Beyoncé releases surprise live album the same day as her Netflix documentary drops
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter dropped a surprise live album titled "Homecoming" Wednesday, coinciding with the release of her highly-anticipated Netflix documentary of the same name. The live album was recorded when she was the headliner of 2018's Coachella festival.
Early Wednesday morning, the superstar tweeted a photo of the album's cover art with a link to her website and the words, "HOMECOMING out now." The post garnered over 56,000 retweets and more than 139,000 likes at press time.
"Homecoming: The Live Album" features 40 songs, including, "Crazy in Love" and "Formation," performed live at the festival. The star performed twice during the two-weekend music festival in California in 2018. She was originally slotted to take the stage in 2017, but had to delay the show when she became pregnant with twins.
The nearly two-hour medley became available in the early morning on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and Tidal, reports Entertainment Tonight.
The editor's note on the album's Apple music page explains the performance also included something extra special -- a drumline. The set "spoke directly to her moment as historymaker, synthesizing generations (and regions) of Black musicality through the filter of an HBCU-style marching band (members of DrumLine Live, performing here as Queen Bey's 'The Bzzzz')," read the editor's note.
The note also explained the meaning behind the album's title. "In the American college tradition, she called the performance 'Homecoming,'" read the note.
The record isn't all new songs, and it includes two bonus tracks in addition to the live performance. The hitmaker recorded a studio cover of "Before I Let Go," performed by Frankie Beverly and Maze in 1981 and covered with her breakthrough girl group Destiny's Child in 1997, according to ET. The recording is also heard in the ending credits of the Netflix documentary. The tune "I Been On" was recorded for the album as well.
Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z's oldest child, 7-year-old Blue Ivy, even got a chance to show off her vocal chops with a performance in the tune "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
The documentary, also centers around her renowned Coachella performance in 2018, offering an in-depth look from creative concept to cultural movement, according to Netflix's tweet of the piece's trailer.
The artist's last solo album was 2016's Lemonade, which garnered an overwhelmingly positive response from fans and critics. She also released a surprise joint album in 2018 with Jay-Z titled "Everything is Love."
