Beyoncé won the Super Bowl 2024, and she didn’t have to run a single yard to do so. The singer and her family attended the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium, wearing over-the-knee boots and a minidress with a plunging neckline accented by a bolo tie, but it was her carefully mapped album announcement for Renaissance Act II—and immediate release of two of its songs—that had fans all over the world yeehawing.
After a series of cryptic teasers on her Instagram and hints dropped through a series of ads for Verizon that played during and before the game, the performer announced that the second part of her Renaissance album trilogy will drop on March 29—and suspicions that it’ll be country-themed were confirmed by the two tracks that she released online.
That’s right, Beyoncé didn’t just announce new music, she gave some of it to us right away, releasing the tracks “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” online shortly after her surprise announcement.
Leading up to the Super Bowl, Verizon released teasers starring Arrested Development actor Tony Hale dropping some majorly Bey-coded clues, including spots with him squeezing massive amounts of lemons to make lemonade and conversing with a disco-mirrored horse, a familiar motif from the singer’s Renaissance world tour.
In the full commercial released during the game, Hale and Beyoncé try to “break the internet” in a variety of ways, including announcing her campaign for “BOTUS” and going to space. When those failed to break it, Beyoncé resorted to drastic measures: “OK, they ready—drop the new music. I told y’all the Renaissance is not over.”
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
First, she dropped a country-tinged teaser video on her Instagram sharing the release date, before going the whole nine yards, in true Super Bowl fashion, and releasing the two tracks in full.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Renaissance Act II will be released March 29.
More Great Stories from Vanity Fair
See 11 Spectacular Stars Unite for the 30th Annual Hollywood Issue
Inside Johnny Depp’s Epic Bromance With Saudi Crown Prince MBS
He Wrote About His Late Wife’s Affairs. He’s Ready to Move On.
Secrets, Threats, and the "Sixth Largest Nuclear Nation on Earth"
Who Were the Swans? Inside Truman Capote’s High Society
Cast Your Vote With the Official Vanity Fair Oscar Ballot