Did Beyoncé just casually drop a posthumous Selena Quintanilla collab and expect us to keep it together? Because honey, the Hive is in absolute shambles and we are here for every single second of it!
Queen B turned 45 on Friday, September 4, and instead of just posting a glamorous birthday selfie like the rest of us peasants, she unleashed a 20th anniversary edition of her iconic sophomore album, B’Day. This is the girl who gives and GIVES, people!
The deluxe treat includes brand new vocals layered onto classic tracks, and the standout moment has Twitter in a chokehold: a long-awaited collaboration with the legendary Selena Quintanilla. That’s right, the Tejano queen is finally getting her flowers alongside the Houston heir, and frankly it’s about damn time the music industry remembered who paved the way!
But wait, there’s more, because Beyoncé never does anything small. The anniversary project also includes a tribute to the one and only Celia Cruz, the Cuban queen of salsa. These two icons getting their flowers on the same project? We are DEHYDRATED.
Fans immediately lost their entire minds on social media, flooding timelines with crying emojis and declarations that Beyoncé is officially running the music industry with an iron stiletto. One user tweeted, “Beyoncé woke up on her 45th birthday and said let me give the culture a gift it deserves.” Another wrote, “Selena and Celia Cruz on the same album? Beyoncé said Latina excellence ONLY.”
The B’Day original album dropped in 2006 and gave us certified smashes like “Irreplaceable,” “Déjà Vu,” and “Ring the Alarm,” so revisiting it with fresh magic is honestly the most Beyoncé thing ever. She did not come to play, she came to SLAY.
Between this surprise drop, the Cowboy Carter era still looming large, and her upcoming birthday festivities with Jay-Z, the Knowles-Carter empire remains undefeated. Some of us cannot even remember to send a text on time, and this woman is dropping historic collaborations before her morning matcha.
The real question is: are we worthy of this release? Absolutely not, but we are savoring every blessed second anyway.
What do you think? A) This collab is the cultural reset we needed B) Beyoncé really said happy birthday to ME specifically