Renaissance (Beyoncé album)
Renaissance is the seventh studio album by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. Released on July 29, 2022, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, it is the first installment of a planned trilogy of albums. Beam, Grace Jones, and Tems appear as guest vocalists on the album.
Beyoncé conceived and recorded Renaissance during the COVID-19 pandemic, intending to inspire joy and escapism in listeners after a period of collective isolation. Celebrating the club culture that served as a refuge for Black and queer communities, the album pays homage to the pioneers who shaped those spaces. Arranged like a continuous DJ mix, Renaissance incorporates post-1970s Black dance music styles—such as disco, house, funk—and pays homage to the overlooked contributions of the pioneers who shaped those genres. Its lyrical themes center on escapism, hedonism, confidence, and self-expression.
The album was promoted with the Renaissance World Tour in 2023 and an accompanying concert film. Renaissance became Beyoncé's seventh consecutive album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, and has since been certified platinum. It also reached number one in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK. Four singles supported the album, including the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one "Break My Soul", the top-ten song "Cuff It"; and "Virgo's Groove" and "America Has a Problem".
Renaissance received critical acclaim for its eclectic yet cohesive sound, celebratory tone, and Beyoncé's vocals. It topped year-end lists from major outlets, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone; the lattermost later included it on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". By winning four of its nine nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards—including Best Dance/Electronic Album—Beyoncé became the most awarded individual in Grammy history. The second installment of the trilogy, Cowboy Carter, followed on March 29, 2024.
Background and conception
In the latter half of the 2010s, Beyoncé released several critically acclaimed, narrative-driven projects that explored the legacies of Black musicians and artists, including 2016's Lemonade; her 2018 Coachella performance and the Netflix film and live album that documented it; and 2019's The Lion King soundtrack album The Gift and its visual companion, 2020's Black Is King.Beyoncé told British Vogue that the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic changed her as a person, stating that she has "spent a lot of time focusing on building my legacy and representing my culture the best way I know how. Now, I've decided to give myself permission to focus on my joy." Further, she called this period the most creative time in her life as she sought to escape feelings of isolation by recording new music. As lockdowns began to end, Beyoncé told Harper's Bazaar that "we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible."
Beyoncé sought inspiration in post-1970s Black ball culture, dance music and club culture. Beyoncé noted that she was largely introduced to this culture by her "Uncle" Johnny, her gay cousin who helped raise her until his death during the AIDS epidemic. Further, she wanted the album to be a celebration of the underappreciated pioneers of dance music, whose contributions had been unrecognized in the mainstream.
Renaissance was heavily influenced by Studio 54. Beyoncé wanted to challenge listeners with songs of longer length, bridges, vamps and melody in a musical landscape where it was lacking. An early version of "Thique" was made in 2014, but the track did not fully materialize until Beyoncé picked it back up again 8 years later for the album.
Cover artwork
On June 30, 2022, Beyoncé revealed the album's cover art, shot by fashion photographer Carlijn Jacobs, on her social media accounts. In the image, she is seated atop a mirrored disco ball horse in a 3D printed silver bodysuit designed by Nusi Quero. The piece is helix-shaped, detailed with spikes and embellished with crystals. Critics interpreted the equestrian pose as an allusion both to John Collier's 1897 painting Lady Godiva and to photographs of Bianca Jagger riding a horse into Studio 54.An alternate cover image for the vinyl release features Beyoncé atop the same horse, but "wearing a white cowboy hat with a silver headpiece that hides her hair" and "sparkling silver chains that drape her arms and legs, as white, feathery poofs hang along the body of the horse". Behind her lies Luca Giordano's 1690 painting La Conversion de Saint Paul, depicting the Conversion of Paul the Apostle.
She continued the horse motif on her next album, Cowboy Carter.
Composition
According to critics, Renaissance has an "innovative" and "playful" approach to genre, blending and shifting between several styles, primarily various genres of post-1970s black dance music. Described as a dance, house, pop, and R&B album, its songs incorporate elements of a wide variety of sub-genres, namely bounce, Detroit techno, dembow, reggaeton, garage, Afrobeats, boogie, funk, gospel, Miami bass, psychedelic soul, hip-hop, trap, gqom, new jack swing, Jersey club, Chicago house, deep house, electro house, hip house, synth-pop, hyperpop, dancehall, and nu-disco.The tracks are connected by seamless transitions facilitated by beatmatching, evoking a DJ mix. This reflects "the shifting moods and the physicality of the dance floor" rather than "the constraints of a radio station or a playlist", according to The New Yorker
Lyrically, Renaissance contains themes of escapism, self-assurance, self-expression, hedonism and pleasure, with Beyoncé inspiring joy and confidence in listeners. According to The Guardian, it "urg listeners to wholeheartedly embrace pleasure", particularly referencing joy in Black culture. The album's lyrics emphasize dance as both a measure of personal catharsis and a liberating spiritual practice.
Beyoncé collaborated with, sampled and interpolated several progenitors of dance music on the album, including both mainstream and underground artists. This made the album a celebration of Black and Black queer dance culture, with Vulture
Promotion and release
Beyoncé originally intended to release Cowboy Carter as the first installment of her trilogy project, but explained that "with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world", and so released Renaissance first, because " deserved to dance."Beyoncé began to tease a new album on June7, 2022, by removing her profile picture from all of her social media platforms. Four days later, the text "What is a B7?" appeared on the homepage of the singer's official website. Fans noticed that the website also had a placeholder for "B8", interpreted as referencing an eighth studio album. Beyoncé officially announced the album and released the pre-sale for Renaissance on her website and digital streaming platforms the following day.
After first joining TikTok in December 2021, Beyoncé posted her first video, a compilation of people "dancing, vibing, and singing along" to Renaissances lead single, "Break My Soul", on July 14, 2022. Further, she made her entire catalog available for use on the platform, attracting significant media attention. Two days before the scheduled release, on July 27, the album arrived in retailers in France and eventually leaked onto the Internet.
The album was released on July 29, 2022. Upon the album's release, Beyoncé posted a note on her website revealing that Renaissance is the first part of a trilogy project that she recorded over the past three years, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Critics opined that Renaissance appeared to be getting a more conventional rollout than a number of Beyoncé's previous albums, which were surprise releases, an approach Beyoncé herself was credited with popularizing. The New York Times wrote that the album's rollout reflected its throwback themes and music, with Beyoncé eschewing an exclusive digital release and instead releasing elaborate vinyl and CD packages. This ushered in a revival of CD sales, according to Billboard.
However, despite Beyoncé's decision to forego a surprise release, Renaissance's rollout quickly proved to be unconventional and disruptive in several other ways. Beyoncé kept her public appearances to a minimum, foregoing interviews and promotional efforts, and mostly keeping her communication limited to subtle clues, Easter eggs, and messages placed throughout her online media. She also completely avoided promotional live performances for the album until the Renaissance World Tour. Her only other performance following the album's release was a private concert at Atlantis The Royal, Dubai in January 2023, but, despite anticipation, the set list did not contain any material from Renaissance. Most notably, Beyoncé has eschewed a traditional release schedule for music videos. As of now, there are no official music videos available to accompany the songs from the album as part of its promotional efforts.
Singles
On June 20, 2022, Beyoncé announced the album's lead single, "Break My Soul", would be released at midnight Eastern Time on June 21, to coincide with the 2022 summer solstice. The song appeared on music streaming service Tidal hours early, on June 20, and a lyric video was later released on YouTube. The song peaked atop the US Billboard Hot 100, making it her twelfth total career chart topper and her first song without an accompanying artist to do so since "Single Ladies " in 2008. On August 5, 2022, Beyoncé released a remix exclusively through her online store, before releasing it to streaming services; "The Queens Remix" is a collaboration with Madonna, sampling and interpolating her 1990 song "Vogue". It features Beyoncé name-dropping Madonna and many iconic black women during the song's rap verse.On September 21, 2022, Hiphop-n-more reported that "Church Girl" would be released as the album's second single; a week later, it was announced that it would be simultaneously released alongside "Cuff It" as the next two singles. "Church Girl" was scheduled to impact rhythmic contemporary radio on October 4, 2022, but the release failed to materialize whereas "Cuff It" was released as the sole second single, being sent to radio in France on September 28, 2022. It impacted rhythmic and urban contemporary radio stations in the United States on October 4, 2022. The song peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the 21st song in her solo career to reach this milestone, and 31st overall. On April 11, 2023, the song became Beyoncé's longest-charting solo Hot 100 song. Charting for a 34th week on the Hot 100, the song surpassed her collaboration with Lady Gaga, "Telephone" which released in 2010 and charted for 33 weeks.
"Virgo's Groove" impacted European radio stations starting on April 28, 2023, as the radio follow-up to "Cuff It" and third overall single. A remix of "America Has a Problem" featuring Kendrick Lamar was released through digital and streaming platforms on May 19, 2023, as the fourth single. The remix debuted at 38 on the US Billboard Hot 100.