Madonna and Michael Jackson have reunited on the Billboard 200’s top 10 in a rare chart milestone that has happened only twice in nearly 25 years.
With her latest studio album, Confessions II, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated July 18, Madonna returns to the summit while Jackson’s iconic Thriller rises to No. 8, marking just the second occasion the two music legends have occupied the chart’s top 10 at the same time.
Their only previous appearance together in the top 10 came on the chart dated December 1, 2001. At the time, Jackson’s Invincible was in its third week, sitting at No. 4, while Madonna’s greatest hits collection, GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2, debuted at No. 7. Both albums slipped out of the top 10 the following week.
Given their extraordinary chart dominance, the rarity of the achievement may come as a surprise. During the 1980s alone, Madonna and Jackson spent a combined 57 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. However, their biggest albums often arrived at different times, preventing them from sharing the chart’s upper tier.
They came closest in 1987 when Madonna’s Who’s That Girl soundtrack was leaving the top 10 just as Jackson’s Bad debuted at No. 1. Although the albums never overlapped inside the top 10, they spent several weeks together in the top 15.
Across their careers, the pair released top 10 albums within six months of each other on only four occasions: in 1987, 1995, 2001 and 2009. Madonna has since amassed 24 top 10 albums, including Confessions II, while Jackson earned eight top 10 albums during his lifetime and posthumously, cementing both artists’ places among the most successful acts in Billboard history.
