Wake up, world—Beyoncé released a new song

We still don’t have Beyoncé’s long-awaited Renaissance visuals, but we do have a new song—and it’s safe to say the Beyhive will take what it can get.

Around midnight on Friday, December 1—as the first round of public screenings of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé wound down—the superstar singer released a new track, “My House,” which plays during the closing credits of the concert film. The surprise release isn’t an unexpected manoeuvre from Beyoncé, however. Following the release of her 2019 Netflix special Homecoming—which documented how her now-iconic 2018 Coachella performance came to be—she released a special cover of “Before I Let Go” by Frankie Beverly & Maze. “My House” is an upbeat, tongue-in-cheek ode to house music, a genre that heavily inspired Bey’s Grammy-winning seventh studio album.

Renaissance—as an album, but also as an overarching creative concept—is notably dedicated to Beyoncé’s late Uncle Jonny; she shared more about him with fans ahead of the project’s release in summer 2022. What Renaissance ultimately sonically became was inspired by the house records Jonny played for Beyoncé and Solange Knowles when the sisters were young. Beyoncé dedicated a segment of the film as well to Jonny, who died from HIV complications, and released the movie on World AIDS Day, December 1, in his memory.

“My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking,” she wrote last year in a note to fans about the spirit of Renaissance. “A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration.”

With the tour film now playing in theatres globally, it’s safe to say the renaissance continues.

This piece originally appeared in Harper's Bazaar USA

Feature Image: @beyonce / Instagram