I am still to this day shocked Check On It went #1 from Bey... that song is just a fun but hot mess and was never even promoted..
But in recent memory... Part Of Me, Thrift Shop and I was actually surprised by Diamonds, just because of how WFL smashed and it was so different I wondered if it would reach the top, but obviously it's Rih so it did
Not really. It was hot when it came out, everyone loved it, so it was expected. Also I think people wanted a solo Bey song since its been 3 years.
Black & Yellow. Like, who? What? Straight out of left field.
"B&Y" wasn't really unexpected. It had been building for months, then the white people latched onto it then of course it correlated with Super Bowl and the Steelers. Plus all the remixes, parodies, etc.