Queen Bey is on her way to making Billboard chart history with her new Lemonade album.
The diva’s latest release is set to debut atop the Billboard 200 chart dated May 14, according to industry forecasters. If Lemonade arrives atop the list, she will become both the first act to reach No. 1 with her first six studio albums, and also the first to debut at No. 1 with her first six studio sets.
Lemonade is on track to earn 550,000-plus equivalent album units in the week ending April 28, with 450,000 (or more) comprised of traditional album sales for the set.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the new May 14-dated Billboard 200 chart is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, May 1.
When Beyonce’s last album, her self-titled effort, debuted at No. 1 in 2013, she became the first woman to hit No. 1 with their first five studio albums. Presently, only three acts have taken their first five studio sets to No. 1: Beyonce, rapper DMX and folk group The Kingston Trio.
DMX is the only other act, aside from Beyonce, to debut at No. 1 with their first five studio efforts. The Kingston Trio reached No. 1 with their first five studio albums — between 1958 and 1960 — by climbing up the chart after debuting at a lower rank.
(A note regarding the first-five-studio-No. 1s achievement: Drake’s first five full-length albums to chart on the Billboard 200 all debuted at No. 1: two mixtapes released in 2015, and three studio albums between 2010 and 2013. Before that, his first chart entry was the No. 6 peaking So Far Gone EP in 2009. Drake’s fourth studio effort, Views, is scheduled for release on April 29.)
Beyonce previously debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 4 (in 2011), I Am…Sasha Fierce (2008), B’Day (2006) and Dangerously In Love (2003).
Leave a Reply