Beyoncé’s new album, ‘Renaissance,’ leaks less than two days before its release
You won’t break Beyoncé’s soul. But someone apparently broke the embargo on her new album.
According to Variety — and Twitter — the singer’s highly anticipated seventh studio album, “Renaissance,” appears to have leaked online approximately 36 hours prior to its scheduled release. On social media, the Beyhive has been buzzing about the breach and urging people to resist the temptation to spread and listen to the record before Queen Bey intended.
“Y’all can’t be Beyoncé fans & leak her stuff,” tweeted @TodayIGotTime. “It’s been 6 yrs & in less than 48 hrs, we’ll ALL have access to the music. Pls don’t ruin it for everyone, especially not Bey who has put 2 yrs of hard work into this new era that we BEGGED for.”
“don’t listen to leaks of ‘renaissance,’” tweeted Vulture’s Justin Curto. “beyoncé needs the money because she quit her job!”
The Big Freedia-sampling track is the first single from her upcoming ‘Renaissance’ album, set for a July 29 release.
By late Wednesday morning, Twitter had disabled multimedia tweets with the word “leak” as well as the hashtags #Renaissance and #Beyonce “in response to a report by the copyright owner” — indicating that Team Bey is working quickly to scrub the internet of any unreleased music.
Representatives for Beyoncé and her label, Columbia Records, did not immediately respond Wednesday to The Times’ requests for comment.
In recent weeks, Beyoncé has been carefully and methodically unveiling content from and crumbs of information about “Renaissance.” At the end of June, the Grammy winner dropped “Break My Soul,” the album’s hit lead single.
And last week, Beyoncé unveiled the entire track list for the LP, including songs featuring Tems, Beam and Grace Jones.
Beyoncé is in full promo mode for her upcoming album, “Renaissance,” revealing the features and making the vinyl set available for purchase.
“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” Beyoncé wrote in a message alongside the album cover.
“It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”
“Renaissance” is officially slated to arrive Thursday at 9 p.m. Pacific.
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