A year ago today, the hotly-anticipated seventh studio album by Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE, was officially released, coming six years after the universally critically acclaimed Lemonade in 2016!
When BREAK MY SOUL released on the 21st June 2022 to coincide with the Summer Solstice, it instantly became 2022’s Summer Anthem and saw Queen Bey mark an ultimate comeback as she announced RENAISSANCE was the first of a three-act project she created during the coronavirus pandemic, and both BREAK MY SOUL & RENAISSANCE instantly went to Number 1!
With her first performance at Atlantis The Royal in January in seven years since The FORMATION World Tour, and the first in five years since HΘMΣCΘMING and the joint On The Run II Tour with her husband, Jay Z, this instantly followed with the RENAISSANCE World Tour being announced on the 1st February 2023; the same date that Beyoncé announced she was pregnant with twins, Rumi & Sir Carter, in 2017!
With visuals teased for an eventual release date, RENAISSANCE solidified Queen Bey’s status as a music legend after she made history on the 5th February as the Most GRAMMY Awarded Artist of All Time with 32 GRAMMYs, overtaking Georg Solti’s record of 31, and Beyoncé celebrated the historic win further after winning International Artist Of The Year & International Song Of The Year for BREAK MY SOUL at the 2023 Brit Awards!
© Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records, Spotify, Apple Music, 2022, 2023
© Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records, Spotify, Apple Music, 2022, 2023
The hype and anticipation of the RENAISSANCE World Tour had a mass domino effect the second Beyoncé began the European Leg of the tour as the tour began at the FRIENDS Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, and as soon as Queen Bey arrived in London, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was completely full the entirety of the five date mini-residency as not a single seat was empty, and I was fortunate to see Queen Bey live for the first time ever on the Opening Night!
Since RENAISSANCE’s release exactly a year ago today, the album has had me in a chokehold because of the infinite adrenaline rush it brings, but that multiplied instantly after the tour because that adrenaline rush will never ever fade, and THE QUEENS REMIX which features the Queen of Pop, Madonna, amplified RENAISSANCE to an ultimate level in the music industry that no one saw coming, and it was absolutely sensational!
The full tracklist for RENAISSANCE can be found below with the additional tracks Beyoncé released in collaboration with Madonna, Kendrick Lamar & Travis Scott following the album’s launch:
- I’M THAT GIRL
- COZY
- ALIEN SUPERSTAR
- CUFF IT
- ENERGY (feat. Beam)
- BREAK MY SOUL
- CHURCH GIRL
- PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA
- VIRGO’S GROOVE
- MOVE (feat. Tems & Grace Jones)
- HEATED
- THIQUE
- ALL UP IN YOUR MIND
- AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM
- PURE/HONEY
- SUMMER RENAISSANCE
- BREAK MY SOUL (THE QUEENS REMIX) / BEYONCÉ & MADONNA
- CUFF IT (WETTER REMIX)
- AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM / BEYONCÉ & KENDRICK LAMAR
- DELRESTO (ECHOES) / BEYONCÉ & TRAVIS SCOTT (FEATURED ON TRAVIS SCOTT’S UTOPIA ALBUM RELEASED ON THE 28TH JULY 2023)
I said this before, and I’ll say it again, like RENAISSANCE, Beyoncé’s entire back catalogue is the magnum opus of celebrating music in the spirit of dance, reliving the feeling of the old-school music from major musicians and groups, such as Michael Jackson & The Jackson 5, Nile Rodgers of CHIC, Teena Marie, Robin Stone (a.k.a. Robin S.), Grace Jones, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Tina Turner, Destiny’s Child, Ronald Isley & The Isley Brothers; the list is endless!
RENAISSANCE celebrates the old-school music elements from the 70s, Motown, 80s & 90s Eras, effortlessly bringing Beyoncé’s UNIQUE sound full circle as RENAISSANCE ushered in the revival of CD & Vinyl sales on a colossal scale that, even with RENAISSANCE crossing 2 Billion Streams, serves as a reminder that the physical releases of CDs, Vinyls & Cassette Tapes are making a comeback in full force, and it’s about time!
© Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records, Spotify, Apple Music, 2022, 2023
If you want to listen to RENAISSANCE in full with the additional tracks Beyoncé released after the album came out, I’ve embedded the Spotify widget consisting of Queen Bey’s seventh studio album on the sidebar along with the RENAISSANCE World Tour Spotify playlist.
Following Queen Bey’s historic win, the CUFF IT (WETTER REMIX) was released; after the RENAISSANCE World Tour began, Beyoncé released another version of AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM which featured Kendrick Lamar, who previously featured on Lemonade for Freedom.
The RENAISSANCE World Tour saw Blue Ivy Carter dance to MY POWER & BLACK PARADE alongside Beyoncé which was an unforgettable moment that all of us will remember forever, and both MY POWER & BLACK PARADE have seen a surge in streaming sales as both records are featured on The Lion King: The Gift Album, with the album’s Afrobeat sound heard throughout the entirety of RENAISSANCE!
Since the remix for AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM was released, it’s been performed on the RENAISSANCE World Tour, and, ahead of the one-year anniversary of RENAISSANCE, Beyoncé & Travis Scott released their collaborative record, DELRESTO (ECHOES), which is available to purchase on all digital stores now from Travis Scott’s new album, UTOPIA, and extends Queen Bey’s RENAISSANCE Era which celebrates her entire career, both in Destiny’s Child and as a solo artist!
RENAISSANCE is an immersive album experience that traverses and changes the trajectory of the music landscape and recognises the music greats that define the music we all know and love, and builds on Beyoncé’s entire back catalogue, serving as the magnum opus of endless celebration in the spirit of dance, unapologetic and authentic freedom of expression, and lays the foundations for the future of the music industry, and the entire world over!
If you enjoyed this celebratory review that celebrates the 1 Year Anniversary of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, RENAISSANCE, I would love to hear from you!
If you missed the reviews that celebrated the album, RENAISSANCE, all of them can be found below including the review for the RENAISSANCE World Tour!
Alex Smithson
© Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, Parkwood Entertainment, LLC, Columbia Records/Epic Records, Big Freedia, Robin Stone, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Destiny’s Child, Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, Blue Ivy Carter, Shawn Corey Carter (Jay Z), Zach Baylin, Tim White, Trevor White & Will Smith (King Richard – Production Companies: Westbrook Studios, Star Thrower Entertainment, Keeping It Reel – Film Distributed By Warner Bros. Pictures), Darius Scott Dixson, Ronald Isley & The Isley Brothers, Nile Rodgers, CHIC, The Recording Academy (GRAMMYs), Soul Train Awards, YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, Apple Music, Rolling Stone, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for The BRIT Awards, Jacques Bermon Webster II (a.k.a. Travis Scott), Cactus Jack Records, Sony Music Entertainment, 2022, 2023
© Full copyright of all the intellectual property mentioned in this review dated the 29th July 2023 goes to the aforementioned respective copyright proprietors mentioned above this acknowledgement.
Mother Nature 
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