While Drake may have set numerous records with VIEWS, he still ended up taking a backseat to the gale force winds of Hurricane Beyoncé.
Her sixth studio album, LEMONADE, was named the best-selling album of 2016, as deemed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). In terms of pure sales (excluding streaming-only numbers), Bey’s album tallied 2.5 million copies to end The Year of the Monkey. That gives her the edge over the likes of Adele (25, 2.4 million), Drake (VIEWS, 2.3 million) and Metallica (Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, 2.1 million).
The HBO special for LEMONADE, recently, won a Peabody Award, alongside Donald Glover’s Atlanta.
In related news, Beyoncé also announced the Formation Scholars Program. A scholarship that will launch for the 2017-2018 school year, the goal of the Formation Scholars Program is to “encourage and support young women who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, conscious and confident,” according to its website.
At the moment, women who attend, are incoming students or are graduate students of either Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design and Spelman College are the only students who qualify for the program, and they must be studying creative arts, music, literature or African-American Studies.
