Hot girl summer, feral girl summer, healing girl summer? Forget it all. It’s officially set to be a Beyoncé summer after the music icon announced her first album in four years last month.

Following her viral Vogue cover, the newly released album cover shows Beyoncé seated atop a glowing horse. Naturally. 

The artwork is seemingly inspired by John Collier’s 19th century painting Lady Godiva and also pays homage to Bianca Jagger’s iconic birthday party at Studio 54.

“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” she wrote in the accompanying caption.

“It allowed me to feel free and adventurous in a time when little else was moving. My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration. I hope you find joy in this music. I hope it inspires you to release the wiggle. Ha! And to feel as unique, strong, and sexy as you are.”

Last week, listeners were treated to the first song – break my soul – a disco-inspired track that landed Queen Bey her 41st top 40 single as a solo artist in the US.     

Beyoncé + house beats = the perfect summer dancefloor hit? Fans seem to think so.

The news of the album, Renaissance Act 1 came via a tweet from streaming service Tidal last month and quickly set social media timelines across the world alight with excitement.

It will be the singer’s seventh studio album after her and husband Jay-Z’s surprise 2018 record, Everything Is Love. Prior to that, her critically acclaimed solo album Lemonade, which was given a middle of the night release in 2016.

But in an era of unexpected social media drops, it feels like Beyoncé is returning to a bygone era of music, offering pre-orders, album merchandise and an actual release date for the 16-track album. And it’s safe to say fans were delighted by the news.

Tidal gave the album’s release date as 29 July, meaning that we have just over a month to wait.

Fans had begun to speculate that an announcement was due last week after noting that the singer had removed her logo images from her YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok pages.

Naturally, the sleuthing doesn’t stop there. Following the confirmation, some fans honed in on the Act 1 aspect of the album announcement, suggesting that Bey could drop either double, triple or quadruple albums over the next few years.

Others noticed that the singer had actually revealed the name of the album in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar in 2021 where she said: “I feel a renaissance emerging.”

One thing is for sure, no one can lift the mood and bring the internet together for a moment quite like Queen B.

29 July. Mark your calendars.

Images: Getty