'4' Track Listing Announced

1. 1+1
2. I Care
3. "I Miss You"
4. "Best Thing I Never Had"
5. "Party (Feat. Andre 3000)"
6. "Rather Die Young"
7. "Start Over"
8. "Love On Top"
9. "Countdown"
10. "End of Time"
11. "I Was Here"
12. "Run the World (Girls)"

Beyoncé To Release '4' June 28, 2011

You just saw the premiere of Beyoncé's latest music video "Run The World (Girls)." Come June 28th (US) you'll have the new album, '4.' #4Beyonce

"RUN THE WORLD (GIRLS)" WORLD ONLINE PREMIERE

"Run The World (Girls)" Music Video To Premiere On American Idol

Beyoncé's intensely anticipated video for "Run The World (Girls)" will premiere on American Idol on Wednesday, May 18 on FOX. Following the broadcast, fans can return here for the online premiere. #RunTheWorld

Beyonce '4' Album Preview - EXCLUSIVE

Beyonce held a preview listening party for her upcoming album, 4, at the NYC offices of Sony Music on Wednesday afternoon (May 11).

About a dozen of her super fans watched the “Run The World (Girls)” video in a conference room before the 29-year-old global superstar came in and surprised everyone, shaking hands and hugging every single person in the room. (One of her fansites BeyonceWorld even flew in from Australia!)

“When editing the DVD [for Beyonce: I Am... World Tour], I noticed that the tone of my voice is different live [than my recording one],” Beyonce told JustJared.com. “So I used that live performance tone throughout the record.”

B then sat down, grabbed a bottle of Pellegrino sparkling water, and played five new tracks for the room.

“I wanted to do something refreshing and different,” Beyonce told JustJared.com. “So I mixed genres and drew inspiration from touring, traveling, watching rock bands, and attending festivals… I was like a mad scientist, putting lots of different songs together.”

Click inside for JustJared.com’s preview of “4″…

Beyonce ‘4′ Album Preview - JustJared.com Exclusive

SONG #1 ———- Part of the song, tentatively titled “Till The End of Time,” has already leaked on YouTube. “The bass line was inspired by [Nigerian musician and composer] Fela Kuti,” Beyonce shared with JustJared.com. “It’s my nephew Julez’s favorite song.” (JJ Tidbit: Jay-Z produced the Broadway musical Fela! about the late Nigerian singer.)

Here are some sample lyrics: “I wanna love you so (hit me)/ I will be the one to kiss you at night… Come on take my hand/ I won’t let you go/ I’ll be your friend/ I will love you so… Turn your rain into sun… Say you’ll never let me go.”

SONG #2 ———- This mid-tempo song has lots of drums much like “Run The World.” “Babyface wrote the song,” Beyonce told JustJared.com. The track is about karma and revenge and kicks off with, “What goes around comes back around.” Some key phrases from the song include, “Best thing I’ve ever had” and “Best thing you’ve never had.” The best line in the song goes, “You showed your ass, baby I saw the real you.” The song closes with, “Sucks to be you right now.”

SONG #3 ———- This ballad is moody and dark. It’s a song that will really sit with you, rather than be an instant smash hit. One fan asked Beyonce if she was crying at the beginning of the song because it sounded like she was. “Almost,” she responded. “I was on the verge.”

Jeff Bhasker penned this song, Beyonce confirmed. “It’s one of my favorite songs [off of the album],” she said.

Some sample lyrics: “I told you how you hurt me/ I’m crying and deserted but you don’t care/ Nobody told me this is love/ You’re immune to all my pain/ This is love but that’s okay… But I care/ I know you don’t care too much/ But I still care.”

SONG #4 ———- This track starts off the lyrics “killing me softly” and samples Boyz II Men’s “Uhh Ahh.” Beyonce uses the countdown and sings between each decremental number, “10, 9, 8…”

“Boyz II Men were the first ones to put Destiny’s Child on tour,” Beyonce told JustJared.com. “They showed us how to treat an opening act and I will never forget that. That was 15 years ago! Wow, 15 years! (laughs) I’m old.”

Some sample lyrics: “Dedicated to the one I love… diamonds in that chain… Riding that pony.. showing him how you ride… If you leave me, you’re out of your mind. London, speed it up. Houston, rock it.”

What did Jay-Z think of this song? “He liked it,” Beyonce told JustJared.com. “I don’t think he was dissecting it, just thinking of what he could do to it as a rapper.”

SONG #5 ———- Beyonce had the lights turned down for this beautiful ballad. Here’s how the song starts: “If I ain’t got nothing, I got you/ If I ain’t got something, I don’t give a damn/Because I got…”

“I don’t know much about algebra but one plus one is two,” she croons. “He ain’t got nothing but love. Darling, you got enough for the both of us. Make love when my days look low, pull me in close.”

“RUN THE WORLD (GIRLS)” VIDEO ———- It’s everything we hoped it would be - amazing! (Watch the 60-second “Run The World” teaser.)

The video starts and ends with Beyonce riding her horse, except there’s fire involved in the closing scene. A lion walks into one of the dance numbers and Beyonce has two giant hyenas on leashes in another scene.

The room went crazy during two parts of the song. The first was when Beyonce sings “eff you” and gives the middle finger (albeit pixelated with a censor). The second was when Beyonce is on her knees, bent backwards, and writhing around in the sand. It’s reminiscent of the sand dance sequence in her “Baby Boy” video

The dance sequences were choreographed by her longtime friend Frank Gatson with help from Sheryl Murakami and Mozambican kwaito dance group Tofo Tofo. Beyonce had scoured the Internet and discovered Tofo Tofo on YouTube. The funny thing is they had no idea who Beyonce was when she reached out to them! (Tofo Tofo gets down with Beyonce in a few of the dance numbers.)

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Beyonce had walked into the room after her fans watched the “Run the World” video, so after the album preview, she had the video played again. “I’ve never watched it with a group of people before, so I’m excited,” she said. So the fans got to see the video not once, but twice!

After the album preview and video screening, Beyonce thanked everyone in the room for coming and said she had to go rehearse for her next “thing.” She has so many “things” coming up, we’re all so excited!

Beyonce Announces New Album Title

Beyonce’s “Run The World (Girls)” video has yet to arrive (despite a slew of teases), but the fit-as-a-fiddle diva decided to go ahead and announce her upcoming fourth solo album’s title via a Billboard cover story anyway. Naturally she had plenty of other things to say, too. And naturally we felt obligated to round up her classiest quotes from the piece. Read on!

7 CLASSY QUOTES FROM BEYONCE’S BILLBOARD COVER STORY

* On naming her fourth solo album 4: “We all have special numbers in our lives, and 4 is that for me. It’s the day I was born. My mother’s birthday, and a lot of my friends’ birthdays, are on the fourth; April 4 is my wedding date.”

* On initially recording over 60 songs for 4: “I started off being inspired by [Afrobeat music pioneer] Fela Kuti. I actually worked with the band from “Fela!” [the hit Broadway musical based on his life] for a couple of days, just to get the feel for the soul and heart of his music; it’s so sexy, and has a great groove you get lost in. I loved his drums, all the horns, how everything was on the one. What I learned most from Fela was artistic freedom: he just felt the spirit. I also found a lot of inspiration in ’90s R&B, Earth, Wind & Fire, DeBarge, Lionel Richie, Teena Marie… I listened to a lot of Jackson 5 and New Edition, but also Adele, Florence + the Machine, and Prince.”

* “At this point, I really know who I am, and don’t feel like I have to put myself in a box. I’m not afraid of taking risks – no one can define me.”

* On ditching her father as manager: “It’s not that anything bad happened between us. My family has my support always, and they support me, but when you’ve been working with the same people for 15 years, it’s natural to eventually have your own ideas… We were at a point where we’d learned so much from each other, and now it’s exciting for me to do this on my own and hire my own team. I’ve started managing myself.”

* “I’m approaching 30, and finally took a break in my life, which I’ve never had. I took more than a year off: I traveled around, spent time with my husband, woke up in my own bed, ate whatever I wanted, went to museums and Broadway plays, watched documentaries, and just had life experiences.”

* “I never get to go to concerts because I’m usually performing, so I saw so many shows – great bands, like Muse and Rage Against the Machine, that also inspired the album.”

* On taking part in the upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed remake of A Star Is Born: “It’s a dream come true; I’m still in shock that it’s really going to happen. Clint Eastwood is clearly the absolute best, and I’m so honored and humbled. I was in no rush to do another movie unless it was the right film, and I didn’t even want to touch A Star is Born unless it was with him.”

So there we have it — all-grown-up Beyonce is taking the reigns of her own destiny (ahem!), has quite the eclectic music taste and is all about the uno, dos, tres, cuatro! Although, stating all this could be construed as trying to define her. Er, sorry ’bout that, Bey.

Run The World Teasers

EXCLUSIVE clips for Beyoncé’s new video, Run The World. Check it out below!