Beyoncé was Beyoncé’s first solo studio album released without a traditional advance publicity campaign.
Columbia Records released the self-titled album on December 13, 2013, with little conventional warning. Beyoncé announced it through a short video on Instagram, and the album became known for its surprise-release strategy. Every song was accompanied by a music video, leading Beyoncé to describe the project as a visual album.
The record’s songs include “Drunk in Love,” “Partition,” and “Flawless.” Its guest contributors included Jay-Z, Drake, Frank Ocean, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The album was widely discussed for presenting a more intimate and visually unified artistic statement.
It is often confused with Lemonade, which also used a highly controlled rollout but arrived in 2016 with an HBO film and a different narrative structure. Beyoncé is the album title, not merely the artist’s name printed on its cover.