Beyoncé (album)

Untitled

Beyoncé is the self-titled fifth studio album by American recording artist Beyoncé, released on December 13, 2013 by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Described as a visual album, Beyoncé developed a simultaneous audio/visual experience with non-linear short films accompanying its songs to illustrate the stories she had conceived during its composition. Beyoncé's themes were identified as post-feminist and much darker than previous recordings including sex, fear, loss and the insecurities of marriage and motherhood.

The album began production in 2012 in New York where songwriters and producers were gathered in an unconventional setting where they lived and worked with Beyoncé for a month. During extensive touring in 2013, Beyoncé resumed recording in strict secrecy and continually shifted the album's deadline as she began favoring an unexpected release. Beyoncé was drawn to the experimental production of unknown producer Boots, who produced most of the album. Their collaboration created Beyoncé's alternative and electronic rhythm and blues sound that is characterized by minimalist production, loose song structure and emotive vocals.

Beyoncé was released digitally without prior announcement, which led to a hysterical response from fans. It received rave reviews from music critics, who commended its production, themes and Beyoncé's vocals. It was ranked as the best album of 2013 by several publications. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, giving Beyoncé her fifth consecutive number one, and sold 828,773 copies worldwide in three days, becoming the fastest-selling album in iTunes Store history. It spawned four singles—"XO", "Drunk in Love", "Partition" and "Pretty Hurts"—and has sold three million units worldwide.

Recording

Sessions in The Hamptons

The recording of Beyoncé began in the summer of 2012 at a beach enclave in The Hamptons, New York, where Beyoncé and Jay-Z were living and working on their respective releases. Beyoncé invited producers and songwriters she respected to accompany them, including Sia Furler, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and The-Dream. Beyoncé described the atmosphere as unconventional, saying, "We had dinners with the producers every day, like a family... it was like a camp. Weekends off. You could go and jump in the pool and ride bikes... the ocean and grass and sunshine... it was really a safe place." Although Beyoncé would spend the majority of her day with daughter Blue Ivy Carter, she took some hours out to record music, writing the album's opening track "Pretty Hurts" with Sia Furler. The project was suspended until 2013 and moved to Jungle City and Oven Studios where most of the album was recorded. In an interview for Vogue in January 2013, Jason Gay describes Beyoncé's attention to detail as "obsessive" when observing her studio, noting vision boards she had created for inspiration which contained potential song titles, old album covers and pictures of past performances.

She worked with Hit-Boy on a track then-called "Bow Down", after waking up one morning with a chant stuck in her head, feeling angry and defensive. In March 2013, she released it as a two-part hip hop track on her Soundcloud account as "Bow Down / I Been On". Although being well received by critics, the public reaction was far more mixed with criticism directed at the song's lyrical content.

Sessions with Boots

In January 2013, she enlisted Boots, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams as major contributors. Boots, an unknown producer who fronted American rock band Blonds, would ultimately produce eighty percent of the album. In an interview for Pitchfork, Boots would not speak of his previous projects or how Beyoncé found his demo, only confirming he signed a publishing deal with Roc Nation in June 2013. At his first meeting with Beyoncé, he had already wrote songs he believed would resonate with her, but she was more enthused by his experimental material. Having recorded a piano demo on his iPhone, Boots reluctantly played it, believing the instrumental to be lacklustre. Beyoncé thought differently and refused to leave the song alone, saying to Boots, "This shit has to knock harder than any rap album out there." The song became "Haunted", and the previous title "I'm Onto You" was instead recorded as a phrase in the song's refrain. Boots would describe Beyoncé as the "only visionary in the room" for her ability to find potential in scraps of songs.

Following an infuriating meeting with a record label, Boots wrote the stream of consciousness rap from "Ghost" and played it for Beyoncé in the early stages of recording. She identified with its content as she had similar experiences from signing a recording contract at a young age. Boots made the song in a hypnotic state, saying, "I started with guitars, just building the layers until they resembled Aphex Twin soundscapes. And then I completely contained them within the beat". Organic approaches were also taken when recording with other producers. When Detail approached Beyoncé about a beat he had created called "Drunk", she and Jay-Z free-styled their verses for the song and Timbaland contributed keyboards. Beyoncé described her motivation to create "Drunk in Love" as pure enjoyment, rather than contending a hit record. Similarly, after hearing the bassline of "Partition", Beyoncé without paper or pen took to a microphone and began rapping the first verse, initially embarrassed by the sexual explicitness of the lyrics. The first half of "Partition", known as "Yoncé", was created by Justin Timberlake banging on buckets in the studio.

Later recording sessions

When recording in New York, the previously-released "Bow Down" was added to a track that became "Flawless". During its composition, Beyoncé was motivated to interpolate archive footage of the television competition Star Search, her strength from the loss manifesting itself in the more aggressive, dominant persona in the song. A portion of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists" was used on the same song as Beyoncé identified with her interpretations of feminism. Only four songs were not recorded entirely in New York studios: "Superpower" and "Heaven" which were partially recorded in California, as well as "No Angel" which was composed in London and "XO" in Berlin and Sydney. Although the demo of "XO" was recorded when Beyoncé had contracted a bad sinus infection, the vocals were never rerecorded as she enjoyed their imperfections.

In October, the album began taking shape and Beyoncé removed "Standing on the Sun" and "Grown Woman"—songs which she had previewed in 2013 on television advertisements—from Beyoncé to fit with its minimalist approach. During Thanksgiving week, the vocals on the album were edited and producers were notified to submit their final cuts. Beyoncé spent less time on vocal production than she had done with previous projects, instead focusing on blending the album's sounds perfectly. Beyoncé was mastered at Sterling Sound in New York. In total, 80 songs were recorded for the album.

Composition

Beyoncé contains fourteen tracks and seventeen short films: a video for each audio track, two extra videos to accompany the two-part tracks "Haunted" and "Partition", as well as a bonus video for "Grown Woman", which lacks an equivalent audio counterpart. Described by NME as "post-dubstep tinted future R&B", the album delves into the motifs of alternative R&B: strong, emotive vocal performances, minimalist production and streams of consciousness. The album is also described as an electro-R&B album, noting a heavy usage of electronic production in several songs. Song structure is loose, with beats of "subdued pulses, ambient effects and throbbing grooves." Similar to previous releases, Beyoncé carries a postfeminist message, now explored in greater depth and conflated with "an unwavering look at black female sexual agency." Several critics identified the album's central theme as sex. Also noting that Beyoncé considers the benefits and insecurities of monogamous love and motherhood. Darker issues, previously unexplored in her music, such as bulimia and postnatal depression also feature.

Beyoncé's husband, Jay-Z, and Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie were two of the featured artists on the album.

The album's opening track, "Pretty Hurts", is a smoky pop and neo soul song written with Sia Furler. A self-empowerment anthem, it decries society's obsession with unattainable and harmful standards of beauty. "Flawless" is perhaps the most explicit commentary on gender discrimination, with an excerpt of a speech by Nigerian feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The staccato-trap song, presents a more aggressive and confrontational stance, in which Beyoncé yells the refrain "bow down, bitches" over a clattering beat. It starts and finishes with an excerpt of a recording from Beyoncé's childhood: a performance with Girl's Tyme on Star Search, intended to draw attention to her work ethic.

"Mine" is a collaboration with Canadian rapper Drake. It finds Beyoncé ruminating on her everyday fears for her family, her postnatal depression and doubts of weakness in her marriage. It is set against a jazzy, understated flow. "Haunted" was described as "a two-part dream", and features murky keyboards, recessed vocals and a creeping bassline. The song opens with Beyoncé in a robotic cadence chanting over an arrhythmic beat and considering the potential for monotony in life. "Heaven" is a mournful piano song that features gospel influences, the lyrics find the protagonist coping with loss by hiding their grief through humor. The album's closing track—"Blue"—features Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy Carter. It is a ballad driven by a piano melody with affecting lyrics.

The album's unconventional and futuristic production was well received by critics. The mysterious alternative R&B song "Superpower"—a Frank Ocean duet—centres on a "cinematic" beat by Pharrell Williams and sang with low-supple vocals and harmonies reminiscent of Beyoncé's Destiny's Child-era. "XO" is a midtempo pop song that is built on jittery keyboards, synthesizers, looped organ riff and electronic flourishes. "Jealous" is a self-referential song with a dark, brooding beat which contains incremental echo sounds. Instead of envying the lover, the protagonist in "Jealous" talks of combating their own jealousy and finding solace in friendship. "No Angel" is a synthpop and electronic track with heavy bass and a minimalist beat that sees Beyoncé declare that she, and the object of her affections, are by no means perfect.

The deeply sexual nature of the album is explored through songs such as "Partition", a two-part hip hop track. Beyoncé raps over an Eastern rhythm in the first part of the song, before shifting into a narrative that describes sexual intercourse in the back of a limousine, featuring frank, memorable lines such as "he Monica Lewinsky'd all on my gown." "Blow" is a retro R&B song with heavy bass, sparse piano chords and prominent elements of disco music which carries a double entendre for cunnilingus and features a French-language interlude. "Blow" drew comparisons to the work of Prince. "Drunk in Love", which features Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z, is "a riot of warm, hazy synths and chunky trap beats", which lyrically dispenses of any subtlety that songs like "Blow" possess as an explicit celebration of sex. "Rocket", a retro-soul song reminiscent of the work of D'Angelo, was described as "a slippery, six-and-a-half-minute funk excursion."

Visuals

File:Beyonce Flawless Video.png

The music video for "Flawless", directed by Jake Nava, was popular with fans and critics for its innovative choreography—particularly the hand movement pictured. The New York Times described its attention online as creating a "ripple effect".

All of the music videos, including the bonus, "Grown Woman", were released onto iTunes on December 13, 2013. The videos were filmed between June and November 2013 as Beyoncé travelled on her world tour. The locations of which include a Brazilian beach, the Cyclone at Coney Island in New York, a Parisian chateau, a roller-skating rink Beyoncé frequented as a child and a South American church. The project's exclusive online release meant that that the videos could be shared through platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. Jenna Wortham of The New York Times identified how this had created a "ripple effect"; the choreography and lyric "I woke up like this" from the song "Flawless" exemplifies a moment that became instantly popular with fans and thus generated a vast amount of attention. Todd Tourso, who directed the videos for "Jealous" and "Heaven", served as the creative director for the entire project.

In June 2013, Beyoncé began considering the creation of a "visual album", wherein she would create a video for every song. By then, only three or four songs had been composed. She was able to "see" music and connected images, childhood memories, emotions and fantasies to the songs she was creating. Her motivation to shoot visuals was necessitated by her desire to convey the story behind the songs she had conceived during production. Much of Tourso's role concerned liaising between Beyoncé, who for most videos already had concepts, and the respective directors who also had propositions. As most videos were shot outside of the US, the crew surrounding the videos was small, consisting only of Tourso, the director of photography and producer, as well as Beyoncé and her stylist, make-up artist and security. When filming in public, Beyoncé would wear ear-buds instead of having the music played out loud, in order to prevent any snippets of the songs from leaking online. In line with album's theme of rebelling against perfection, many of the music videos were shot organically and Beyoncé and her team would turn up at a location without preparation.

The videos centred upon Beyoncé's sexuality and motherhood. Noting the visual's explicit content and exposure of her body, Beyoncé found shooting the visuals as liberating. She was particularly driven to demonstrate sexuality as a power we should be unashamed of and to women that this does not need to cease after becoming a mother. The visuals also contained a motif of a trophy, first seen in the video for "Pretty Hurts", which continued through several others. Tourso saw this as representing the chaos of life, and how the things important to us at one moment, appear futile later. Beyoncé elaborated that the trophy represents her lost childhood and the time spent in music and beauty competitions at a very young age.

Release and reaction

I miss that immersive experience, now people only listen to a few seconds of song on the iPods and they don't really invest in the whole experience. It's all about the single, and the hype. It's so much that gets between the music and the art and the fans. I felt like, I don't want anybody to get the message, when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it's ready and from me to my fans.

Beyoncé describing her intentions with the unorthodox release of Beyoncé, 2013

Throughout 2013, Beyoncé worked on the project in secrecy, sharing details of the album with a small circle of people and shifting the deadline, which was only finalized a week before its release. Secrecy was imposed as she felt like album releases had lost meaning as a significant, exciting event in the face of hype created around singles and began considering an unexpected release. In July 2013, a spokesperson for Beyoncé denied speculation that Beyoncé's album had been delayed, stating there was no official release date to begin with and that when a date is set, it would be announced via an official press release.

In early December 2013, Beyoncé and her management company Parkwood Entertainment held meetings concerning its release with executives from Columbia Records and iTunes, using the code name "Lily" for the album. On December 9, 2013, Rob Stringer, Chairman of Columbia Records, knowingly told media that the album would be released at some point in 2014 and it would be "monumental". On December 13, 2013, the album was released without any prior announcement or promotion exclusively on the iTunes Store. Beyoncé explained that she was "bored" of her music being marketed as it had been done previously, and wanted the release of Beyoncé to be a different experience for her fans. The album was available exclusively on iTunes until December 20, 2013, when physical copies were distributed to other retailers.

The surprising release caused "hilarious, honest and hysterical" reaction among Beyoncé's fans, and "shock" among other celebrities. According to data provided by Twitter, the release generated over 1.2 million tweets in 12 hours. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield wrote, "Beyoncé has delivered countless surprises in her 15 years on top of the music world, but she's never dropped a bombshell like this. The Queen Bey woke the world in the midnight hour with a surprise 'visual album' – 14 new songs, 17 videos, dropped via iTunes with no warning. The whole project is a celebration of the Beyoncé Philosophy, which basically boils down to the fact that Beyoncé can do anything the hell she wants to." Additionally, Peter Robinson of The Guardian hailed the shock release as "Beyoncégeddon", describing it as a "major triumph" which "employ[ed] the favoured imagery of many Beyoncé fans" and "a masterclass in both exerting and relinquishing control."

As soon as the album became exclusively available to iTunes, Sony Music Entertainment handed down an edict that forbade retailers to put the album up for pre-order, as to further protect the exclusivity with iTunes. It was then reported that major retailers in the US, namely Target and Amazon, were refusing to sell the physical copy of the album. According to Target spokesperson, the store was only interested in retailing albums which were released digitally and physically simultaneously. As a result of Beyoncé's partnership with Starbucks, on December 20, 2013 the album became available at more than 7,000 Starbucks stores across the United States. On December 21, 2013, all the videos from the album were screened at the SVA Theater in New York. By December 26, 2013, Beyoncé had been illegally downloaded via file sharing websites almost 240,000 times. If that same number of copies had been purchased legally, the album would have grossed a further $3.8 million in sales. Beyoncé was included in Forbes staff member Zack O'Malley Greenburg's "Music Industry Winners 2013" list.

Promotion

Beyoncé first performed "XO" during the remaining stops of the North American leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in December 2013. Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed "Drunk in Love" for the first time at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, 2014. She then performed "XO" at the 2014 BRIT Awards on February 19, 2014. Later that month, songs from the album were added to the set list of the second European leg of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. All the music videos from the album will be screened at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 13, 2014. To further promote the album, Beyoncé will embark on her first co-headlining stadium tour with Jay-Z. The On the Run Tour will kick off in Miami on June 25, 2014 and will end in San Francisco on August 6, 2014.

Singles

Beyoncé's lead singles followed a dual, simultaneous release format, with each single impacting a different radio station format. "XO" impacted contemporary hit stations in Italy and adult contemporary radios in the United States, on December 16, 2013. The following day, it impacted US-based urban, rhythmic and mainstream stations. "XO" peaked at number forty-five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top twenty in charts around the world. Accompanying "XO"'s release, "Drunk in Love" was serviced exclusively to US urban contemporary radio stations on December 17, 2013. It peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Rhythmic charts. "Drunk in Love" was also successful in international markets, peaking at number seven in New Zealand and number nine in France and the United Kingdom. The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of one million digital copies.

"Partition" impacted US urban radio on February 25, 2014 as the album's third single. It peaked at number twenty-three on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart. On April 24, 2014, the music video for the fourth single "Pretty Hurts" was made available for streaming via Time magazine's official website to accompany her feature as one of the world's most influential people. "Pretty Hurts" will impact UK radio on June 2, 2014. and US mainstream radio on June 10, 2014.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Billboard	90/100
Entertainment Weekly	A–
The Independent
Los Angeles Times
NME	8/10
Pitchfork Media	8.8/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine
Spin	9/10

Upon its release, Beyoncé received rave reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album received an average score of 85, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 34 reviews. Kitty Empire of The Observer praised the album for its "squeaky sexed-up falsettos, hood rat rapping, wordless ecstasies and effortless swoops"; she highlighted the album's overt feminist message as a particular highlight. The Telegraph applauded Beyoncé as "one of the most technically gifted vocalists in pop, with gospel power, hip-hop flow and a huge range." The publication also noted the album's sexual tone, quality of restraint and loose song-structure as distinct features. Jon Pareles of The New York Times describes the tracks as "steamy and sleek, full of erotic exploits and sultry vocals; every so often, for variety, they turn vulnerable, compassionate or pro-feminist," also noting that they "are alert to the current sound of clubs and radio, but not trapped by it". Will Hodgkinson of The Times commented that the album "lacks a title, but does have plenty of classy modern pop soul." Conrad Tao of Sputnikmusic lauded the album as "a loaded fusion of generosity and self-empowerment. Or perhaps, more accurately, it finds self-empowerment in generosity." Greg Kot for the Chicago Tribune saw that "the singer demands to be treated as an equal in the boardroom and the bedroom", concluding that the album is a merger of "trap beats, punk defiance and feminist theory."

Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club summarised that Beyoncé made "an emotional album that's dense and substantial but never difficult or self-important." Spin compared the album to its predecessor, 4 (2011), saying that Beyoncé was more textured in terms of sound and content, noting Beyoncé's movement from "diva pop/R&B". Jim Farber of New York Daily News said that while Beyoncé was not in her full roar, "she gives fans much more to listen to." He also stated, "The mood draws on the warmth and mystery of trance music, enveloped in an echo which recalls subdued production sounds used by Phil Collins in the early 1980s." Bey Nick Catucci of Entertainment Weekly praised the album, finding Beyoncé indulging in "clashing impulses—between strength and escape, megapop and fresh sounds, big messages and resonant lyrics," while Consequence of Sound found "an incredible stylistic range displayed within the constraints of the album’s contemplative and darkly seductive tone". In a less enthusiastic review, The Independent's Andy Gill found its feminist message significant, but its music too similar to contemporary R&B.

Accolades

Although Beyoncé's late release meant its exclusion from some publication's year-end lists, it was ranked the best album of the year by Billboard, Houston Chronicle and Los Angeles Times, while Spin ranked it the best R&B album of the year. The album ranked within the top 10 on lists by Associated Press, HitFix and MTV News, which placed it at number five, and Digital Spy, which placed it at number nine. Beyoncé was ranked at number 11 on Metacritic's 25 best-reviewed albums of 2013 list. In the annual Pazz and Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music, the album was ranked number four. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it eighteenth on his own year-end list.

In his accompanying essay for The Barnes & Noble Review, Christgau remarked that the sex depicted on the album is "the raunchiest and most convincing I can recall on record, and married sex at that", while the density and "juicy physicality" of the songs suggest "ideals of interactive performance absent from both Yeezus's feckless abandon and the regal self-possession that stiffens Beyoncé's supposedly more serious songs." Geeta Dayal of Slate compared the album to Michael Jackson's Thriller, calling it a "tour de force", "unstoppable", and suggested it is helping to reinstate ideas of "the album as an event. The album as a grand, career-defining statement." The album has been described as the most sexually explicit since Madonna's 1992 album Erotica. Beyoncé is nominated for the Best Album of the Year award at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. It also received two nominations at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards for Top Billboard 200 Album and Top R&B Album, while "Drunk in Love" was nominated for Top R&B Song.

Commercial performance

During its first day of release in the United States, Beyoncé sold 80,000 digital copies in its first three hours and a total of 430,000 digital copies within 24 hours. In its second day, the album sold 120,000 digital copies, which brought its two-day sales total to 550,000. Billboard predicted it to sell around 600,000 digital copies by the end of the tracking week on December 15, 2013. Beyoncé debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with three-day sales of 617,213 digital copies. This gave Beyoncé her fifth consecutive number-one album, making her the first female artist to have her first five studio albums debut atop the chart. It also became the largest debut sales week for a female artist in 2013, and the highest debut sales week of Beyoncé's solo career. Beyoncé marks the fourth-largest sales week of an album during 2013, behind Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 and Drake's Nothing Was the Same.

In its second week, the album remained at number one, selling 374,000 copies. Ten days after release, Beyoncé had sold 991,000 copies in the US, making it the best-selling album by a female artist in 2013. A third week at number-one with sales of 310,000 copies brought the album's US sales to 1.3 million after 17 days of release, positioning it as the eighth best-selling album of the year, and the first to enter the year-end top 10 based on just three weeks of sales availability in the Nielsen SoundScan era. In its fourth week, sales reached 1.43 million, surpassing the total sales of Beyoncé's previous album, 4 which was released in 2011 and had sold 1.39 million in total in the two years since its release. As of May 15, 2014, Beyoncé has sold 1,968,000 copies in the US.

On December 16, Apple announced that Beyoncé was the fastest selling album in the history of the iTunes Store, both in the US and worldwide. It sold 828,773 digital copies worldwide in just three days, and reached number one on iTunes Store charts in 104 countries. Six days after release, the album had sold one million digital copies worldwide on the iTunes Store. Beyoncé debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart on December 15, with two-day sales of 67,858 digital copies. The Official Charts Company's chief executive Martin Talbot noted that "few (if any) albums have sold as many digital copies in such a short space of time." In its fifth week, the album climbed to a new peak of number two. It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry on February 7, 2014 for sales of 300,000 copies. As of April 1, 2014, Beyoncé has sold 378,000 copies in the UK.

The album entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number one, with 35,000 digital copies sold. It debuted at number 24 on the French Albums Chart with two-days sales of 12,100 digital copies, and peaked at number 13 in its fifth week. In New Zealand, Beyoncé debuted at number two and was certified platinum by Recorded Music NZ for sales of 15,000 copies. In the Netherlands, the album debuted atop the Dutch Albums Chart, giving Beyoncé her first number-one album in the country. The album has sold near 70,000 copies in the Netherlands alone. In Australia, Beyoncé entered the ARIA Albums Chart at number two, with first-week sales of 31,102 digital copies. The album topped the chart in its third week, becoming Beyoncé's first number-one album in Australia. It spent three consecutive weeks at number one and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for sales of 70,000 copies. According to IFPI, in the last 19 days of 2013 Beyoncé sold 2.3 million units worldwide. As of January 2014, Beyoncé has sold three million copies worldwide.

Track listing

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Beyoncé and Discogs.

Beyoncé – Disc 1 (CD)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Pretty Hurts"	Joshua Coleman Sia Furler Beyoncé Knowles	Ammo Knowles	4:17
2.	"Haunted"	Boots Knowles	Boots Knowles	6:09
3.	"Drunk in Love" (featuring Jay Z)	Knowles Noel Fisher Shawn Carter Andre Eric Proctor Rasool Diaz Boots Brian Soko Timothy Mosley Jerome Harmon	Detail Knowles Timbaland[b] Harmon[b] Boots[b] Soko[b]	5:23
4.	"Blow"	Pharrell Williams Knowles James Fauntleroy Mosley Harmon Justin Timberlake	Williams Knowles Timbaland[a] Harmon[a]	5:09
5.	"No Angel"	Caroline Polachek Knowles Fauntleroy	Polachek Knowles Boots[b]	3:48
6.	"Partition"	Knowles Terius Nash Timberlake Boots Mosley Harmon Dwane Weir	Timbaland Harmon Timberlake Knowles Key Wane Dean[b] Boots[b]	5:19
7.	"Jealous"	Fisher Knowles Proctor Diaz Soko Boots	Detail Knowles Boots[b] Hit-Boy[b] Proctor[b]	3:04
8.	"Rocket"	Miguel Jontel Pimentel Knowles Timberlake Mosley Harmon	Timbaland Knowles Harmon[a]	6:31
9.	"Mine" (featuring Drake)	Noah Shebib Aubrey Drake Graham Knowles Jordan Kenneth Cooke Ullman Sidney "Omen" Brown Weir	Noah "40" Shebib Majid Jordan[b] Brown[b] Knowles[c]	6:18
10.	"XO"	Ryan Tedder Nash Knowles	Tedder Nash Knowles Hit-Boy[b] HazeBanga Music[b]	3:35
11.	"Flawless" (featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)	Knowles Nash Chauncey Hollis Boots Rey Reel Music	Hit-Boy Knowles Rey Reel Music[a] Boots[b]	4:10
12.	"Superpower" (featuring Frank Ocean)	Williams Frank Ocean Boots Knowles	Williams Boots[b] Knowles[c]	4:36
13.	"Heaven"	Boots Knowles	Boots Knowles	3:50
14.	"Blue" (featuring Blue Ivy)	Boots Knowles	Boots Knowles	4:26
Total length:				66:35

Beyoncé – Disc 2 (DVD)

No.	Title	Director(s)	Length
1.	"Pretty Hurts"	Melina Matsoukas	7:04
2.	"Ghost"	Pierre Debusschere	2:31
3.	"Haunted"	Jonas Åkerlund	5:21
4.	"Drunk in Love" (featuring Jay Z)	Hype Williams	6:21
5.	"Blow"	Williams	5:25
6.	"No Angel"	@lilinternet	3:53
7.	"Yoncé"	Ricky Saiz	2:02
8.	"Partition"	Jake Nava	3:49
9.	"Jealous"	Knowles, Francesco Carrozzini, Todd Tourso	3:26
10.	"Rocket"	Knowles, Ed Burke, Bill Kirstein	4:30
11.	"Mine" (featuring Drake)	Dubusschere	4:59
12.	"XO"	Terry Richardson	3:35
13.	"Flawless" (featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)	Nava	4:12
14.	"Superpower" (featuring Frank Ocean)	Åkerlund	5:24
15.	"Heaven"	Knowles, Tourso	3:55
16.	"Blue" (featuring Blue Ivy)	Knowles, Burke, Kirstein	4:35
17.	"Credits"		2:34
18.	"Grown Woman" (bonus video)	Nava	4:24
Total length:			78:00

Notes

• ^{^[a]} signifies a co-producer
• ^{^[b]} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^[c]} signifies a vocal producer

• "No Angel" is stylized as "Angel".
• "Flawless" is stylized as "***Flawless"

Sampling credits

• "Partition" contains an interpolation of the French-dubbed version of the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, performed by Hajiba Fahmy.
• "Flawless" contains portions of the speech "We should all be feminists", delivered by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
• "Heaven" contains portions of "The Lord's Prayer" in Spanish, recited by Melissa Vargas.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Beyoncé's website.

Performers and musicians

• Beyoncé – vocals, background vocals
• Jay-Z – vocals (track 3)
• Drake – vocals (track 9)
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – vocals (track 11)
• Frank Ocean – vocals (track 12)
• Blue Ivy Carter – additional vocals (track 14)
• Boots – background vocals (tracks 2, 3, 7, 12), piano (track 14), drums (track 14), guitar (track 14), keyboards (track 14)
• Pharrell Williams – background vocals (track 4)
• Timbaland – background vocals (track 4)
• Justin Timberlake – background vocals (tracks 6, 8)
• Terius "The Dream" Nash – background vocals (tracks 6, 10), additional piano (track 10)
• Ryan Tedder – background vocals (track 10)
• Kelly Rowland – background vocals (track 12)
• Michelle Williams – background vocals (track 12)
• Stefan Skarbek – background vocals (track 12)
• Kwane Wyatt – additional background vocals (track 2)
• Melissa Vargas – "The Lord's Prayer" reciting (track 13)
• Katty Rodriguez – horns (track 4)
• Adison Evans – horns (track 4)
• Crystal Torres – horns (track 4)
• Mike Scott – guitar (track 8)
• Dwayne Wright – bass (track 8)
• Margot – violin, violin arrangement (tracks 12, 14)
• Steven Wolf – live drums

Technical personnel

• Beyoncé – executive production, production (tracks 1–8, 10, 11, 13, 14), vocal production
• Ammo – production (track 1)
• Boots – production (tracks 2, 13, 14), additional production (tracks 3, 5–7, 11, 12), recording (tracks 2, 13, 14), instruments (tracks 2, 3, 7, 11), additional arranging (track 11)
• Noel "Detail" Fisher – production (tracks 3, 7)
• Pharrell Williams – production (tracks 4, 12)
• Caroline Polachek – production (track 5), recording (track 5), synths and drum programming (track 5)
• Timbaland – production (tracks 6, 8), additional production (track 3), co-production (track 4)
• Jerome Harmon – production (track 6), additional production (track 3), co-production (tracks 4, 8)
• Justin Timberlake – production (track 6), background vocals (tracks 6, 8)
• Key Wane – production (track 6), intro keys and intro programming (track 9)
• Noah "40" Shebib – production (track 9), recording (track 9)
• Terius "The Dream" Nash – production (track 10)
• Ryan Tedder – production (track 10), recording (track 10), instruments and programming (track 10)
• Hit-Boy – production (track 11), additional production (tracks 7, 10), additional drum programming (track 2)
• Rey Reel Music – co-production (track 11)
• Brian Soko – additional production (track 3)
• Mike Dean – additional production (track 6)
• Andre Proctor – additional production (track 7)
• Majid Jordan – additional production (track 9)
• Sidney "Omen" Brown – additional production (track 9), additional drum programming (track 9)
• Stuart White – recording (all tracks), mixing (tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 13), digital editing and arrangement (tracks 4, 12), additional mixing (track 5), mix engineering (track 7)
• Chris Godbey – recording (tracks 4, 6, 8), mixing (track 8)
• Bart Schoudel – recording (tracks 4, 6)
• Andrew Coleman – recording (tracks 4, 12), digital editing and arrangement (tracks 4, 12)
• Ann Mincieli – recording (track 6)
• Noel Cadastre – recording (track 9)
• Jordan "DJ Swivel" Young – recording (track 11)
• James Krausse – recording (track 12), mix engineering (tracks 2, 3, 7, 11, 13), assistant mix engineering (track 4), assistant engineering (track 14), mastering (track 1)
• Mike Larson – recording (track 12)
• Rob Cohen – recording (track 13)
• Jonathan Lee – recording (track 14)
• Ramon Rivas – second engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4–11, 13, 14), assistant engineering (tracks 3, 12)
• Rob Suchecki – second engineering (tracks 1, 7, 11)
• Hajiba Fahmy – spoken words recording (track 6)
• Derek Dixie – additional synth sounds (tracks 1, 3, 6), additional SFX (track 1), mix consultation (tracks 2–4, 6, 7, 11), horns arrangement (track 4)
• Niles Hollowell-Dhar – additional synth sounds (track 6)
• Tony Maserati – mixing (tracks 2, 3, 6, 7, 11–14)
• Andrew Scheps – mixing (tracks 5, 10)
• Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing (track 9)
• Justin Hergett – mix engineering (tracks 2, 4, 7, 11) assistant mix engineering (tracks 3, 5, 6, 12), assistant engineering (tracks 10, 13, 14)
• Tyler Scott – assistant mix engineering (track 2), assistant engineering (track 11)
• Matt Weber – assistant engineering (tracks 4, 6, 8, 12)
• Jon Castelli – assistant engineering (track 12)
• Christian Humphreys – assistant engineering (track 13)
• Paul Pavao – assistant mix engineering (track 4)
• Edward Valldejuli – assistant mix engineering (track 4)
• Chris Tabron – mix engineering (track 6), assistant mix engineering (track 12)
• Matt Wiggers – assistant mix engineering (track 6)
• Chris Cannon – assistant mix engineering (track 8)
• Carlos Perezdeanda – second engineering assistant (track 7)
• Tom Coyne – mastering (tracks 2–14)
• Aya Merrill – mastering (tracks 2–14)

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2013–14)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	1
Australian Urban Albums (ARIA)	1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	12
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	4
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	9
Brazilian Albums Chart (Billboard)	3
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	1
Croatian Albums Chart	1
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)	5
Cypriot Albums (Official Cyprus Charts)	2
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	2
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)	1
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)	5
French Albums (SNEP)	13
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	11
Greek Albums (IFPI)	12
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)	26
Irish Albums (IRMA)	2
Italian Albums (FIMI)	14
Japanese Albums (Oricon)	11
Mexican Albums (AMPROFON)	15
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	2
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	2
Polish Albums (ZPAV)	2
Portuguese Albums (AFP)	3
Russian Albums Chart	1
Scottish Albums (OCC)	2
Slovenian Albums Chart (SLO TOP 30)	5
South African Albums Chart	3
South Korean Albums Chart (GAON)	9
South Korean International Albums (Gaon)	2
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)	8
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	27
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	4
Taiwanese International Albums (G-Music)	2
UK Albums (OCC)	2
UK R&B Albums (OCC)	1
US Billboard 200	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)	1

Year-end charts

Chart (2013)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	23
Australian Urban Albums Chart	3
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)	180
Brazilian Albums Chart	7
Danish Albums Chart	38
Dutch Albums Chart	39
French Albums Chart	119
New Zealand Albums Chart	28
US Billboard 200 (SoundScan)	8
US Billboard 200 (Female – SoundScan)	1

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)	Platinum	70,000^
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)	2× Platinum	80,000*
Canada (Music Canada)	Platinum	80,000^
France (SNEP)	Gold	50,000*
Ireland (IRMA)	Gold	7,500^
Netherlands (NVPI)	Platinum	0^
New Zealand (RMNZ)	Platinum	15,000^
Poland (ZPAV)	Platinum	0*
South Africa (RiSA)	2× Platinum	80,000
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)	Gold	10,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)	Platinum	378,000
United States (RIAA)	Platinum	1,968,000
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref.
Worldwide	December 13, 2013	Digital download	Parkwood Entertainment Columbia
Australia	December 20, 2013	CD+DVD
France
New Zealand
Poland
United Kingdom
United States
Mexico	December 26, 2013
Turkey	January 3, 2014
Portugal	January 13, 2014
Japan	February 12, 2014		Sony Music Entertainment Japan
New Zealand	March 21, 2014	CD+Blu-ray	Sony Music Entertainment Sony DADC

See also

• Beyoncé discography
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2013
• List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2014
• List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2013
• List of Billboard number-one R&B albums of 2014
• List of number-one albums of 2013 (Canada)
• List of number-one albums of 2014 (Canada)
• List of number-one albums of 2014 (Australia)
• List of UK R&B Chart number-one albums of 2013
• List of UK R&B Chart number-one albums of 2014