor Swift's new album "Lover" will hit the one million mark in its first week in stores, but it's certainly off to a huge start.
According to initial Nielsen Music sales reports, "Lover" sold about 450,000 copies Friday, the first day it was available. That beats the number of units The Jonas Brothers' comeback album, "Happiness Begins," previously the record holder for the biggest sales week of 2019, sold in an entire week.
"Lover" already had the biggest sales week for any album since Swift's 2017 album, "Reputation," which debuted at No. 1 with 1.2 million copies sold.
Billboard said that "Lover" will easily debut at the top and is projected to sell around 700,000 album units in its first week. Of course, a last-minute rally, or a huge boost from Monday night's MTV VMAs, where Taylor will perform, could send that total higher.
Swift goes into Monday's MTV VMAs with 10 nominations, seven of which are for her pro-LGBTQ video "You Need to Calm Down" -- including a nod for "Video for Good."
When the clip first dropped, some fans were surprised at Taylor's very public show of support for the gay community, but her friend Todrick Hall, the video's co-star and executive producer, said she's always felt that way.
"When I first met her, she definitely always supported the LGBTQ+ community, but it wasn't something that she was outwardly talking about...in her songs and doing activism for," he told ABC News. "And I would like to think that I've played even the smallest of parts in helping her come around and realizing how important it is for someone of her magnitude to be speaking out about it."
