Rihanna returns to the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in five years

Rihanna has finally returned to the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the first time in over five years, with her new song Lift Me Up.

The song – which features on the soundtrack to Marvel’s highly anticipated sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – debuted at No. 2 on the singles chart for the tracking week of Oct. 28-Nov. 3, via Billboard.

It was Rihanna’s first time on the singles chart since appearing on DJ Khaled’s 2017 track Wild Thoughts with Bryson Tiller, though she couldn’t beat Taylor Swift, whose Anti-Hero is remained at the top of the rankings for the second week in a row.

Lift Me Up scored 48.1 million radio audience impressions, 26.2 million streams and 23,000 units sold in its first week, following its October 28 debut.

The track is the 34-year-old singer’s 32nd Billboard 100 hit, the fifth-highest by any artist or group in Billboard chart history, behind The Beatles (34), Madonna (38), Swift (40) and Drake (59).

Lift Me Up also landed at number two on the streaming songs chart, third on digital song sales, and sixth on radio songs.

The single debuted atop the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts.

There has been talk of a new Rihanna album since 2017, a year after the release of her last studio album, 2016’s Anti, although it’s unclear when it will be released.

Rihanna said in December 2018 that the album would be released in 2019, although that never happened.

The singer confirmed in a December 2019 Instagram post that the album was complete but she “refused to release it.”

It was announced in late September that Rihanna would headline the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, although some assumed that meant her new album would finally be out.

She revealed to The Associated Press that it was “not true” that she was preparing to release the album, although she acknowledged that she needed to get back to work on it.

“The Super Bowl is one thing. New music is another thing. You hear that, fans? before adding that she “has got to get to work” on her new album.

She added in another interview that the Super Bowl performance will “celebrate the music that I made.”

“It’s a challenge I was ready to take on and I’m really looking forward to taking it on. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire career.