Beyoncé drops new music, now the July 4 celebrations can really begin

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Americans celebrating the Fourth of July on Saturday woke up to the biggest news of all: new music from Beyoncé.

The superstar singer dropped a single titled “Morning Dew (Donk),” her first music since the 2024 album “Act II: Cowboy Carter.”

The single “starts a 60-day countdown to her next birthday, and the re-issue of B’DAY, her ground-breaking second album that was released two decades ago on September 4, 2006,” according to a press release.

The Beyhive, as Beyoncé’s fanbase is known, has been eagerly awaiting her “Act III” project which has long been speculated to be a tribute to rock music much as 2022’s “Act I: Renaissance” paid homage to disco, club, house and funk while 2024’s “Act II: Cowboy Carter was her love letter to country, southern music and her Texas roots.

Beyoncé has dropped hints to stoke the speculation.

She dressed as rock/funk icon Betty Davis for Halloween 2024, took part in Levi’s “Denim Cowboy” campaign last year that ended with her riding off on a motorcycle and posted a series of photos in April of her dressed in purple that many fans took to be a nod to the late rocker Prince who died in April 2016.

“Morning Dew (Donk)” will probably reinforce the theory, as in the opening lines Beyoncé mention’s Prince’s legendary 1984 film “Purple Rain” which spurred a hit single and soundtrack of the same name.

The new song, written by Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, The-Dream and Darius Dixon, and produced by Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams, will be included on the 20th Anniversary edition of “B’Day.”

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