I started off my morning making a very bold statement.
Drake is bigger than Beyonce though and that’s facts
— SpotlightFirst.com (@ClubTolu) October 10, 2016
Humble old me has had my mentions crucified ever since. To anger the BEYhive further I planned to write this blog giving six reasons why Drake really is the bigger artist in 2016. After doing some research and coming up to reason number two, I was feeling confident. Then I couldn’t find any more reasons. Reason number three almost ended up being weight and height.
I’ll admit here first that I was wrong. Beyonce may still be the bigger artist this year as she charted higher in more countries and she sold out larger stadiums and arenas worldwide on her Formation tour. Beyonce also collected more awards and accolades than Drake this year. This doesn’t take away from the fact that Drake is still having his biggest year in 2016. With that I’ll leave my initial 2 reasons below, unedited.
Reason Number One: Singles
Beyonce’s highest peaking single in the UK charts in 2016 was ‘Hold up’ at number 11 which remained on the charts for 12 weeks. ‘Sorry’ peaked at number 33 and ‘6 Inch’ featuring The Weekend at 35 before both falling off the UK charts completely.
Drake’s highest peaking single in the UK charts this year is ‘One Dance’ at number 1 which remained on the charts for 27 weeks (15 weeks at number one). Not including Drake features such as Rihanna’s ‘Work’ which peaked at number 2, Drake also had ‘Too Good’ and ‘Controlla’ both enter the top 20 this year at number 3 and 18 respectfully.
The only single to enter the Top 10 on the billboard charts from ‘Lemonade’ was ‘Formation’ and that peaked at number 10. ‘One Dance’ on the other hand managed to break the top 10 and made the number one position it’s home by staying there all summer 16.
Reason Number Two: Album Sales
Drake’s Views album is the biggest selling album released in 2016.
- It has spent the most weeks atop the Billboard 200 for an album by a solo male in more than 10 years. The last album by a male soloist to spend at least nine weeks at No. 1 was Usher’s Confessions in 2004.
- Longest consecutive rule atop the Billboard 200 since Adele’s 21 spent 10 weeks in a row at No. 1 in January-March 2012.
- Views is the first album by a solo male to tally at least nine consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since 1992.
- Views has drawn more than 1 billion on-demand audio streams for its tracks in the U.S. alone, becoming one of only seven albums to total such a stratospheric streaming sum.
Lemonade is Beyonce‘s sixth million selling album in U.S.
- Lemonade is 2016’s third-biggest-selling album and one of only two albums released in 2016 to sell at least one million copies. Drake’s Views, with 1.196 million sold, is the other. Adele’s 25 — which was released in 2015 — is 2016’s best-seller, with 1.334 million sold this year.
- Beyonce broke records this year too. She broke the record she previously tied with DMX, by becoming the first artist in the billboard chart’s history to have their first six studio albums debut at number one.