Beyoncé was released as a surprise album without a traditional pre-release campaign in 2013.
The self-titled fifth studio album appeared on the iTunes Store on December 13, 2013, with little advance publicity. Beyoncé described the project as a visual album because each song arrived with an accompanying music video, creating a unified audio-visual presentation.
The release included songs such as “Drunk in Love,” “Partition,” “Pretty Hurts,” and “Flawless.” Jay-Z appeared on “Drunk in Love,” while Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s speech was sampled in “Flawless.”
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making Beyoncé the first artist to have her first five studio albums debut at number one in the United States. It is commonly called the “visual album,” but its official title is simply Beyoncé.