Music lovers everywhere have been rushing to theaters over the past week to hear Beyoncé as the voice of Nala in Disney’s live-action remake of The Lion King. Based off the Billboard 200 charts this week, they must’ve also been heavily listening to her amazing voice on the companion album The Lion King: The Gift, as the project now proudly sits in the No. 2 position.
While there’s much on the album worth streaming — “OTHERSIDE” is just heavenly to be honest — we can’t help but think the success is in part due to all the beautiful Black & POC girls in the world currently making the curated LP’s standout cut “BROWN SKIN GIRL” go viral.
The album’s top 5 debut reflected the box-office success of the film itself, with The Lion King bringing in $963 million USD in its first two weeks of screening according to Variety. The Gift garnered 54,000 equivalent album units in the U.S., with 11,000 of those being pure album sales as reported by Billboard. Many have been quick to note that this is Bey’s third top 10 placement this year, with the Coachella-geared HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM reaching No. 4 and her 2016 magnum opus LEMONADE returning to No. 9 back in May. As The Gift is exactly that in its approach to honoring Afrobeat and African culture as a whole, we’re hoping to see way more success and eye-grabbing visuals arrive from this project.
Listen to The Lion King: The Gift, a companion album curated by Beyoncé for Disney’s remake of ‘The Lion King,’ on all streaming platforms. Watch the visually-astounding extended cut of “SPIRIT” and accompanying music video for “BIGGER” below if you haven’t seen it already:
The post Brown Skin Girls Across the World Helped Beyoncé Debut at No. 2 With ‘The Lion King: The Gift’ appeared first on The Source.
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