It’s a whimsical first for Jhené Aiko.
The 38-year-old Dominican and Spanish American R&B singer, songwriter, musician and record producer has earned her first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as Westside Whimsy debuts atop the tally dated September 26.
The set earned 74,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending September 17, according to Luminate.
It’s the first R&B album by a woman to lead the chart in 2026, and the first to rank at No. 1 since SZA’s SOS was tops for a 13th and final week in May of 2025.
The only other R&B set to hit No. 1 in 2026 was Bruno Mars’ The Romantic (March 14 chart). (R&B albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.)
Westside Whimsy was released on September 11, after it was announced on September 8. The project boasts collaborations with Ab-Soul, Larry June, Kendrick Lamar, Ohma and Tyga.
Westside Whimsy marks the singer-songwriter’s sixth top 10 overall on the Billboard 200, dating to her first chart entry and top 10, Sail Out, which debuted and peaked at No. 8 in November 2013.
The new set is Aiko’s first full-length studio album since 2020’s Chilombo, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 and was later nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Of Westwide Whimsy’s 74,000 first-week equivalent album units, SEA units comprise 70,000 (equaling 71.33 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs — it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart), album sales comprise 3,500 (it debuts at No. 25 on Top Album Sales; it was only available to purchase digitally, as physical editions are due in January) and TEA units comprise 500.
Aiko is the second act in 2026 to wait at least 10 years from a Billboard 200 chart debut to a first No. 1. Aiko went 12 years and 10 months from her debut with Sail Out (Nov. 30, 2013-dated chart) until her first leader. Earlier this year, Megadeth landed its first No. 1 with its self-titled set — nearly 40 years after the metal act’s chart debut in 1986.
The last soloist to wait longer for a first No. 1 was Andrea Bocelli in 2018: a little more than 20 years for his first leader, Sì. The last woman to wait longer than Aiko was Solange: 13 years and eight months between her chart debut in February 2003 and her first leader with A Seat at the Table in October 2016.
