Queen

**Queen** - 7th studio album by American singer-songwriter Belka, realesed on April 1st, 2022, 4 years after its predecessor, Rainbow. It was promoted by 2 singles, Queen and Round And Round.

## Background And Realese

On March 3rd, 2022, when Belka performed on SuperBowl Halftime Show, she annouced that her 7th studio album is almost ready, and that it's titled "Queen". Everything was quiet, Rainbow era ended. Untill March 18th, when Belka tweeted:

> *"Lol... We just realised we have another weeks of working on Queen. Like I really thought we're good..."*
>
>

Next tweet was:

> *"Anyway, going back to the exile. Bye bitches. See y'all!"*
>
>

On March 20th, it was annouced that Belka is going to realese a song from Peaky Blinder's 6th season soundtrack, titled "Question Existing". It was realesed next day, and singer later received nomination for Oscar's *Best Original Song* for the song, but lost to Billie Eilish's *No Time To Die*. On March 23rd, song supposedely titled "Circus" was leaked onto the internet, and the song was floating all over Twitter. It was supposedely lead single from singer's 7th studio album, but later the leak died.

The "Circus" leak died very fast because day after the leak, on March 24th, Belka annouced that her new single - titled "*Queen*" will be out the next day. Song was well-received and was met with commercial success, peaking at #1 on both Billboard Hot 100 (for 5 weeks) and on Worldwide Billboard (for 1 week). She performed the song many times on TV. Few days later, on 28th of March, American singer annouced cover and tracklist for the album, and also the "Queendom Countdown" event, that was simply a countdown to the album realese, but everyday new promotional single would arrive. The promotional singles later turned out to be "Ready, Steady, Go" on March 28th, "Pretty Girl" featuring Hema, Walker, Mello Jia and Marie on March 29th, and "Blue Sight" on March 30th. Album's 2nd single was "Round And Round", that was out on March 31st and peaked at #4 on Billboard Hot 100.

Album was out on April 1st, 2022 to streaming platforms, CDs and digital download. It debuted at #1 on Billboard 200 with over 700,000 copies sold and 75,1 million streams. She had a whole MTV special for the album's realese, where she performed all songs from the album and 6 additional singles from her previous albums.

## Songs

"***Crown***" is a piece about how society is constantly forcing women to fight and constantly compete for their position in work and society. "***Round And Round***" is written about how men want women exclusively and when they want them, but women have been fighting for their position and independence for years. "***Dancing Wonderland***" is written about a woman placed in an incredible life situation where she is just the icing on the cake in a man's perfect world. The woman rebels and ruins his dream wonderland. "***Narrator***" is the first collaboration on the album - it features British singer-songwriter Charli XCX. In the song, singers tells us that men are always the narrators on every story and now it's time for women to take over. "***Lipstick***" is written from a perspective of a lesbian, that just broke up with her longtime girlfriend. She reflects on all the good times in the relationship and admits that even though her partner cheated on her, she would still like to have the imprint of her ex-partner's lipstick on her cheek every night. "***Lemonade***" is about how society wants to squeeze as much as possible out of women, like a lemon for lemonade. Women are supposed to work hard, but also take care of their children and husband, and the whole world actually. "***Pretty Girl***" is album's 2nd feature and it features Hema, Walker, Mello Jia and Marie. It talks about the fact that all women in the industry needs to support each other at all cost, cause industry tries to break us apart.

"***Million Dollar Pussy***" is simply a song about the fact that women can and need to sometimes just go out and feel like their pussy costs a million dollars. In "***Queen***" singer sings about the fact that the crown is enough for every women on the planet and we all need to bond and rule the world together. "***Ready, Steady, Go***" continues the theme of the forced rat race in the music industry. Singers have to race over which one will do this, which one will do that - which one will win this, which one will win that. Women in the industry are continually compared to a level when the fun stops. "***Blue Sight***" concerns the same lyrical subject as "Lipstick," but Blue Sight is written from the perspective of this former partner. The woman in "Blue Sight" sings that this oceanic sight helped her get up each day, but also that it forced her to do things she didn't want to. "***The Edge***" is the closing track closes the entire album. The story of this song is about a woman who is considered by many to be crazy and uncontrollable, when she just wants to party on the edge.

## Singles

"Queen" is album's lead single. It was realesed on March 25th, 2022 to streaming platforms, CDs, vinyls, digital download, Contemporary Hit and Rhytmic Radio. It peaked at #1 on Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks and at #1 on Worldwide Billboard for 1 week.

"Round And Round" was realesed on March 31st, 2022 as album's 2nd single. It was realesed to streaming platforms, CD pressings, digital download and Contemporary Hit Radio. It peaked at #3 on Billboard Hot 100.

## Critical Reception

"Queen" received generally positive reviews, with many calling it's message "strong" and "empowering", and complimenting on album's production and vocals, but complaining about some lyrics. **On Metacritic, album got a weighted score of 69 out of 100**, making it Belka's worst-reviewing project. The conclusion sounds: *"Message of queendom from this album is really beautiful and empowering, vocals and production is high level, same with lyrics... Most of the time. We got some really bad and cringy lyrics."*

## Trivia

* Belka annouced that deluxe edition for this album is coming, but didn't annouce the exact date.
* "Narrator" was actually written for Belka's cancelled debut EP "Computer Chaos".
* Belka said that she was very insecure about this album and she & her label were rescheduling it multiple times.
* "The Edge" is Belka's favourite song from the album.