In her first solo project since 2016, Beyoncé has announced her return with the upcoming album, “Renaissance,” set to come out next month. The album announcement was accompanied by a new cover spread in British Vogue and four top-secret box sets commemorating the album, which all include a t-shirt and a CD.
Her most recent solo album, “Lemonade,” simultaneously broke the internet and records, becoming 2016′s best-selling album and receiving universal critical acclaim. While she hasn’t released a solo album since then, she has still been pretty busy. She and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, released a collaborative album in 2018 called “Everything is Love” under the name The Carters.
In 2018, she headlined Coachella, becoming the first African-American woman to do so, and released that performance widely with “HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM,” in 2019 to accompany the Netflix documentary which followed her journey to the festival.
Beyoncé also waded back into the acting world in 2019, playing Nala in the live-action Lion King film. To accompany the film, she released “The Lion King: The Gift,” an album she curated that featured performances from Kendrick Lamar, Burna Boy and Childish Gambino.
She’s also released multiple singles in the past few years, including “Be Alive,” to accompany the Oscar-nominated film “King Richard,” which gave her her first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
Beyoncé has become known for her elaborate album rollouts, which first started with her self-titled album in 2013, which she dropped out of nowhere with music videos to accompany each song. This pattern only escalated with “Lemonade,” and her career since has been marked by her extremely controlled privacy around her actions.
Her notably intense fans, nicknamed the “BeyHive,” have erupted in excitement for this upcoming album.
“Renaissance” is set to drop July 29th, and we can probably expect more surprises from Queen B over the next few weeks.
