Renaissance was released in 2022 as the first act of a planned three-part Beyoncé project.
The album arrived on July 29, 2022, and was presented as Act I. Its sound draws on dance music, house, disco, funk, and Black queer club traditions. The lead single, “Break My Soul,” became Beyoncé’s first solo US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single since “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” in 2008.
Renaissance was widely praised and won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. Its release continued Beyoncé’s practice of treating albums as carefully constructed artistic worlds rather than simple collections of singles.
The album is distinct from Cowboy Carter, released in 2024 as Act II. Lemonade was a separate 2016 visual album and is not part of the Renaissance trilogy.