PARIS, June 16 — Beyonce is back with a new album, Renaissance, due on July 29 — her first since 2016.

The singer’s website showed what appeared to a new solo album available for pre-order, with further details to be published soon.

Her social media profiles were also updated to read "act I ... RENAISSANCE”, suggesting there may be multiple releases.

Beyonce has not given much away ahead of previous launches, dropping her self-titled album in December 2013 out of the blue, and giving a teaser trailer for 2016’s Lemonade just one week before it appeared.

The 40-year-old has kept busy in the intervening years, collaborating with her husband Jay-Z on 2018’s Everything is Love and releasing a live album and film, Homecoming the following year.

The latter featured her already-mythic performance at Coachella in 2018, considered one of the greatest festival performances ever.

She also contributed a song, Black Parade, to the live-action remake of The Lion King, which won her her 28th Grammy — breaking the record for a female artist. — AFP