I always knew that Beyoncé was a goddess sent down to us here on Earth to reward us for something very very good that I don't remember us doing, but nothing drives that point home more than finding out how many albums Beyoncé has sold as a solo artist. I knew that number was high, given that I have eyes and ears and a brain in my head, but I didn't realize how high, given that said brain has difficulty processing numbers over, say, a million, and Beyoncé has sold over 16 million records as a solo artist in the United States... alone. That sound you just heard? It was my brain shorting out of my head, because not only is that number dwarfed by the amount of albums Queen Bey has sold worldwide — 100 million — but it doesn't even include the sales of Lemonade yet, which, as of this writing, has already sold 653,000 units. So she's well on her way to tacking on yet another million to her total, just over a week after Lemonade's release, and I will say again that this is only her work as a solo artist.
I'm not even looking at what went on sales-wise during Beyoncé's time with Destiny's Child, because our girl is pulling such big numbers all by herself. Numbers that I'm not kidding when I say I can't even begin to wrap my head around, because they're just too damn high. The only thing that gives me a slight foothold into grasping how monumental these achievements are is the the newest milestone in her collection — I hope she wears it in her crown — the fact that Beyoncé just became the first and only solo artist ever to have their first six albums all debut at number one. Holy crap. Girl smashing records like:
That's insane, but I can at least understand it, and it gives me a little insight toward understanding the huge figures of 16 million and 100 million. And truthfully, the sooner I can let those sink in, the better, because they're only going to increase as Lemonade keeps selling. Congratulations, Beyoncé! You really are our Queen.
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