Drop the record, sis.
Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
It’s a fool’s errand to try and predict Beyoncé’s next move, but that’s also the reason it’s so fun. In 2013, she “changed the game with that digital drop” by surprise-releasing her self-titled album on a random December night. Since then, she’s dropped an entire visual album via HBO with Lemonade, announced Cowboy Carter via Super Bowl commercial, and teased Renaissance visuals that don’t exist just for the fun of doing it. Now, the Beyhive is abuzz that Beyoncé might be dropping the third act of her current three-act musical project soon. Below, find everything we know can surmise about Beyoncé’s next project.
The upcoming album will be the third and final act of Beyoncé’s three-album project. Each of the albums focuses on and unearths Black culture’s influence over a different genre of music. The first album released was 2022’s Renaissance, which took a macro view of hundreds of years of dance music and zeroed on ballroom as a specific focal point. In 2024, she released Cowboy Carter, which was a country album about Black folks’ often uncredited influence on that genre. Now, the buzz is that the third act will be a rock album.
On April 30, Beyoncé updated her website to feature a photo of Destiny’s Child alongside rock legend Stevie Nicks, teasing a potential collaboration. That would make sense, given that on each previous album she has worked with a pioneer of that genre: On Renaissance, she released a “Vogue”-heavy remix of “Break My Soul,” featuring Madonna, and Dolly Parton was featured on Cowboy Carter. Nicks would be a natural collaborator on a potential rock record.
The Beyhive is getting excited at the moment for a few reasons. First, it’s because the time difference between the first two albums was about two years, and it’s now been two years since Cowboy Carter. Second, Beyoncé is just generally activated. She posted some random pictures on Instagram on April 27 swanning about in a purple dress, then added them to her website. Plus, on Monday, May 4, she’ll be co-hosting the Met Gala, and all eyes in the culture will be on her. Just like when she used a Super Bowl commercial to drop Act II, it feels like she might use the Met Gala press to turbo-charge her newest announcement.
At the same time, the only confirmation the Beyhive has actually gotten from Team Parkwood is actually a lack of confirmation. On April 28, a Beyoncé fan account tweeted some “insider” information, including that “Met Gala officially begins the era, shortly after she will announce the album and a new lead single will be released next month.” Beyoncé’s longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-schure, actively replied to the tweet, saying, “This is unequivocally false!!” Don’t count your eggs until they’re snatched.
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