Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood
- Verizon released two ads that fans said hinted at a Beyoncé Super Bowl commercial.
- The ads appeared to feature references to Beyoncé's music and album art.
- The hints were confirmed when Beyoncé showed up in a commercial for the company during the big game
Why is Tony Hale squeezing lemons and talking to a silver disco horse in a Verizon commercial? For diehard fans, all signs pointed to Beyoncé.
The Beyhive's suspicions were confirmed Sunday when the Queen herself starred alongside Hale in a commercial during the Big Game.
"Time for a surprise drop," Beyoncé said.
Following the commercial, Bey's website was updated with "Act ii" and "3.29," an indicator that a new album could drop on March 29. This was expanded upon in a post on Bey's Instagram, which featured a short country music clip.
Beyoncé's previous album, "Renaissance," was referred to as Act I, and she had previously said on her website that it would be a three-act project.
Verizon had released two bizarre ads on Thursday and Friday, leading TikTok and X viewers to speculate that the superstar was involved with the company. Some said she could have been set to appear in a Super Bowl commercial.
“The Lemonade references? My House playing in the end? Verizon being one of Renaissance World Tour’s sponsors? Are we really going to see thee Beyoncé in a commercial during the Superbowl?” one Beyonce fan account wrote on X.
In the first commercial released Thursday, Hale appears surrounded by lemons.
“Hold up. She wants me to squeeze all these lemons by myself?” Hale says, with a lemon juicer in their hand. “This better work.”
The “Hold up” line, fans speculated, could have been a reference to a song in Beyoncé’s 2016 studio album “Lemonade” — hence the lemons.
"Hold up, they don't love you like I love you," Beyoncé sings at the beginning of the anti-cheater anthem, reportedly inspired by Jay-Z's infidelity.
The short clip ended with "2/11/24" in the center of a black screen — the date of this year’s Super Bowl — and a split-second song snippet. Fans quickly noticed that the music at the end sounded very familiar to “My House,” a song released by Bey in December that served as the end credits to her movie “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.”
And just when the Beyhive thought they couldn’t get more hype, Verizon dropped a second commercial Friday, that time featuring a silver horse statue.
“Should we be in a Super Bowl commercial? Yay or Neigh,” Hale, who played Buster Bluth in the FOX comedy series "Arrested Development," says to the horse. The lifeless horse does not laugh at the joke, and Hale walks away, saying, "OK, this is a problem."
The same outro followed that commercial.
Beyoncé hadn't confirmed anything on her social media pages until Sunday. Still, the Beyhive pointed out that the "Love on Top" singer rides a similar-looking silver horse on the cover of her “Renaissance" album.
Bey has previously worked with Verizon, which sponsored the Renaissance World Tour by providing a platform for fans to purchase presale tickets.
Representatives for Verizon and Beyoncé did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Beyond anticipating the commercial, fans also expected that Queen Bey could use the opportunity to announce a Las Vegas residency.
Usher, Mariah Carey, and Adele have all had successful Vegas residencies recently, and the Beyhive thinks Beyoncé is next on that list.
Bey devotees also think the residency will occur at the Las Vegas Sphere. Verizon also confirmed it would advertise on the Sphere into the Super Bowl weekend. The band U2's residency at the Sphere was announced in a Super Bowl ad last year.
The U2 residency ends in March, and two residencies have been announced for 2024: Phish, which will have a four-day residency, and Dead & Company, which will play 18 shows in May and June.
If Beyoncé does a residency in Vegas, she could rake in millions. Usher reportedly grossed nearly $19 million during his first Vegas residency in 2021, and U2 may have brought in $110 million during the first three months of their residency at the Sphere, Billboard reported.
"If this happens, I'm going to lose my shit… and probably spend most of my savings," one TikToker who made the connection said.
Representatives for The Sphere did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.