Beyoncé makes me cry

Of course we were already waiting for it when Renaissance was released. Beyoncé had told us that Renaissance was the first part of a three-part project, but a new album so soon after the tour? I wouldn't have dared to hope for that.

Friday night I was ready. At 00:00 her latest album went online. AirPods in, because I need to completely shut myself off from the world and hear every second of every song perfectly. There was already a lot of criticism beforehand about the announcement of this country album, actually only from the country states, which is striking. Not only because Bey herself is from Texas, but also because country music was initially taken over from the black community. What Beyoncé is doing is therefore actually nothing controversial.

That Dolly Parton herself recorded the intro of Beyoncé's cover of ‘Jolene’ can also be seen as support from one of the biggest country stars in the country. It's also hilarious that she refers to the similarities between Jolene and ‘Becky with the good hair’, the mistress of Jay-Z that Beyoncé sang about on ‘Lemonade’. Of course, ‘Jolene’ had to undergo a little emancipation: Bey threatens Jolene not to take her man away, instead of Dolly's original pleading not to do so. The cover of ‘Blackbird’ ensures that even my father, who is an extreme Beatles fan, has to admit that Beyoncé is genius. And while most covers are usually not as good as the original.

From her own songs, my favorites are ‘Ya Ya’, ‘Levi's Jeans’ and ‘Protector’. On that last song, the intensely cute voice of her daughter Rumi can be heard. It is also about her love for her children and how she will always protect them. Bey has actually just invented her own genre, which she also said when all the criticism broke out: ‘This is not a country album, it's a Beyoncé album.’ She is not called Queen Bey for nothing.

I listened to all the songs in a row at once, I ended up staying awake until 3:00 AM, simply because I couldn't stop listening to everything again. And as with every Beyoncé album, it happened again: tears were streaming down my cheeks because I am just so proud of her. Well, you either belong to the Beyhive or you don't.