Beyoncé may be Queen B, but when a higher power speaks, she listens — and that's exactly what she did when it came to her Renaissance. The superstar revealed that although the first act in her trilogy was set to debut in 2022, it was Cowboy Carter — which dropped on Friday (March 29) — that she had originally planned to arrive first.
“This album took over five years,” he said Act II in a Parkwood Entertainment press release Friday. “It was really wonderful to have the time and grace to be able to spend time with him. Originally I was going to put Cowboy Carter out first, but with the pandemic, there was too much weight in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God's timing.”
The 32-time Grammy winner announced the follow-up to Renaissance during the 2024 Super Bowl in a Verizon commercial featuring Tony Hale and immediately belted out two songs: “Texas Hold 'Em” and “16 Carriages,” offering the Beyhive a taste. of her country album featuring icons Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.
But as Bey previously said, “This is not a country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album. Indeed, the set includes collaborators from various musical genres – including Post Malone and Miley Cyrus – as well as instruments such as accordion, records, harmonicas and even her own fingernails.
“The joy of making music is that there are no rules,” Beyoncé noted in the press release. “The more I see the world evolve the more I feel a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used really old ones. I didn't want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and instruments perfectly tuned. I kept some songs raw and leaned towards folk. All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, the knocking and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature.”
Bey also talked about her process and revealed that she recorded many, many songs for the album.
“My process is that I usually have to experiment,” he shared. “I like to be open to have the freedom to bring out all the aspects of the things I love and that's how I worked on a lot of songs. I recorded probably 100 songs. Once that's done, I'm able to put the puzzle together and realize implications and common themes, and then create a solid piece of work.”
And he concluded by announcing: “I think people will be surprised because I don't think this music is what everyone expects, but it's the best music I've ever made.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/beyonce-cowboy-carter-before-renaissance-1235644584/