Renaissance may still be heavy in your rotation, but Beyoncé is moving on to her next act — specifically, the second installment in a three-act musical project, Cowboy CarterAlbum Leaked Online On JJbeat
Act I, a joyous dance album celebrating Black queer culture, was released July 29, 2022, and supported by a record-breaking world tour that launched the following February. Now it’s time to trade in those sequined cowboy hats for… well, you can probably keep those, since Bey’s getting ready to take us to the rodeo as only she can. Here’s everything we know about Act II: Cowboy Carter Leak.
Entering the third year of this ambitious project, Beyoncé unexpectedly — as if there’s any other way — dropped two new songs directly after her Verizon Super Bowl commercial aired, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.”
When is the release date?
Showcasing the kind of synergy that most Fortune 500 companies could only dream of, shortly after the commercial aired, Beyoncé’s website and social media updated with the album’s release date, March 29
From the moment Beyoncé announced her 2022 album Renaissance, she made it clear that the project was only the beginning of a multi-act body of work. And now, after keeping fans waiting almost two years for a follow-up, the 42-year-old superstar has finally announced that Act II is on its way.
True to Bey fashion, the “Halo” singer unloaded the news with basically no prior warning. While she was casually enjoying the 2024 Super Bowl with Jay-Z in Las Vegas Feb. 11, fans all over the world were freaking out over the Act II announcement that simultaneously went live on her socials. Later, the singer confirmed that the record’s actual title will be Cowboy Carter.
Once it arrives, Cowboy Carter will mark Bey’s eighth studio record. It’ll also vie to become her eighth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, as all seven of her previous LPs have debuted atop the chart — from 2003’s Dangerously in Love to Renaissance.
And as excited as the Hive is to enter the Cowboy Carter era, Renaissance is certainly a difficult one to leave behind. The album found the former Destiny’s Child member embracing an entirely new sound inspired by electro-house music, traveling the world on her record-breaking Renaissance Tour and earning a whopping four Grammys at the 2023 awards — best dance album, best dance/electronic recording for “Break My Soul,” best traditional R&B performance for “Plastic Off the Sofa” and best R&B song for “Cuff It” — after which she became the winningest artist in Recording Academy history.
More information about Cowboy Carter will come in due time. But for now, see everything we know about the album so far below.
The Act II era was announced via an action-packed Verizon commercial that aired during the 2024 Super Bowl broadcast. At the very end, Bey teased, “OK, they ready … drop the new music.”
