Beyoncé has officially revealed why she hasn’t released music videos for her albums Renaissance and Cowboy Carter.
In 2022, the icon released the former as the first of a planned trilogy of albums.
Paying homage to the Black LGBTQIA+ pioneers of disco, funk, house music and ballroom, Renaissance was met with universal critical acclaim and won four Grammy Awards, while its tour of the same name became the highest-grossing female tour in history (at the time).
Cowboy Carter, released earlier this year to equal amounts of acclaim, spotlighted the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to the country and Americana genres. With its lead single ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 with a country song.
Despite releasing a teaser for Renaissance visuals, she has failed to release a single music video for either album. She even addressed this on the Renaissance Tour, where she told fans: “YOU are the visual”.
While the Beyhive has continuously theorised that she will release music videos following the release of the trilogy’s final chapter, which is speculated to be a rock album, her recent interview with GQ has seemingly put those rumours to bed.
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“I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, that the world can focus on the voice. The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research, and understand,” Beyoncé explained.
“The music needed space to breathe on its own. Sometimes a visual can be a distraction from the quality of the voice and the music.”
The former music video artist (crying here, by the way) added: “The years of hard work and detail put into an album that takes over four years!
“The music is enough. The fans from all over the world became the visual. We all got the visual on tour. We then got more visuals from my film.”
Honestly, we can’t imagine a world where videos don’t exist for ‘Cozy’, ‘Alien Superstar’, ‘Virgo’s Groove’, ‘American Requiem’, ‘Bodyguard’, ‘Tyrant’ – actually, scrap that, we were going to list our favourite songs from each album, but they all deserve to be here. Time will tell, huh?
Revisit the teaser for the Renaissance visuals below, and read Beyoncé’s full interview with GQ here.
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