Houston and the worldwide Beyhive are majorly buzzing in anticipation of Renaissance, Beyoncé’s wildly anticipated new album, which drops on July 29 on Tidal and streaming services everywhere.
Now, in honor of the news that broke the internet this summer, Twitter has released a new fandom emoji in honor of Houston’s icon. Notably, this is only the second time ever that Twitter is creating an emoji for a fandom: BTS, the insanely popular K-Pop act, received the first custom fandom emoji in 2017 when the group reached 10 million followers.
Cutesy and completely apropos, the new Beyoncé emoji is a take on the instantly familiar bee emoji, replete with a regal golden crown. It appears for users when Tweeting with #BeyHive.
Twitter crafted the new emoji in honor of the passionately fierce BeyHive presence on the platform. When Beyoncé deleted her profile pics on all social media, her Twitter BeyHive army quickly and astutely predicted a new album was coming.
“The #BeyHive brings their passion for Beyoncé to the timeline everyday—from speculation about new music to sharing their favorite lyrics,” said Twitter’s head of music partnerships Kevin O’Donnell in a statement. “The custom #BeyHive emoji is our way of celebrating this vibrant community ahead of Renaissance’s release.”
This isn’t the first time a Houston superstar has received their own Twitter emoji. Our G.O.A.T Simone Biles was the first Olympian to ever receive a custom image— the emoji is a silhouette of an adorable leaping goat (aww) in uniform and fittingly, sporting a gold medal.
As CultureMap previously reported, Renaissance is Beyoncé’s first major, fully solo studio album since the achingly personal and revealing smash, Lemonade, which she released in 2016. In June, Beyoncé deleted her social media profile images and released an announcement in all black that teased the album name and release date (on streaming service Tidal), setting the internet ablaze.
Things hardly cooled down when two weeks later, she released a striking cover image. The stark photo sees the icon posing on a luminous, silvery horse that neatly matches her metallic, spiky, very revealing fit. Fans speculated that it harked from everything from Lady Godiva on horseback to Bianca Jagger photographed at the legendary Studio 54 nightclub.
As for Renaissance, Variety was first to report that the album will feature both dance and country-leaning tracks. Ryan Tedder, leader of One Republic, who co-wrote her 2008 hit “Halo” contributed, as well as other heavy hitters.
Late last month, the queen shocked fans with a surprise drop of “Break My Soul,” the first single from the album; the song is already No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic songs list. Sony Entertainment is already hosting and promoting “Club Renaissance” exclusive, mostly private listening parties all around the world.
Beyoncé recently released her tracklist, which is full of intriguing — and fun — titles that seem both examinations and revelatory, such as “America Has a Problem,” “Thique,” “Alien Superstar,” “Plastic Off the Sofa,” and of course, “Summer Renaissance.”
Here’s the full song list:
“I’m That Girl”
“Cozy”
“Alien Superstar”
“Cuff It”
“Energy”
“Break My Soul”
“Church Girl”
“Plastic Off the Sofa”
“Virgo’s Groove”
“Move”
“Heated”
“Thique”
“All Up in Your Mind”
“America Has a Problem”
“Pure/Honey”
“Summer Renaissance”
Fans are buzzing over Beyoncé's Renaissance, which dropped July 29.
