Rihanna’s recent return to music, with single Lift Me Up, from the black Panther: Wakanda Forever Soundtrack, has debuted at number one on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart this week. The track has also debuted at number one on the following Billboard charts: R&B Streaming Songs, R&B Digital Song Sales, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs.
“Lift Me Up,” has accumulated over 40 million streams on Spotify since it has been released on October 28th via Rihanna’s Westbury Road Entertainment imprint, along with Roc Nation, Def Jam Recordings and Hollywood Recordings. The official video on YouTube also has over 30 million views. “Lift Me Up,” was written by Rihanna, Ryan Coogler, Tems, and Ludwig Göransson,
The track was written to honor the life and legacy of Chadwick Boseman, who originally starred as T’Challa/Black Panther before passing away in 2020.Tems stated that, “After speaking with Ryan and hearing his direction for the film and the song, I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I’ve lost in my life, I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them. Rihanna has been an inspiration to me so hearing her convey this song is a great honor.”
The film the song is from, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, premieres in theatres on Friday, November 11th. “Lift Me Up” is Rihanna’s first single since her 2016 album, Anti. The album ended up peaking at number one on the Billboard 200 and has been on the chart for 340 weeks. It is currently at number 91 at the time of this article being written. On February 12th, 2023, Rihanna is going to be headlining the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVII. She will also be the first artist to headline the halftime show under Apple Music’s partnership with the NFL and Roc Nation.
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