Photo Credit: Franklin Heijnen / CC by 2.0
All hail the Queen! Beyonce’s Renaissance is breaking new Spotify records and bringing in rave reviews.
Beyonce’s highly anticipated seventh album Renaissance, the superstar’s first solo studio release since 2016, has made waves worldwide in its first few days. Spotify announced Friday that the album had become the most-streamed album in a single day by a female artist in 2022.
Already the album is credited with being “the most talked-about release of the year,” which is no surprise given Queen Bee’s dominating presence in the music world. The album and its song titles have populated Twitter trends in the days leading up to its release — in no small part due to its leak less than two days before its scheduled debut. It’s safe to say that fans have been thirsty for more since 2016’s Lemonade, and reviews for Renaissance reflect that.
“This is feel-good music in the sense that it’s also feel-everything music,” Chris Richards of The Washington Post writes of its disco and house-inspired vibes. “She’s speaking to the extraordinary breadth of Black American dance music writ large.”
Renaissance was already at the top of Apple Music’s Top Album Chart on Friday, with several of its tracks on the Top Songs Chart. Later that day, “Summer Renaissance” was number one on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist.
Despite (or perhaps due to) its immense success, the album has already sparked some controversy. Kelis, the singer best known for her 2003 single, “Milkshake,” called Beyonce out for not seeking her permission before sampling her music on the album.
Interestingly, many songs from the album seem to be generating more buzz among fans than its lead single, “Break My Soul,” which has been number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remains to be seen which tracks, if any, will achieve a higher ranking.