There are surprises, and then there’s a Beyoncé album drop.
The 37-year-old superstar first introduced the concept of the random album drop on December 13, 2013 when she released Beyoncé (lovingly referred to by fans as “Self-Titled”) and has since hit us all with the hee ever since — implementing the same concept with Lemonade and her co-album with husband Jay-Z, Everything Is Love. And she leveled up the surprise each time.
At the ungodly hour of midnight Pacific time and 3 a.m. on the East Coast, Netflix dropped ΗΘΜΣCΘΜΙΝG: A Film By Beyoncé, giving us an inside look into her historic 2018 Coachella performance, which forever changed the way we looked at headliners in the California desert. Shit, she changed the course of our music festival language — it wasn’t the Beyoncé Coachella performance, it was Beychella.
We all knew the release date thanks to an unexpected (and cryptic) Netflix announcement a week prior to the release, but everyone knows Bey doesn’t stop there. She never stops there. She always extends above and beyond.
Cue, ΗΘΜΣCΘΜΙΝG: The Live Album. That’s right, along with the 2-hour-long documentary giving us a sneak-peek into what it took for Bey to curate such an unforgettable performance, she’s giving us the music to match.
If you watched the performance (“you,” meaning every-damn-body), one of the most impactful things about it was that the live marching band added the oomph to already great songs, not to mention Bey’s well-known music mash-ups.
Along with having the actual performance officially documented so that we can revisit as much as we want, we have the ability to plug masterpieces such as the amped up “Everybody Mad” by O.T. Genasis (it’s after “Diva” on track 12; don’t fret if you don’t see it as its own track!). And the interludes are included!
Plus, there’s a version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Blue. Yes, that Blue. As in Ivy.
ΗΘΜΣCΘΜΙΝG: The Live Album is now available on TIDAL, Apple Music, and iTunes. Welcome home.