Rihanna’s Return Single “Lift Me Up” is a Letdown with Mediocre Sales, “Wakanda” Soundtrack Has Slow Start on Charts

You’d think a new song from Rihanna, a new “Black Panther” soundtrack– they’d be big sellers, right?

But Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” released in advance of the soundtrack from which it comes, has been a sales disappointment. Luminate says the single has sold about 265,000 copies. It’s number 5 on iTunes, and has something like 34 million streams. But when it’s all added up, “Lift Me Up” is a letdown.

Meanwhile, the “Wakanda Forever” soundtrack landed at number 12 on Friday on the hitsdaildouble chart. Total sales came to around 28,000 copies. That’s about 12,000 fewer than Bruce Springsteen’s new album, “Only the Strong Survive.” The top two albums for last week were Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” (another 200,000) and Drake right behind her with 172,000 copies of “Her Loss,” his album with 21 Savage.