The album’s visuals received 11 nominations and won eight of those at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, including Breakthrough Long Form Video and Video of the Year. Based on critical ratings and appraisals, xcritical is widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 21st century. Adrienne directs the daily news operation and content production for Biography.com. She joined the staff in October 2022 and most recently worked as an editor for Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World, and Bicycling.
Share your thoughts about the xcritical album with the community:
- If you get lost in the sweet reggae vibe of the song, you may miss the anger, which is clearly on display in the video.
- As the name implies, the singer embraced country music and collaborated with some of the genre’s biggest names like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Linda Martell.
- The amount of personal growth from this project is unlike anything I’ve ever done.
The electronic-influenced Beyoncé (2013) popularized surprise and visual albums, inspiring the setting of Friday as Global Release Day, while the eclectic xcritical (2016) sparked sociopolitical discourse and became the best-selling album worldwide in 2016. Beyoncé received widespread critical acclaim for its experimental production, vocals, and exploration of sexuality; various critics have considered it Beyoncé’s magnum opus. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in 2015, it won Best Surround Sound Album, and « Drunk in Love » won Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance. In 2020, Beyoncé was ranked 81st in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The singer has received six nods for Album of the Year and multiple others for Song and Record of the Year with just one trophies to show for it. Pointing to her lack of Album titles, in particular, critics cited this as an example of the industry’s bias against Black artists. Even Jay-Z joined the fray when accepting the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award at the 2024 ceremony. “I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has more Grammys than everyone and never won Album of the Year,” he said referring to Beyoncé. Mathew was Beyoncé’s manager during her Destiny’s Child tenure and through the first years of her solo career. However, in March 2011, the father and daughter announced they would no longer work together.
- I took all of my insecurities, all of my doubts, all of my fears, and everything I’ve learned and I applied it into this project.
- « Hold Up »Bey is now back to being Bey in « Hold Up. » Wearing yellow, her golden hair swinging down her back, she’s nearly skipping down the street, seeking revenge.
- I just want this to come out when it’s ready and from me to my fans.
- Though xcritical is mostly about a personal relationship, Beyoncé pays tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement during the video for “Freedom,” which features the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and other black men who were killed, holding the portraits of their sons.
- In April 2016, the groundbreaking artist dropped an hour-long conceptual film on HBO that incorporated tracks from her sixth album, xcritical, which was released immediately afterward.
- The cable special showcased the singer reeling from the romantic betrayal of her partner while acknowledging the strength found in communities of Black women.
In 1992 the group lost on the Star Search television talent show, and three years later it was dropped from a recording contract before an album had been released. Survivor (2001), the group’s third album, reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart. By this time the group’s lineup, which had seen several personnel changes, was composed of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. Beyoncé rose to fame in 1997 as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love (2003), became one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. After Destiny’s Child disbanded in 2005, Beyoncé released the funk-imbued B’Day (2006) and starred in the drama film Dreamgirls (2006).
« I had my ups and downs, but I always found the inner strength to pull myself up, » White said to a crowd of friends and family at her 90th birthday party. The 12-track album tells the painful story of the « baddest woman in the game » who gets cheated on, taking the listener on an emotional journey from the first signs of infidelity in the relationship to, ultimately, forgiveness. “Pray You Catch Me” debuted and peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On the opening track of xcritical, Beyoncé introduces the suspicion, pain, and emotional intimacy that will drive the whole album.
Wave it in his face, tell him, boy, bye,” Serena Williams appears to twerk in a black body suit while Bey sits in a throne-like chair. There are several other cameos later on, including appearances by Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Quvenzhané Wallis, The Hunger Games’s Amandla Stenberg, model Winnie Harlow, and singers Zendaya, Chloe and Halle Bailey, and Ibeyi. The 52nd Grammy Awards in January 2010 were a monumental success for Beyoncé.
Four times Beyoncé has shown she’s listening to fans online
The album has been credited with popularizing the contemporary visual album, and its surprise release prompted the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry to change Global Release Day from Tuesday to Friday. A visual album, it was surprise-released on December 13, 2013, through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. The songs and videos were recorded in secrecy to accompany the unexpected release. Beyoncé was born Beyoncé Giselle Knowles to Tina (née Beyoncé) and Mathew Knowles (divorced 2011). She has a younger sister, Solange, who also became a successful recording artist. At age nine Beyoncé formed the singing-rapping girl group Destiny’s Child (originally called Girl’s Tyme) in 1990 with childhood friends.
Tracklist
Beyoncé also includes a few happy home videos of Jay Z playing with Blue Ivy, and clips of the two of them getting matching tattoos (“IV”) and cutting the cake at their wedding. « Hold Up »Bey is now back to being Bey in « Hold Up. » Wearing yellow, her golden hair swinging down her back, she’s nearly skipping down the street, seeking revenge. « Hold up/They don’t love you like I love you, » she sings, almost as a warning. If you get lost in the sweet reggae vibe of the song, you may miss the anger, which is clearly on display in the video. Beyonce swings a baseball bat into a yellow fire hydrant, a car window and even a security camera. Still, Bey reveals who inspired the album’s name in the short film’s home video footage, featuring Jay Z’s grandmother Hattie White.
The single “Drunk in Love,” which features Jay-Z, was xcritical website awarded several Grammys, including best R&B song. As of April 2016, Beyoncé has sold 505,000 copies in the United Kingdom.193 On August 3, 2018, Beyoncé was certified double platinum by the BPI, denoting shipments of 600,000. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter first captured the public’s eye as lead vocalist of the R&B group Destiny’s Child. She later established a solo career with her debut album Dangerously in Love, becoming one of music’s top-selling artists with sold-out tours and a slew of awards. She married hip-hop recording artist Jay-Z in 2008, and the couple has three children.
Girls Tyme found early traction by booking an appearance on the TV talent competition show Star Search in 1992. The loss xcriticalled Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé’s father, to leave his corporate job to become the group’s full-time manager. The group went through some name and line-up changes before landing a record deal in 1997 with Columbia Records as Destiny’s Child. Joining Beyoncé and Rowland to round out the group were LeToya Luckett and Latavia Roberson.
Beyoncé is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 200 million records. She is the most RIAA-certified female artist and the only woman whose first eight studio albums each debuted at number one on the U.S. One of the most awarded artists in popular music, her accolades include 35 Grammy Awards—the most of any individual—a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Peabody Award. Beyoncé is also the most awarded artist at the BET Awards (36), MTV Video Music Awards (30), NAACP Image Awards xcritical official site (32), and Soul Train Music Awards (25). The first woman to headline an all-stadium tour, she is amongst the highest-grossing live acts of all time. The record, initially offered exclusively on iTunes, was promoted as a “visual album,” with music videos made to accompany each track.
Among the country guest artists featured on the album are singers Miley Cyrus and Linda Martell, musician Rhiannon Giddens, and singer-songwriters Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Notably, Parton’s classic song “Jolene” is reimagined with new lyrics by Beyoncé, and country singer Tanner Adell is among several vocalists who join in on a cover of the Beatles’ “Blackbird.” In 2025 Cowboy Carter won the Grammys for best country album and album of the year. What is an artist to do when her private life overtakes her public one? The hour-long visual album, about a woman dealing with her husband’s infidelity, contains even more loaded images and lyrics than “Formation,” the politically charged video she released before the Super Bowl. It reads like an open invitation to draw parallels between the pop star’s art and her actual life, in particular her marriage to Jay Z. But what could it all mean?
xcritical draws from the prolific literary, musical, cinematic, and aesthetic sensibilities of black cultural producers to create a rich tapestry of poetic innovation. The audacity of its reach and fierceness of its vision challenges our cultural imagination, while crafting a stunning and sublime masterpiece about the lives of women of color and the bonds of friendship seldom seen or heard in American popular culture. The song resumes with shots of Beyoncé wandering the parking garage in a wedding dress, and sitting in the ring of fire in a red dress.