On the Charts: Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ Stirs Up Number One
Beyoncé‘s surprise new album Lemonade stormed to Number One on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the best-selling week of 2016. Since debuting April 23rd on HBO – and after a period of Tidal streaming exclusivity before it became available for purchase – Lemonade sold 576,000 total copies. Of the LP’s impressive first week totals, 485,000 copies came from full album downloads. The physical edition of Lemonade arrives May 6th.
Lemonade marked Beyoncé’s sixth Number One album – all of her studio albums hit the top spot – as the singer became the first artist ever to top the Billboard 200 with their first six albums, Billboard reports.
Music fans continued to remember Prince the week following the singer’s death as five albums and compilations from Prince‘s catalog occupied the Billboard 200’s top seven releases. Lemonade‘s huge week kept The Very Best of Prince from repeating as a chart topper, but the greatest hits collection sold an additional 391,000 copies in the first full week since Prince’s death; last week, The Very Best of Prince claimed Number One with less than 24 hours of album sales.
Prince’s 1984 classic Purple Rain took Number Three with 150,000 total copies, followed by The Hits/The B-Sides compilation at Number Four with 106,000 total copies. Another best of disc, Ultimate scored Number Six while Prince’s landmark 1999 grabbed Number Seven and 36,000 total units. For comparison, 1999‘s previous Billboard 200 peak was Number Nine in 1983.
Rihanna’s Anti slid in between the Prince albums, staking Number Five. Besides Lemonade, only one new release – A$AP Ferg’s Always Thrive and Prosper at Number Eight – managed to infiltrate the Top 10. Chris Stapleton’s Traveller (Number Nine and Justin Bieber’s Purpose (10) closed out the upper rung.
Next week, both Beyoncé and Prince are expected to step aside for Drake‘s Views, as the rapper himself boasted that his new LP sold over 500,000 copies in the 24 hours following its Friday release. Billboard estimates that Views‘ total could grow to over 800,000 copies, making it the heavy favorite to snatch Number One and Beyoncé’s 2016 sales record this time next week.
Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ featured Jay Z, daughter Blue Ivy, and many high-profile collaborators. Here’s everything you need to know about the visual album.