Beyoncé’s first visual album, released without advance notice in 2013, was Beyoncé.
The self-titled album arrived on December 13, 2013, through Columbia Records and was made available exclusively at first through the iTunes Store. Beyoncé announced it in a video posted on social media, calling the project a visual album because every song was paired with a music video.
The album contains fourteen songs and seventeen videos. Its tracks include “Drunk in Love,” “Partition,” “Flawless,” and “XO.” The surprise release changed expectations for how major artists could introduce albums, because there was no conventional promotional campaign or preceding single.
The title is sometimes confused with Beyoncé’s name as an artist, but the album is officially styled Beyoncé. It also differs from Lemonade, which arrived in 2016 with its own HBO film and a more overtly narrative structure.