Just before August arrived, Beyoncé marked her official return with RENAISSANCE, a 16-song body of work with additional assists from Beam, Grace Jones, Tems, Honey Dijon, Mike Dean, and more. In addition to receiving critical acclaim, the genre-bending album can now be considered Beyoncé‘s latest commercial success.
It’s now been confirmed that RENAISSANCE has entered the Billboard 200 at its top spot thanks to an impressive 332,000 first-week album equivalent units sold — the highest for a female performer this year. Out of that figure; 190,000 units were pure sales and the rest were garnered through more than 179 million streams. The new achievement also means that Beyoncé is now the first female artist in history to have her first seven albums top the aforementioned chart.
Over the weekend, Beyoncé liberated an EP filled with remixes of RENAISSANCE‘s lead single “BREAK MY SOUL” complete with new contributions from Terry Hunter, will.i.am, Honey Dijon, and Nita Aviance. Fans were also treated to a stand-alone update of “BREAK MY SOUL” that sees Beyoncé alongside pop icon Madonna. Dubbed “THE QUEENS REMIX,” the newest incarnation of the infectious cut was produced alongside The-Dream, Tricky Stewart, Isak Swing, Yeti Beats, Shep Pettibone, Frooty treblez, and WondaGurl, and utilizes parts of Madonna’s smash hit “Vogue.” The remix also mentions many of Beyoncé’s fellow peers and predecessors throughout:
“Strike a pose, love thy hater, woo, vogue, Queen Mother Madonna, I love ya, strike a pose, vogue, you know you can do it, Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold, vogue, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, vogue, Betty Davis, Solange Knowles, Badu, Lizzo, Kelly Rowl’, you know you can do it, Lauryn Hill, Roberta Flack, Toni, Janet, Tierra Whack, let your body move to the music, Missy, Diana, Grace Jones, Aretha, Anita...”
Press play on Beyoncé and Madonna’s “BREAK MY SOUL (THE QUEENS REMIX)” below.