Everything We Know About Beyoncs Renaissance Act II, Yall
Country roads, take us home.Did you know that country music was spread from a Mexican AM radio station, owned by a guy who wanted to sell his plastic Jesus statues? And the job he had before that was even weirder. This might not be something Beyoncé knows, but her teaser video for Renaissance Act II is replete with country-radio imagery. The short starts with a taxi driver driving down country roads (presumably in Texas), listening to AM radio. A sign reads, “RADIO TEXAS, 100,000 Watts of healing power,” alluding to the illegally high wattage of the “border blaster” radio stations. Folks of all stripes gaze at her billboard in a “You look lonely, I can fix that” kind of way. She can fix that, with a twangified country act of Renaissance. Here’s everything we know about her upcoming album.
View this post on InstagramWere there hints this was coming?
Fans speculated Beyoncé’s next album was imminent when she appeared at the 2024 Grammys in a white Stetson. And took pictures with everyone like she was Minnie Mouse at Disneyland. At that event, only Taylor Swift announced a new album, and yet Yoncé’s silence spoke as loud.
The album rollout was presaged with a Verizon Super Bowl commercial as well. Because why shouldn’t Tony Hale be one of the first people to know Renaissance Act II was coming?
How country are we talking?
Imagery-wise? Hella. The teaser video featured allusions to Paris, Texas, the aforementioned AM radio stations that propagated country in the ’50s, and some hits from that time when country, rock and roll, and R&B were kind of undifferentiated. Sonically, we only know so much. “Texas Hold ’Em” is banjo-heavy (provided by Rhiannon Giddens). “16 Carriages” starts as a country ballad, but builds to something more cinematic.
There are already singles?
The first and last track — “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages” — are out on Tidal and YouTube.
Another 16-track project from Beyoncé is on the way. First released track titles:
1. Texas Hold 'Em
16. 16 Carriages#actii pic.twitter.com/aub43tgYYw
Who’s collabing?
Renaissance Act II will feature Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Raphael Saadiq, Hit-Boy, Nathan Ferraro, Killah B, and Rhiannon Giddens.
Tell me more about Rhiannon Giddens.
Giddens, who is breaking Beyoncé’s internet as Banjo Auntie, is known in other circles as a folk polymath often interested in projects spanning Black music history. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for co-composing the opera Omar, based on a slave memoir.
Will there be visuals?!
“You are the visual, baby,” Beyoncé rudely told audiences, begging for a crumb of visual content à la Lemonade or Black Is King, during last year’s Renaissance World Tour. Instead, Bey gave us a concert film that temporarily sated widespread thirst, though we know that the Hive won’t be satisfied for long. Could Act II give us those long-awaited visuals? Probably! Director and visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen appears to have worked on the Paris, Texas–esque teaser trailer and is rumored to have helmed the full video album. Yeehaw!
View this post on InstagramWhen does Renaissance Act II come out?
The curtain rises on Renaissance Act II March 29.
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