Beyoncé Announced She Has New Music Coming and She's Officially in Her Country Era

Beyoncé's follow-up to her Grammy-winning Renaissance album will arrive on March 29, 2024. Minutes after appearing in a Verizon commercial during Super Bowl LVIII that had the BeyHive ferociously searching, "Is Beyoncé dropping new music?" and which introduced the phrases "BOTUS" and "Beyoncé'AI," Queen Bey did exactly what she does best and announced an entirely new project in her signature mic-drop fashion. 

Of course, we all wondered how, if at all, Beyoncé would insert herself into the 2024 Super Bowl chatter considering her husband Jay-Z was photographed on the sidelines with their two daughters, Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter. And now we know!

In the cinematic teaser posted to Instagram (with no caption, as she always does), scenes from a desert-like Wild Wild West atmosphere appear as a group of men, with jaws dropped to the ground, look up at a giant billboard of Beyoncé alongside the words "Texas! Hold 'Em" while she's dressed in a cowboy hat and matching boots. Beyoncé's website soon after began displaying a list of songs on her site. The first track on the new record is called "Texas Hold 'Em" and the second, "16 Carriages." And then, because the night came with so many surprises, she officially released those two aforementioned songs, plus a 15-second visual teaser for "Texas Hold 'Em." Yee-haw! 

Elsewhere in the clip above, it appears other Easter eggs indicate what this new era will deliver, such as a road sign that reads "Radio Texas 100,000 Watts of Healing Power." At the 2024 Grammys, she made a surprise appearance and wore a cowboy hat in a full Louis Vuitton look; the hints were there. 

And while this is pure fan speculation, there's one scene that perhaps nods to Beyoncé and Lady Gaga's "Telephone" music video; fans of both pop stars have for long hoped, pleaded, and begged for a country-like follow-up to the 2009 track and music video. Lady Gaga was in the audience at the 2024 Super Bowl... so maybe the idea is not that out of reach.

Following the release of Renaissance, Beyoncé confirmed Renaissance was part of a three-act project, but never quite shared exactly what those projects would be. On her Renaissance tour in 2023, she joked — via onstage interludes — with her fans about their comical, relentless requests for "the visuals," what people presumed would be Act II, aka visual album to accompany Renaissance. (Beyoncé and Lemonade were visual albums). But Nope! Turns out we're getting new music — because of course, we are.