This is Beyoncé’s house, and we’re just living in it.
While we slept late Thursday evening, Queen Bey dropped a new single, “My House,” to herald the opening weekend of her much-anticipated concert movie, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.”
“A gift from the queen,” exclaimed Apple Music in an Instagram post with a photo of Beyoncé dressed in metallic body armor, much like the Afrofuturist bodysuits she displayed during her tour.
At first, “My House,” produced by Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant, seems to stand out from the “Renaissance” universe as it ditches the electronic-, house- and disco-driven sounds for the energy and sound of marching bands of historically black colleges and universities (she also famously drew from HBCU marching bands at Coachella 2018, commonly referred to as Beychella).
The opening 30 seconds of the four-minute track pulse with chanting, the crackle of snares, the thump of bass drums and the thick roar of horns. Beyoncé matches the ferocity of the ensemble as she raps celebratory verses about high spending for “pink diamonds on my belly chain” and partying while “drinkin’ brown liquor till I fall out.”
For the chorus and later verses, The-Dream pulls the listener back to the familiar electronic dance atmosphere of his “Renaissance” hits such as “Break My Soul” and “Alien Superstar.”
Beyoncé sheds her rapping voice for that of an orator, shouting out, “I will always love you / But I’ll never expect you to love me / When you don’t love yourself / Let’s heal the world / One beautiful action at a time / This is real love,” and later calls for a “Renaissance /new revolution.”
Last week, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” premiered at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The event drew a star-studded crowd, including Beyoncé, her husband, Jay-Z, and their three children; her parents, Tina Knowles and Mathew Knowles; and her former Destiny’s Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Hollywood giants Tyler Perry, Ava DuVernay, Lupita N’yongo, Issa Rae also attended, as did fellow music artists Lizzo, Janelle Monáe and her Parkwood Entertainment protégés, Chloe Bailey and Halle Bailey.
Directed by Beyoncé, the film shows both onstage moments and the painstaking, behind-the-scenes process of pulling together the massive world tour. It draws from footage from at least a dozen tour dates, including the September night at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium when the singer was joined by both Diana Ross and Kendrick Lamar.
The movie builds on Beyoncé’s record-breaking Renaissance tour, which extends the experience for fans who attended and allows those who may not have had hundreds of dollars to spend on a ticket to take part in the phenomenon. At a runtime of two hours, 48 minutes, the movie is just as long as some of the tour stops.
“Renaissance,” the movie, follows another music superstar’s foray into the theater. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” documenting mostly onstage moments of her six-night run at SoFi, was released in October and became the highest-grossing concert movie in North America.
“Renaissance” hit theaters on Friday.
