Entertainment

Jhené Aiko scores first Billboard 200 No. 1 with Westside Whimsy

Kiran MachadoPublished 2d ago3 min readBased on 4 sources
Jhené Aiko scores first Billboard 200 No. 1 with Westside Whimsy
Photo by The Come Up Show / CC BY 2.0

Jhené Aiko has her first No. 1 on the US albums chart. Westside Whimsy opens at the top of the Billboard 200 dated Sept. 26, 2026.

The album earned 74,000 equivalent album units, the combined measure that turns streams, sales and track downloads into one album figure, in the United States in the week ending Sept. 17, according to Luminate via Billboard. It was announced on Sept. 8 and released on Sept. 11. That is a three-day run-up from reveal to release.

The total favours streaming. Of the 74,000 units, 70,000 were streaming equivalent albums, which equalled 71.33 million on-demand official streams, while 3,500 were album sales and 500 were track equivalent albums, where a set number of song downloads count as an album. The split put Westside Whimsy at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart and No. 25 on Top Album Sales.

It is the first R&B album by a woman to lead the Billboard 200 in 2026. The last R&B album to reach No. 1 before it was SZA’s SOS, which spent a 13th week at the top in May 2025.

Westside Whimsy is Aiko’s fourth full-length album and her first full-length studio album since 2020’s Chilombo. The new set includes collaborations with Ab-Soul, Larry June, Kendrick Lamar, Ohma and Tyga, including the Lamar duet ‘So Good’. Chilombo debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was later nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.

The No. 1 extends a long chart run. Westside Whimsy is Aiko’s sixth Billboard 200 top 10. Her first chart entry, Sail Out, debuted and peaked at No. 8 in November 2013. The gap from that debut on the Nov. 30, 2013-dated chart to this first No. 1 is 12 years and 10 months.

Elsewhere on the new chart, Ella Langley’s Dandelion falls to No. 2 with a little more than 60,000 equivalent album units, down 11%. The full Sept. 26-dated Billboard 200 will be posted on Billboard’s website on Sept. 23, one day later than usual because of the observance of Yom Kippur on Sept. 21.

What makes this stand out is how little of the result came from traditional sales. Only 3,500 units were album sales. The rest came from listeners pressing play.

Away from the chart, Aiko has also put her name to a Westside Whimsy fine jewellery collection with Awe Inspired, including necklaces, creative pendants and dual-purpose rings.

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