After near decade, Beyonce back on top of US song chart

NEW YORK

Beyonce, with little argument one of the top stars in pop music, ended on Dec. 11 an unlikely drought - nine years since she had a number-one U.S. song.

Beyonce hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her new duet with Ed Sheeran on a remix of the English songwriter’s “Perfect,” a tender guitar ballad.

The song sold 181,000 digital downloads in the week through Thursday on the benchmark U.S. singles chart, which also tracks streaming and radio airplay.

“Perfect” is Beyonce’s first tune to lead the Hot 100 since December 2008 with “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” her blockbuster dance anthem of female empowerment.

Beyonce moved in a more experimental direction with her latest album “Lemonade.”

But she initially released it last year as an exclusive on Tidal, the streaming service led by her husband Jay-Z, impeding the chart performance of individual tracks.

“Drunk in Love,” her duet with Jay-Z off her self-released 2013 album, only reached number two on the Hot 100.

The longest gap between number one songs in the chart’s history belongs to Cher, who waited nearly 25 years between her 1974 hit “Dark Lady” and her 1999 chart-topper “Believe.”