djfrosty

It’s not that a deluxe edition of Cowboy Carter wouldn’t be exciting per se, it’s just that the album already boasts 27 tracks.

Beyoncé hasn’t done a proper deluxe edition since her 2020 expansion of the previous year’s The Lion King: The Gift, and you have to go back to 2014’s Beyoncé (Platinum Edition) to find a deluxe edition of her studio albums. That doesn’t mean a deluxe is entirely out of the question, though, as there’s still lots for her to play with in the Cowboy Carter universe.

In a press release timed to Cowboy Carter’s arrival, Beyoncé said that she “recorded probably 100 songs” during the album sessions. During a Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) panel, Renaissance and Cowboy Carter songwriter INK revealed that she wrote “five songs in one day” with Kacey Musgraves for Queen Bey’s country record — perhaps one of those tracks will appear on a Cowboy Carter re-release or deluxe EP?

The Mariachi trumpets in the background of the teaser could also hint at further exploration of Tejano music, and there’s also the now-deleted Facebook post from zydeco accordionist Dwayne Dopsie about writing country and zydeco tracks for Beyoncé. Sounds like there’s more than enough music in the vault to potentially add some new gems to Cowboy Carter.

Beyoncé loves a documentary. It’s the medium that won her her first best music film Grammy (2019’s Homecoming) and helped her top the domestic box office in 2023 (Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé). Most of her musical releases are accompanied by some kind of making-of documentary, so a peek behind the scenes of the creation of both Cowboy Carter and the Beyoncé Bowl makes sense.

Interestingly, Live Nation reshared Beyoncé’s teaser on X (formerly Twitter). While that may understandably raise suspicions of an upcoming tour, Live Nation also produces films; they backed Lady Gaga‘s Super Bowl doc, and are also behind The Weeknd‘s forthcoming psychological thriller, Hurry Up Tomorrow. If visuals are in play, obviously the Renaissance and Cowboy Carter music videos would drum up the most conversation.

So, why predict a documentary? Allow us to point you to beencountry.com; it’s a photoblog of sorts that highlights how Beyoncé has “been country” her whole life. Not much has been done with the website so far, but the phrase “been country” did appear on a license plate adorning Queen Bey’s Beyoncé Bowl stage (as BNCNTRY) — so maybe a Been Country documentary chronicling her childhood, the history of Black cowboys, the Black roots of country music and the making of Cowboy Carter and the Beyoncé Bowl could be on the way.

Let’s get one thing straight: We’ll always be excited for a Beyoncé tour.

Although it feels like the Renaissance World Tour just concluded, Beyoncé’s upcoming announcement could very well be a Cowboy Carter world tour. Tabloids have been buzzing with an alleged imminent tour announcement, but Bey’s publicist Yvette Noel-Schure decidedly put those rumors to bed, writing on X, “Untrue. Nothing to report here. Whenever there is news, you will hear it directly from the source, first.”

Admittedly, a Cowboy Carter-promoting tour might be a bit of a tougher sell compared to Renaissance given the respective commercial performances of each album. Nonetheless, Bey has toured stadiums off albums that didn’t reach the top of the Billboard 200, like 2018’s Everything Is Love (No. 2), so the relatively muted commercial pull of Cowboy Carter shouldn’t be too big of an issue for her.

What makes this option a bit less likely are the insights Beyoncé offered in her Renaissance documentary-concert film. In short, Beyoncé’s shows take many years to plan, and she isn’t fond of touring while her kids are still in school — she craves the stability she gets when she isn’t jetting around the world. When it comes to Queen Bey, however, always expect the unexpected.

What is Beyoncé’s announcement is indeed performance-based… but it’s a residency and not a proper tour?

Since the first On the Run tour back in 2014, Beyoncé has pretty much exclusively been a stadium act. There are two enticing options for a 2025 Beyoncé residency: Last year, rumors swirled that The Sphere was looking to bag Beyoncé for a residency, and she appeared atop the venue — in full Renaissance attire, no less — in her Intenet-breaking 2024 Super Bowl ad for Verizon. If there’s any Vegas venue equipped to handle the technological and logistical ambition of a Beyoncé live performance, it’s the Sphere. A Vegas-set residency would be a nice change of pace for Bey; she hasn’t done one since her four-night stint at Encore in the Wynn Las Vegas back in 2009.

The other interesting option would be an Adele-esque residency. Last year, Adele hosted a 10-show residency at a custom-built arena in Munich, and that’s the exact kind of grandiose, larger-than-life spectacle that’s become synonymous with Beyoncé.

Both options would provide Bey with some stability, break up the monotony of the standard touring cycle, and offer some kind of live experience companion to Cowboy Carter.

Between 2001 and 2007, Beyoncé performed at the Houston Rodeo four times. Next week’s announcement could very well be the grand reveal of her fifth appearance. But there’s one minor snag.

According to the official Houston Rodeo website, the entertainer lineup will be revealed on Thursday, Jan. 9 — that’s five days before the date shown in Beyoncé’s teaser. The 2025 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo begins on March 4 (Beyoncé’s favorite number), with a yet-to-be-revealed country act set to headline. Could Beyoncé be kicking off the rodeo? Maybe she’ll appear on Mar. 7, on which an unnamed R&B/hip-hop act is slated to perform for Black Heritage Day. There’s also Mar. 14, which will feature a rock headliner (rumor has it rock is the genre of Bey’s next album), and Mar. 16, which will be headlined by a regional Mexican act in honor of Go Tejano Day (remember the music in the teaser).

Bey’s teaser appeared to have been shot on a football field, presumably NRG Stadium, where she performed the Beyoncé Bowl. NRG Stadium has hosted the Houston Rodeo every year since 2003 with the COVID-induced exception of 2021.

If Bey is announced as a Rodeo performer on Jan. 9, what does that leave on Jan. 14? A one-night-only concert just for her hometown, maybe?

Between a Cowboy Carter promotional banner flying over Coachella 2024 during Weekend One and a massive promotional hauler on the ground during Weekend Two — as well as a mysterious Instagram page — fans were convinced that Beyoncé would make her Stagecoach debut last year. Alas, that did not happen, but what if the reason Cowboy Carter’s presence was so heavily felt was that the woman behind the record was preparing to launch a country music festival of her own?

Between her Cowboy Carter collaborators (Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones, Tiera Kennedy, Shaboozey and Reyna Roberts) and other notable acts like Rvshvd, The War and Treaty, The Boykinz and Chapel Hart, there are a slew of rising Black country stars that could benefit from a Black country music festival.

Cowboy Carter is all about illuminating the Black roots of country music and the deep history of Black committees in the American South and West. What better way to continue reiterating that message than an annual festival that platforms the very kinds of artists Nashville can sometimes turn a cold shoulder to? A Beyoncé-backed music festival would be a wildly different move from her, but it would align with her approach to platforming with newer artists on Cowboy Carter.

It’s been noted that a Cowboy Carter world tour may be a bit of a harder sell than Beyoncé is used to, but what about a world tour for both Cowboy Carter and the still-unreleased Act III?

It wouldn’t be the first time Bey has toured multiple projects at the same time. The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour (2013-2014) covered both her 4 and self-titled records, while her joint tours with Jay-Z naturally pulled from both of their catalogs.

Touring the last two acts of the trilogy together would help Bey avoid a separate tour for each album. Furthermore, those who may not have been all-in on a Cowboy Cater tour would be assured that the record would not be the sole focus of the setlist. But would Bey hop back on the road so soon after the Renaissance World Tour, especially after expressing a desire to slow down on that front in her last documentary?

For Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé shifted away from her beloved surprise releases and instead launched traditional lead singles ahead of both albums. Next week’s announcement could likely be the debut of the lead single for Act III, which will have to follow in the Billboard Hot 100-topping footsteps of 2022’s “Break My Soul” and 2024’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

There have been virtually no murmurs about an imminent new single from Beyoncé — but it’s Queen Bey, when are murmurs ever anything to go by? Both “Break” and “Texas” were mid-week releases, so a Tuesday release for the Act III lead single makes sense.

There’s also the matter of the typography in the Beyoncé Bowl teaser: the red letters feel more gothic than Western, which could be an explicit hint at a forthcoming change in aesthetic. If Bey does launch a new single, don’t expect additional album details as well; we got details about Cowboy Carter’s artwork and title about a month after “Texas” arrived.

Ah, the visuals. We’ll stay away from unsubstantiated rumors and just deal with the facts that we know for certain.

We know the Renaissance visuals exist — thanks to the Aug. 2022 “I’m That Girl” teaser — and we know that, according to a Parkwood press release timed to Renaissance’s release, “the visuals are scheduled for a later date.” A 2022 Halloween X post from Parkwood reiterated a lengthy wait for the visuals. While on the Renaissance World Tour in 2023, Beyoncé quipped, “You are the visuals, baby,” in response to a fan holding up a sign inquiring about the long-awaited clips.

“I thought it was important that during a time where all we see is visuals, that the world can focus on the voice,” Beyoncé explained in a GQ interview last year. “The music is so rich in history and instrumentation. It takes months to digest, research, and understand. The music needed space to breathe on its own. Sometimes a visual can be a distraction from the quality of the voice and the music. The years of hard work and detail put into an album that takes over four years! The music is enough. The fans from all over the world became the visual. We all got the visual on tour. We then got more visuals from my film.”

Her answer reads as a low-key admission that no visuals will ever arrive, but what are we to do with British visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen’s Instagram post the night of the 2024 Superbowl (aka “Texas Hold ‘Em” release night)? Cohen reshared Beyoncé’s Paris, Texas-informed teaser with the caption “coming soon.” Cohen’s name has been attached to Beyoncé’s for some months now following reports that she allegedly directed a Renaissance film for Queen Bey. There’s tangible proof that visuals of some kind exist for both Renaissance and Cowboy Carter, so maybe we’ll get a film covering both records next week.

There are tons of more elaborate fan theories out there (seriously, everything from a Jordan Peele-assisted “cowboys vs. aliens” epic to an immersive, choose-your-own-adventure limited series), but, right now, the chief concern is confirming that we are not, in fact, the visuals. Or at least not the only ones.

Before Renaissance dropped in its entirety (Jul. 28, 2022), Beyoncé posted a note to her official website that detailed her latest endeavor as a “three-act project.” With Cowboy Carter as a formidable second act, fans are eagerly awaiting the third and final act of the trilogy — and too many signs are pointing to a rock album for it to just be a coincidence.

In the 2022 British Vogue photoshoot that accompanied Beyoncé’s proper return to music, Queen Bey appeared atop three objects that, in theory, correlate to the sound of each album in the trilogy. The photo of her atop the disco ball is an obvious nod to Renaissance and the flick of her riding a blood-red horse is a Cowboy Carter callback, so that means the picture of striking a pose on a black motorcycle has to signal a rock album… right? Let’s look at the material.

For Halloween 2024, Queen Bey dressed up as none other than Prince — one of her biggest inspirations and a rock ‘n’ roll icon. Not only did Bey nail her Purple Rain fit, but she also used Halloween to tribute funk icon Betty Davis. It’s worth noting that Cowboy Carter waded into rock by way of Buffalo Springfield and Chuck Berry, but these Halloween teases suggest a more funk-driven approach to rock.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the teaser. We’ve discussed the typography, but what about the action of waving the American flag? Some say a cowboy waving a flag on horseback marks the end of a rodeo event, which, if true, is a direct conclusion to the Cowboy Carter era. The end of one era means the beginning of another, and maybe Jan. 14, 2025, will mark the kickoff of Queen Bey’s rock era.