Beyoncé uses Super Bowl ad to tease new album

During the second half of Super Bowl LVIII, Beyoncé made a surprise appearance in a Verizon ad as she attempted to break the provider’s ostensibly super-powerful and super-reliable cellular network by doing progressively bigger and bigger marketing stunts—concert in space, Lemonade stand, jazz album, friends with Tony Hale, stuff like that. But, having failed to break Verizon by the end of the commercial, Beyoncé figured she should just drop the music instead. Wait, whaaat?

Yes, sure enough, Beyoncé seems to be on the verge of releasing some new music, with rumors suggesting that it might be a country album. If you go to Beyoncé’s website, you’ll be greeted by a link referring to something called “act ii” with “3.29,” and if you click that link you’ll be taken to what looks like a partial track listing for what we’re going to assume is Renaissance: Act 2. There’s only two songs, “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” and “16 CARRIAGES,” and you can hear them both below.

Beyoncé scholars will note that Renaissance was initially teased as the first part of a multi-part collection of new music, so the “act ii” on her website seems like a pretty obvious indication of what she’s planning. Also, lest we forget, there was that “I’m That Girl” teaser she put out last year that didn’t go anywhere (which matches some of the aesthetics of this little “act ii” tease on her website). So she’s clearly been planning something, and it’s all starting to pay off… because of a Verizon Super Bowl ad?

For now, we should all just patiently wait until March 29.