The Lion King: The Gift, the Beyoncé-executive produced project that accompanied the release of the live-action remake of The Lion King, finished No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart in its debut week. It's her second effort released this year to crack the Billboard top 10, joining Homecoming: The Live Album, which dropped in April in conjunction with her Netflixdocumentary by the same name.
What makes The Gift her third album in the top 10 on the Billboard 200 is the arrival of Lemonade on all streaming services, exactly three years after its release solely on TIDAL. Beyoncé's sixth studio project managed to creep back up to No. 9. The presence of Homecoming: The Live Album and Lemonade simultaneously in the top 10 in early May made her the first female artist to achieve that feat since Lady Gaga had Joanne and The Fame return to No. 2 and No. 6, respectively, following her Super Bowl LI halftime performance.
Earlier this month, Beyoncé spoke with Good Morning America about what went into creating The Gift.
"This soundtrack is a love letter to Africa," she said. "I wanted to make sure we found the best talent from Africa and not just use some of the sounds and do my interpretation of it. I wanted it to be authentic to what is beautiful about the music in Africa."
The Gift scored 54,000 equivalent album units with 11,000 of which coming from album sales. Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran's No. 6 topped the chart for the second week in a row, while Nas' The Lost Tapes 2 bowed at No. 10.
