Beyoncé won the Super Bowl 2024, and she didn’t have to run a single yard to do so. The singer and her family attended the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium, wearing over-the-knee boots and a minidress with a plunging neckline accented by a bolo tie, but it was her expertly crafted album announcement for Renaissance Act II — and immediate release of two songs from the album — that had fans all over the world yeehawing.
After a number of cryptic teasers on her Instagram and hints dropped through a series of ads for Verizon that played during and before the Supe Bowl game, Beyoncé announced that the second part of her Renaissance album trilogy will drop on March 29 — and suspicions that it’ll be country-themed were confirmed by the two tracks that she released online.
“When I get nervous, I tell the truth.”
That’s right, Beyoncé didn’t just announce new music, she served it straight away, releasing the Country themed tracks Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages online shortly after her surprise announcement.
Leading up to the Super Bowl, Verizon released teasers starring Arrested Development actor Tony Hale dropping some majorly Bey-coded clues, including spots with him squeezing massive amounts of lemons to make lemonade and conversing with a disco-mirrored horse, a familiar motif from the singer’s Renaissance world tour.
In the full commercial released during the game, Tony and Beyoncé try to “break the internet” in a variety of ways, including announcing her campaign for “BOTUS” (Beyonce of the United States) and going to space. When those failed to break it, Beyoncé resorted to drastic measures: “OK, they ready — drop the new music. I told y’all the Renaissance is not over.”
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First, she dropped a country-tinged teaser video on her Instagram sharing the release date, before going the whole nine yards, in true Super Bowl fashion, and releasing the two tracks in full.
We see you, Bey.
This second Renaissance country-themed era for Beyonce, both musically and stylistically, comes just days after she teased us with what she was planning by going full cowgirl with her look at the Grammys in custom Pharrell Williams for Louis Vuitton. And we all know the rules, whatever Bey decrees, we shall all follow, so prepare yourselves for a yee-hawing country revival… Stetsons at the ready y'all!
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Renaissance Act II will be released March 29.
This article was originally published in Vanity Fair.
