Why Beyoncé's 'Act III' Album Speculation is Growing Ahead of Met Gala

As Beyoncé Knowles-Carter's highly anticipated Met Gala return nears, speculation is mounting that her Act III album rollout could be linked to the event.

The 35-time Grammy winner is set to return to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's spring exhibition for the first time in a decade on May 4. This time, Beyoncé will step in as the 2026 co-chair alongside Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and Anna Wintour.

Ahead of the Met Gala, dubbed fashion's biggest night in New York City, rumors have been circulating on social media that Beyoncé might be making an announcement related to her next album. One fan account called @beyscatalog on X alleged that the singer's next album will be announced in connection to the Met Gala, speculating that a lead single release could be scheduled for next month and a full album released this summer. However, that is unlikely to be the case.

Beyoncé's longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, rejected those claims, commenting on the fan's social media post that this is "unequivocally false!!" An anonymous source also reportedly told TODAY that the singer's unannounced Act III album won't be released next week.

via: HuffPo

If you cast your mind back to 2022, the Grammy winner announced a “three-act” trilogy of albums was in the works, the first instalment of which, Renaissance, came shortly afterwards.

While Renaissance was rooted in dance and house music, follow-up Cowboy Carter was an exploration of country music, with a particular emphasis on the genre’s pioneering Black musicians.

Following the recent two-year anniversary of Cowboy Carter, the Beyhive are now convinced that the Crazy In Love singer is gearing up to unveil Act III, which is heavily rumoured to have taken inspiration from rock music.

Earlier this week, it was spotted that Beyoncé had pulled all of the Cowboy Carter merchandise from her official online store, indicating the end of this era.

It was also noticed that she had uploaded an old interview featuring Destiny’s Child and Stevie Nicks – whose song Edge Of Seventeen the three-piece sampled on their hit Bootylicious – fuelling the speculation that a rock-inspired Beyoncé album could be imminent.

Beyoncé has previously dabbled in rock music before.

In addition to sampling Edge of Seventeen on Booylicious, the chart-topping star has notably covered Alanis Morrissette’s You Oughta Know, performed live with Prince and Tina Turner and collaborated with Jack White on her 2016 album Lemonade, which even earned the duo a Best Rock Performance nomination at the following year’s Grammys.

Her 2025 Cowboy Carter tour also featured several nods to rock music, leading to even more speculation that this would be the direction she takes for Act III.

Earlier this month, a clip of Hayley Williams saw the Paramore frontwoman being grilled about whether she’d been asked to take part in Beyoncé’s next musical project.