Break My Soul

Beyoncé And Madonna’s ‘Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)’ Is Now Available For Purchase

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The world is just one week into Beyoncé’s Renaissance, or a week and a half for those who listened to the leaked album, but the movement truly began back in June. The dance-inspired “Break My Soul” shook the game up and is still a force to this day. Beyoncé decided to capitalize on the single’s momentum earlier this week with an EP full of remixes, and she has now upped the ante with “The Queens Remix” to “Break My Soul” featuring Madonna available for purchase on her website.

In a tweet from earlier today (August 5), @shopbeyonce shared “Break My Soul (THE QUEENS REMIX) by Beyoncé & @Madonna. Available now” with crown emojis, a link to the website, and a disc showing the two legends’ names. The track is priced at $1.29 and will be delivered to buyers’ emails immediately upon purchase.

A Beyoncé release truly is a holistic experience, as she always provides more than music whether she intends to or not. Just in a week she’s had contention with Kelis over a sample, people offended by her lyrics referencing ableism, and questions of her credibility as an artist because several songwriters appear in the album notes.

Through it all, Queen Bee perseveres and time will tell just how impactful Renaissance and all of its fixings will be.

Purchase “The Queens Remix” to “Break My Soul” here.

Beyonce Releases A Surprise EP Of Four ‘Break My Soul’ Remixes

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When Beyonce first released her house-influenced single “Break My Soul,” it was a pop culture-shifting moment. The single sparked a growing conversation about Black artists’ pioneering efforts in dance music, as well as reviving interest in genre staples such as Robin S.’s “Show Me Love.” Now, Beyonce has doubled down on the empowering track and her commitment to a traditional rollout for her new album, Renaissance (or maybe even quadrupled), by releasing a surprise, four-track EP of “Break My Soul” remixes.

Each of the new reworkings of the song is produced by a different standout DJ from the dance music world, including Honey Dijon, Nita Aviance, Terry Hunter, and will.i.am. Their respective takes add elements such as trance or church organs to transform the hit record and expand its inescapable dance floor appeal.

The new EP should help refocus the public’s attention on the music and tastemaking history lesson at the core of Renaissance after another of the album’s tracks inadvertently hijacked the public’s interest. After “Milkshake” singer Kelis called out Beyonce for supposedly sampling her on “Energy,” much of the discourse revolved around whether or not Beyonce should credit Kelis. However, Beyonce later removed the disputed vocal, keeping the actual interpolation of “Milkshake” that prompted the speculation.

Check out Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” remixes below via Spotify.

Beyonce Fans Are Appalled By An ‘MGK Punk Pop’ Cover Of ‘Break My Soul’

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When Beyonce’s house-influenced new single “Break My Soul” first dropped, there were naturally a few fans put off by the pop-R&B queen’s shift into dance music styles. It didn’t take long for folks to jump aboard though, leading to a renaissance (sorry) of interest in Black-led dance music. Even Robin S. started to receive some belated and much-deserved accolades for her role in pioneering house music in the ’90s.

However, while Beyonce’s genre experimentation is part of a larger movement to reclaim traditionally Black music, that doesn’t mean that fans can appreciate further attempts to transform her work. Enter Ali Spagnola, a social media personality who has made kind of a name for herself with attention-grabbing stunts. Along with her band, she has reinterpreted the song as a pop-punk track in a video titled, “What if Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’ was by MGK?”

Obviously, it didn’t take long for the video to get negative attention from Beyonce fans for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that it’s kind of … not good. It’s also problematic thanks to some of the reasons stated above, which makes it a bad look in the eyes of many fans who are left to wonder if Spagnola just didn’t get the cultural subtext or got it and just didn’t care (both options sap the intended humor of the situation, given the historical context here). But attention seems to have been the goal all along, and Spagnola hasn’t had any problem with retweeting the criticism as well as the sporadic praise. She even doubled down, posting a video about “How we turned Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’ to MGK punk pop.”

And now, if you’ll excuse me, my soul is definitely broken, because I am not Beyonce, so I’m gonna go lie down until I stop feeling so queasy.

Beyoncé Joins TikTok And Starts By Showing Love To Her Favorite ‘Break My Soul’ Videos

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Beyoncé has long been one of the biggest artists in the world and now, she’s starting to take over TikTok, too, as she just joined the platform today (and already has over 3.3 million followers as of this post).

A couple hours ago, she shared her first TikTok video, a compilation of clips from TikTok users (including Cardi B, who makes a brief appearance) either dancing or singing along to “Break My Soul.” She wrote in the caption, “Seeing y’all release the wiggle made me so happy! Thank you so much for all the love for BREAK MY SOUL! – Love B.”

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Seeing y’all release the wiggle made me so happy! Thank you so much for all the love for BREAK MY SOUL! – Love B —#RENAISSANCE #BREAKMYSOUL

♬ BREAK MY SOUL – Beyoncé

Furthermore, Variety notes that Beyoncé’s full catalog of music is now available for TikTok users to use as backing sounds in their videos.

Now, we wait and see how quickly Beyoncé’s TikTok follower count will catch up to those figures on other platforms; She has approximately 15.5 million Twitter followers, 25 million YouTube subscribers, 56 million Facebook followers, and 268 million Instagram followers.

As for Renaissance, Beyoncé’s upcoming album, she said of it last year, “I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”

Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” Becomes Her First Solo Top 10 Hit Since 2016

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Beyoncé's "Break My Soul" Becomes Her First Solo Top 10 Hit Since 2016

Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” has officially entered the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The single is now the first solo top 10 single for Queen Bey in 6 years.

“Break My Soul” made the achievement in its first week of tracking, jumping from No. 15 to No. 7.

Last week, Beyoncé shared the cover for the Renaissance album and delivered the following message to her fans:

“Creating this album allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world,” Bey said. “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.”

– Beyoncé

You can see the cover below.

The post Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” Becomes Her First Solo Top 10 Hit Since 2016 appeared first on The Source.

Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’ Gets Covered By An Adorable Kid And It’s An Absolute Must-Watch

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Beyonce has fans of all ages, races, identities, and really any other characteristic used to label someone. This week’s example of her ubiquity comes in the form of a child singing along to her recent single “Break My Soul.” The young man took a break from his cheese puffs to dance with excitement before requesting his Alexa to turn the music up when the upbeat jam turned on. He then went on to sing along to its chorus, repeating “You won’t break my soul” and adding an emphatic “Everybody.” As the male voice in the background sings “Release your mind, release your job,” it appears the young man is trying to free himself of the shackles of whatever job is weighing him down. The kid gets it.

Beyonce released “Break My Soul” on June 20, coincidentally following Drake’s full dance album Honestly, Nevermind, ahead of her upcoming album Renaissance Part 1 which is set to release on July 29. “Break My Soul” featured contributions from The-Dream, Big Freedia, and her husband Jay-Z. Renaissance will mark Beyonce’s first proper solo album release since 2016’s Lemonade, though she did provide Everything Is Love in 2018 in collaboration with Hov plus Homecoming: The Live Album and The Lion King: The Gift in 2019.

Check out the charming young man’s karaoke performance of “Break My Soul” above.

Azealia Banks Calls Out Beyoncé For ‘Stealing’ From Robin S On ‘Break My Soul’

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It’s hard to understand how Azealia Banks’ brain works sometimes. Last week, the rapper and noted provocateur vehemently asked people to stop making mash-ups of her music with Beyoncé’s latest single “Break My Soul.” “Please for the love of God,” she posted on her Instagram Story. “They are horrible.” And look, we’ll give her that. She didn’t ask for her music to be thrust alongside Bey’s. But as we try to make sense of how Banks’ mind works, she was clearly perturbed my these mash-ups for a reason. Today, back on her Instagram story soap box, she went on a tirade accusing Beyoncé of “stealing” from Robin S, and then some.

For posterity, her actual words claimed that Bey, “…is out here pretending to support Black divas with bouquets of wilted flowers after stealing their art, arrogantly assuming they don’t have money for legal counsel… and muscling them into making stock PR statements to cover up this messy album roll out..”

Ok, let’s backtrack for a second. Beyoncé sampled Robin S’ 90s house hit “Show Me Love” on “Break My Soul,” and fully credited her as a songwriter. While Robin S said that she was not contacted ahead of time, she did post a video thanking Beyoncé and her team (including Jay-Z) profusely, saying, “Thank you so much for giving me my flowers while I’m still alive.”

It’s safe to say that Robin S stands to make a dandy sum from royalty checks off of “Break My Soul,” but Banks, who has noted beefs with everyone from Cardi B to Elon Musk, thinks she sees right through Beyoncé’s intent. She suggests that the best way for Beyoncé to repent for this sin of “stealing,” is to provide an, “update on Koi Knowles,” the alleged sister and daughter of Bey’s father, Mathew Knowles. Or as Banks calls her, “…your little sister you think we forgot about?” Here’s Banks’ full post from her Instagram Story:

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Azealia Banks/Instagram

It’s hard to understand how the two issues are analogous, but it makes sense to Azealia Banks? An hour after calling out Beyoncé, Banks posted a video of her song, “I Rule The World,” on her Instagram, which has been out since February. Just another day for Ms. Banks…

Fans Are Mashing Up Azealia Banks Songs With Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’ And Azealia Banks Hates It

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2022 is rapidly shaping up to be the Summer Of Black Dance thanks to new releases from Drake and Beyonce that tapped into the sounds of early and contemporary house music. While Drake shocked the world with the release of his surprise album Honestly, Nevermind, Beyonce brought the energy with her motivational anthem “Break My Soul,” earning approval from house music pioneer Robin S. in the process. This has prompted an ongoing discussion about the role of Black Americans in the creation of house music and related forms and their place in the current subculture.

One of the ways this discussion has manifested itself is in renewed or increased attention to the works of artists in the space like Kaytranada, Leikeli47, Doechii, and Azealia Banks. Some enterprising fans have even taken to creating mashups of “Break My Soul” with songs by Azealia Banks — a time-honored tradition of the dance music scene.

Unfortunately for those fans, Azealia Banks herself is not having it. The outspoken, often controversial Harlem rapper has never been afraid to upset the apple cart or take aim at sacred cows, and despite no cow being more sacred than Beyonce, Banks risked the Beyhive’s ire to demand fans stop mixing the two artists’ music. “Please for the love of God, stop the ‘Break My Soul’ AB mashups,” she wrote in a post on her Instagram Story. “They are horrible.”

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For what it’s worth, the main mashup I was able to find online — which added AB’s verses from “F*ck Him All Night” to Beyonce’s new runaway hit — is highly competent and sounds pretty good, but let’s face it: Azealia Banks has always been a bit of a contrarian (he wrote with as much sarcasm as he could muster). Given that her ongoing and growing list of feuds includes Cardi B, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Megan Thee Stallion, and more, it doesn’t seem that Banks has any qualms about adding yet another fan-favorite media personality to that list.

An Emotional Robin S. Thanks Beyoncé Profusely For Being Sampled On ‘Break My Soul’

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“Show Me Love” by Robin S. isn’t just a banger: It’s one of the ultimate 90s house bangers. The diva house classic dominated top-40 radio when it came out in 1990 and has maintained its pizzazz in the 30-plus years since. The remixes and then the remixes of the remixes are still dancefloor staples at clubs around the world because Robin S. brought pure heat to the thunderous groove. And now as we begin to reckon with hip-hop’s inevitable shift towards dance music production thanks to Drake’s surprise dance music album, Honestly, Nevermind, and Beyoncé’s surprise single, “Break My Soul,” it’s time to give credit to innovators like Robin S. when it’s due.

This is exactly what Beyoncé did on “Break My Soul.” The “Crazy In Love” star’s new track uses the infectious stem from “Show Me Love” throughout her new single and it’s just the greatest hat tip imaginable to Robin S. In a recent video that surfaced of Robin S., she’s over the moon at the inclusion of her hit on what’s sure to be one of this summer’s biggest pop music hits.

“This is Robin S. and this message goes out to the Queen Bey herself, Beyoncé,” the emotional singer said in the clip. “To Jay-Z, to the entire team… Thank you so much for giving me my flowers while I’m still alive. I am honored and I am excited to see what else can happen.”

Robin S. said her son called her to say that she was “trending all over the place,” and that even though she was not contacted ahead of time before “Show Me Love” was sampled in “Break My Soul,” she added, “Maybe we can do a collab together. That’s always a dream.”

Watch a clip of Robin S.’s video message above and watch the original video for “Show Me Love” below.

The-Dream Says He Loves ‘Making You Guys Happy’ After Seeing The Reaction To Beyonce’s ‘Break My Soul’

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Last week, Beyonce sent the world into a frenzy with the announcement that her seventh album Renaissance would arrive at the end of July. The chaos picked up when she revealed the project’s lead single, “Break My Soul” would be made available for fans on Tuesday. The song arrived a few hours earlier than expected as fans were given the opportunity to press play on it with just hours left in the Juneteenth holiday. Beyonce received sweeping praise from her fans for the song, and The-Dream, one of the song’s co-writers, took to Twitter to thank fans for their words.

“I Love Making You Guys Happy,” The-Dream wrote on Twitter before adding, “and even if for a second I can give anything of [myself] to help you get through a moment in these crazy times I’d use my entire heart to do so.” He continued, “No one’s f*cking sleeping tonight! @Beyonce we have done something special yet again my good friend.”

In addition to The-Dream, Beyonce’s “Break My Soul” also features songwriting from Tricky Stewart, Jay-Z, Fred McFarlane, Allen George, and others. The song itself samples Big Freedia’s 2014 bounce record “Explode” and Robin S.’ 1993 single “Show Me Love.”

You can view The-Dream’s tweet above.