Beyonce blasts onto the chart at No. 10 with “Formation.” The song, from her album Lemonade, which roars onto the Billboard 200 at No. 1, is her 16th solo Hot 100 top 10 and first since “Drunk in Love,” featuring Jay Z, which reached No. 2 in February 2014. (Beyonce has also notched 10 top 10s as part of Destiny’s Child.)
“Formation” bows with roughly two-thirds of its Hot 100 points from sales, as it starts at No. 3 on Digital Songs with 174,000 sold, having gone on sale April 25. It also enters Streaming Songs at No. 43 (6.5 million) with almost all its streaming points from Tidal, which holds exclusive streaming rights to Lemonade. (A nominal portion of streaming points is from user-generated clips featuring the song’s official audio.)
“Formation,” which also re-enters Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at a new high of No. 6, had bubbled under the Hot 100 and rose to No. 33 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs in March, driven by airplay, when it was not available for purchase (and Tidal did not report the song’s streaming totals to Nielsen; none of its streams prior to April 23 were reported by Tidal to Nielsen). The track first made waves in early February, as Beyonce performed it live during the Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show (Feb. 7).