Beyoncé has confirmed she’s been working on new solo music for the last 18 months, as fans eagerly await her first album in over five years.
The singer is yet to receive the follow-up to 2016’s acclaimed ‘Lemonade’, but says her new material will help fans to find escapism after the turbulence and trauma of the coronavirus pandemic.
“With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again,” told Harper’s Bazaar. “I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half.”
The singer added of her music-making process: “Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies.
“Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine-years-old. Yes, the music is coming!”
The singer’s last full-length studio release came in 2018’s ‘Everything Is Love’, her collaborative album with Jay-Z. In the same interview, Beyoncé reflected upon the early stages of her career as she prepares to turn 40 next month.
“I started taking voice lessons from an opera singer at nine. By 10 I had already recorded at least 50 or 60 songs in the recording studio. This was before Pro Tools, when you recorded to tape,” she said.
“I had my first vocal injury at 13 from singing in the studio for too many hours. We had just gotten our first record deal, and I was afraid I had developed nodules and destroyed my voice and that my career could be over. The doctors put me on vocal rest all summer and I was silent once again.”
She continued “My teenage years were about the grind. I grew up hearing this particular scripture from James 2:17, ‘Faith without work is dead.’ Vision and intention weren’t enough; I had to put in the work. I committed to always being a student and always being open to growth. No one in my school knew that I could sing because I barely spoke.
“My energy went into Destiny’s Child and the dream of us getting a record deal and becoming musicians.”
Earlier this year, Beyoncé also teased that she was “cooking some music” in an audio clip shared by her Destiny’s Child co-star Michelle Williams on social media.