Beyoncé's Upcoming Album, Renaissance
Ring the alarm, singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress Beyoncé is finally releasing new solo music after a lengthy six-year hiatus. The legendary performer surprised fans with her announcement of her upcoming album on Instagram with the release of her cover shoot for British Vogue for July 2022. According to TIME magazine, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful called the singer’s upcoming album her “most ambitious musical project to date. “[It’s] music that makes you rise, that turns your mind to cultures and subcultures, to our people past and present, music that will unite so many on the dance floor, music that touches your soul.”
Her seventh studio album aptly named Act I: Renaissance is set to include 16 tracks that will be of the “dance and country variety” according to Variety. Her previous albums, including Lemonade (her most recent solo release in 2016), also showcased hip-hop and country influences. In her last release, a duet album entitled Everything is Love (2018) with her rapper, businessman husband Jay-Z, she strayed from her Texas background and focused more on hip-hop. The last music that Beyoncé released was in 2019, when she put out the live-album recording of her headlining Coachella performance entitled Homecoming, and The Lion King: The Gift album after the release of the live-action film.
Her highly-anticipated upcoming album is scheduled to be released on July 29, 2022 through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, and is currently only available to pre-save on TIDAL, Jay-Z’s streaming platform founded in 2014. According to Variety, the album will feature “contributions from hit songwriter Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote her 2008 hit “Halo” as well as hits for Adele, Taylor Swift, the Jonas Bros. and his own group, OneRepublic. Also said to be involved is Raphael Saadiq, who has crafted hits for Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo, Stevie Wonder, John Legend and Andra Day.”
In honor of Juneteenth, on June 20, 2022, Beyoncé released the lead single on her new album “Break My Soul.” The song, which fits into the house/dance genre, is all about embracing the new and getting rid of the old. While making listeners want to dance in a club in New York, Beyoncé remarks on her return to music and talks about finding “new motivation.”
I’m counting down the days till the album release, and I hope you are too! I can’t wait to jam out to the album of the summer, Act I: Renaissance.
