Beyonce: ‘Lemonade’ Debuts At The Top Of Billboard 200

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Beyonce’s latest album, Lemonade, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, according to a report by Billboard magazine. Lemonade is Beyonce’s sixth album. All six have debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200.

Beyonce first released Lemonade as a video album on HBO on April 23. This was followed by an exclusive streaming through Tidal. The 12-song album went on sale April 25 but is still available for streaming only through Tidal. Lemonade sold 653,000 units in its first week, giving Beyonce and her latest work the biggest week of any album so far in 2016 for both units sold and sales dollars. It also beats Beyonce’s own record for first-week sales of an album. Beyonce’s self-titled album from 2011 sold 617,000 in its first week according to Forbes. Some 485,000 of Lemonade‘s units sold last week were from full-album downloads.

Not only does the early success of Lemonade earn Beyonce the spot as biggest week of any album in 2016, it also breaks other records. Lemonade makes Beyonce the only performer to reach Number One on the Billboard 200 with their first six studio albums and the only performer to debut at Number One on the Billboard 200 with their first six studio albums. Beyonce’s previous albums were Dangerously in Love(2003), B’Day (2006), I Am… Sasha Fierce (2008), 4 (2011), and Beyonce (2011). Sales are expected to remain strong as Beyonce continues her Formation world tour that includes 19 U.S. cities, Edmonton and Toronto in Canada, and 16 European cities. At the writing of this article, 19 of the 40 remaining performances in Beyonce’s Formation tour are sold out.

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The Guardian said:

“It’s unlikely there will be many more albums this year that will unite high art and low in the same way as Beyoncé’s jaw-slackening latest.”

Hype has been building for Lemonade since Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance that many believed was racist. The Black Panthers, Malcolm X, Trayvon Martin, and Hurricane Katrina are all incorporated in some of the song’s on Beyonce’s latest. But for all the pre-release talk that centered around political and societal issues, Lemonade turns out to also be about a very personal journey taken by Beyonce. Some of the lyrics talk about marital infidelity, and listeners have been frantically trying to figure out the identity of “Becky with the good hair” that Beyonce references as the mistress of her husband.

The title of Beyonce’s latest album, Lemonade, comes from the old saying to which Beyonce’s grandmother Hattie subscribed: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Beyonce has turned it into a statement about female strength, endurance, and pragmatism. Lemonade tells a story of marital infidelity. Beyonce’s first reaction, which accounts for much of the album, is anger. Many of the songs are a self-examination, a journey through the many emotions experienced in the wake of betrayal. But the journey doesn’t end there. Lemonade ends with forgiveness and beginning again, stronger than before. So if this is the story of Beyonce and Jay Z, it seems there were rocky times, but the couple is moving on.

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According to Rolling Stone, Beyonce was born in Houston in 1981. She began performing at the age of seven, and was in her first group, Girls’ Tyme, in high school. Beyonce and fellow band members LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett competed on Star Search in 1992. They signed with Columbia Records in 1997 as Destiny’s Child. The group’s breakthrough album was The Writing’s on the Wall, which included their big hit single of 2000, “Say My Name.” The song won Destiny’s Child two Grammys and featured the highly-praised vocals of Beyonce. Band members changed, but Beyonce remained and became the standout talent of the group. In 2003, Beyonce released her debut solo studio album, Dangerously in Love.

Check out the official trailer for Lemonade below.

[Photo courtesy of Parkwood Entertainment/Handout/Getty Images]