(April 28, 2025). With the return of SZA’s blockbuster album SOS to No. 1 (from No. 3 last week) on the new Billboard 200 chart dated May 3, and with Kendrick Lamar’s GNX holding at No. 2 there, this week’s top two albums mark the first time in history that two co-headlining acts on a current tour occupy Nos. 1 and 2 on Billboard’s main album list simultaneously.
I’d offer that it’s also the first time that two albums with three-letter acronyms for titles occupied the top two positions, but that wouldn’t be true. Both these albums have been ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the same week twice before. Back in January, GNX sat in the runner-up spot when SOS vaulted to pole position due to increased activity caused by the newly released deluxe version, Lana.
Then in February, following the two artists’ record-breaking Super Bowl halftime performance, their albums were No. 1 and 2 again, this time with Kendrick’s high-performance, Buick-inspired model in the lead.
Now the albums are holding court again. And with their joint “Grand National Tour” having kicked off on April 19 and continuing through early August, it’s the first time two co-headliners have occupied the top two slots on the Billboard 200 while actively touring. This week the two superstars are rolling through Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. The tour’s first two stops — in Minneapolis and Houston — both sold out with more than 47,000 and 42,000 fans attending the two shows, respectively, making them last week’s highest grossing box-office draws as well.
What’s more, the dynamic duo’s “Luther,” a ballad from GNX that pays homage to the late great Luther Vandross, spends its 10th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100. It thus extends its record as the longest-running No. 1 single by either artist and is also now the longest-reigning No. 1 by a male-female duo, surpassing Diana Ross & Lionel Richie’s 9-week chart topper, “Endless Love,” from 1981 (which Luther ironically remade 13 years later with Mariah Carey).
Which co-headliners have previously come closest to simultaneously owning the top two albums?
It depends on how you count, but before SZA and Kendrick, there were a couple of other co-headline acts who’d both been in the top two of the Billboard 200 simultaneously while they were touring, except in the earlier cases, the two acts did it by way of collaborating on the same album.
In 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band collaborated on the album Planet Waves, which hit No. 1 on the chart dated February 16, during the last week of their joint tour (which had ended Feb. 14 that year).
It didn’t happen again until 2018, when the husband-and-wife team of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, billed as The Carters, joined forces on their album Everything Is Love, which entered and peaked at No. 2 in June while the two superstars were in the midst of their “On The Run II Tour.”
There were a few near-misses in this category. In 2011, Kanye West & Jay-Z topped the chart that August with Watch the Throne just a couple months before they embarked on the tour of the same name. Then, in 2014, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga famously collaborated on the No. 1 album Cheek to Cheek and toured together months after it had relinquished the top spot. And, most recently, Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Trust You” tour in 2024 followed their two No. 1 collaborations We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You by just months.
As for individual albums by each act…
There are several artists who’ve co-headlined tours while both acts were promoting their most recent individual albums that had already been No. 1 or No. 2. That list includes Guns N’ Roses and Metallica (1992), Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (2000), Jay-Z and Eminem (2010), Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw (2012), Jay-Z and Beyoncé (On The Run I, 2014), and Drake and Future (2016).
In none of those cases did both co-headliners concurrently and individually rank in the top two on the Billboard 200, neither before, during, nor after they were touring together.
But Jay-Z, who factors into four of the above near-miss examples, also plays heavily into the only other instance the blog could find where two co-headliners had individual albums in the top ten simultaneously while they were touring together. In August 2013, while in the midst of their joint “Legends of the Summer” stadium trek, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake both had former No. 1 albums in the top ten simultaneously for two weeks. On August 3, Jay’s Magna Carta… Holy Grail was at No. 1 while Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience was at No. 9. They each slipped a notch to Nos. 2 and 10, respectively, the following week.
A Generational Force
With their latest achievement, Kendrick and SZA have done what even some of music’s biggest names of the past could only come close to achieving. Co-headlining a sold-out stadium tour, topping the album chart together, and reigning over the Hot 100 with “Luther” — all at once — cements their status as a generational force. This week, their “Grand National Tour” isn’t just rolling across America’s highways; it’s helping make music history in Billboard as well.
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
You can also register for free (select the menu bars above) to receive notifications of future articles.
I must admit that I haven’t paid much attention to these artists. I still listen to Kendrick’s first release – love it. Sza; I have an interest in after seeing her in the movie ‘Just One of Those Days’ co-starring Keke Palmer. Okay young folk, I’m paying attention and listening to you. Do your thang!
Yeah, these two have become pretty hard to ignore lately. #dominating