Singer Taylor Swift scores 16th No. 1 hit on Billboard Hot 100 — Rolling Stone
Singer Taylor Swift has topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with her new single Patient Zero. It is the artist’s 16th song to reach No. 1 on this ranking. As Rolling Stone reports, it is also Swift’s fourth chart-topper this year, following The Fate of Ophelia, Opalite and I Knew It, I Knew You.
New tracks from The Encore
Patient Zero became the lead single from the expanded version of Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. The release also included the new songs Cleveland!, Pink Clouding and Babylon. All three tracks entered the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.
The Life of a Showgirl simultaneously returned to the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, where it is spending its 13th week. Patient Zero became the third single from the album to top the Hot 100. Earlier this year, The Fate of Ophelia became Swift’s longest-running chart-topper, holding No. 1 for nine weeks.
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Fourth chart-topper of the year
The new single displaced Ella Langley’s Choosin’ Texas from the top spot. That song had held the summit of the chart for 24 weeks since February. Swift also joined Rihanna as one of two solo artists to top the Hot 100 four times within a single year.
Several days after the release of The Encore, Swift unveiled a cinematic video for Patient Zero at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards. The video did not immediately appear on YouTube, as was the case with the visuals for The Fate of Ophelia and Opalite. According to the publication, previous videos from the album were initially shown in cinemas or exclusively on Spotify and Apple Music.
