Apparently Beyoncé fans in Europe did not Bey-have, and so it came to pass that Renaissance, the forthcoming album from arguably the most talented pop star in history, has leaked two days early.
Beyoncé’s seventh studio album is due to drop at midnight between Thursday, July 28th and Friday, July 29th. But already high quality FLAC files are not hard to find, if you don’t care about artist compensation and don’t mind potentially downloading some well-deserved viruses.
Social media sleuths have traced the leak to Europe, possibly France, where posts seem to show that at least one record store put CDs of Renaissance on the shelf July 27th. “This Beyoncé album finna leak. They already got it at stores 2 days before release,” one person wrote.
Beyoncé runs a famously tight operation. Ahead of the surprise release of her 2013 self-titled album, her collaborators all had to sign non-disclosure agreements, and she repeated the trick with 2016’s Lemonade. This leak is unlikely to bother her sales too much, but it might make her think twice about announcing LP8 in advance.
In June, Beyoncé did surprise release lead single “Break My Soul,” and earlier this month she unveiled a 16-song tracklist with titles like “Virgo Groove,” “Church Girl,” and “Thique.” You can legally stream all those songs and more beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 29th.
This Beyoncé album finna leak. They already got it at stores 2 days before release 💀 pic.twitter.com/gCNQTc5Zuv
— She’s Fishy ➐ (@ShesFishy) July 27, 2022