Summary Beyonce hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her new duet with Ed Sheeran.
NEW YORK (AFP) - Beyonce, with little argument one of the top stars in pop music, Monday ended an unlikely drought -- nine years since she had a number-one US 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 US 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."
