© 2024 KUAF
NPR Affiliate since 1985
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUAF and Ozarks at Large are hosting NWA Mayoral Candidate Forums on Oct. 15, 22 & 28. Click here for more information!

Beyoncé releases two new songs during the Super Bowl, teasing more to come

Beyoncé accepts the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album award for "Renaissance" onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at<a href="http://crypto.com/" target="_blank" data-stringify-link="http://Crypto.com" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Crypto.com</a> Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Frazer Harrison
/
Getty Images
Beyoncé accepts the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album award for "Renaissance" onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards atCrypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

Beyoncé teased, announced and dropped new music in the span of less than an hour during Sunday's Super Bowl.

"Okay, they ready! Drop the new music," Beyoncé says in the final seconds of a Verizon commercial that aired during the third quarter.

Social media, already buzzing from the Super Bowl action on and off the field (star-studded stands, halftime show and commercials included), went into a further frenzy.

Within minutes, Beyoncé's accounts had made it official.

The star posted a minute-long video to Instagram showing a taxi with a Texas vanity plate ("HOLD-EM") driving through dusty roads, past radio towers and a sign for "Radio Texas."

It ends with a crowd gathered in front of a billboard of her waving next to the words "Texas! Hold 'em," as a song with those words starts to play. The video ends with: "act ii" and the date March 29.

Her official website advertises the same video and date, as well as the name of two songs: "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 carriages." Thirty-second snippets of both songs were posted to Tidal shortly thereafter. Then the full versions dropped on Spotify and YouTube.

The accompanying images show Beyoncé wearing cowboy hats and other decidedly Western wear.

Notably, Beyoncé advertised her 2022 album Renaissance as "act i."

It won the Grammy for best Dance/Electronic Music Album in 2023, a record-breaking 32nd for the Houston-born icon.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rachel Treisman (she/her) is a writer and editor for the Morning Edition live blog, which she helped launch in early 2021.
Related Content
  • A new report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation released on World Mental Health Day examines the state of Gen Z, specifically their thoughts about mental health and the future. Romy Drucker, education program director for the Walton Family Foundation, spoke with Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams.
  • True Lit—Fayetteville Literary Festival—is back at the Fayetteville Public Library beginning tomorrow, Oct. 11, and lasting through Oct. 19. On Tuesday night, Nic Stone will speak. Stone is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "Dear Martin," "Dear Justyce," and several other YA novels, including her latest "Chaos Theory." She talked with Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams about the event earlier this week.
  • April Wallace of the "Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette" joins Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams to suggest local happenings this weekend, like the Arkansas State Chili Championship, a revival weekend at the newly reimagined Luther George Park in Springdale, a slew of craft fairs and the NWA Book Swap.