Posted by After having announced the upcoming album Renaissance, on June 20th Beyoncé broke the silence and released the first single, Break My Soul: a catchy dance melody that reminds the 90s (some of us will remember Robin S.’ Show Me Love) and a set of lyrics that need to be put in context, especially if the title of the album is Renaissance. In this article we will delve into the lyrics and the message that the song wants to convey.
Below you can find the official lyric video of the song.
Renaissance: the meaning of the new album
Renaissance is the first album released by Beyoncé after the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. It therefore contains all the feelings and the urgencies she feels as a human, after the period we all lived, when we were forced to put all our needs and priorities aside.
As Beyoncé declared in 2021, talking about her new music:
“With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible.”
Renaissance is therefore Beyoncé’s perspective about the importance of a rebirth, right now. Putting ourselves first, chasing our needs as human beings, fighting fears, overcoming the limitations and the restrictions they applied, and allowing the natural, human, social side of ourselves to drive us again. It’s an important message that wants to move the attention to what we truly are: humans, social animals, not just living creatures that are supposed to only survive.
In this perspective, we can better analyse the meaning of Break My Soul‘s lyrics, Beyoncé new song.
Break My Soul: the lyrics and their meaning
In Break My Soul, Beyoncé plays the role of a common woman, working on standard business hours from 9 to 5, stressed, unable to sleep comfortably at night, and aware that her life is too much driven by duties. But a period like this cannot last long: at some point you realize that the priorities of your life must be others. And if you know you are driven by love, you immediately realize that this lifestyle is wasting your existence.
Now, I just fell in love, and I just quit my job
I’m gonna find new drive, damn, they work me so damn hard
Work by nine, then off past five
And they work my nerves, that’s why I cannot sleep at night
This is the way Beyoncé describes the disfunctional life that many people are now living, focusing mainly on what life asks us to do, so on duties, and leaving behing what we want, what we like, what gives us pleasure. But if love arrives, you immediately realize that you need to make space for it. And as a strong woman, you take important decision and change things, making your life different.
Motivation
I’m lookin’ for a new foundation, yeah
And I’m on that new vibration
I’m buildin’ my own foundation, yeah
Hold up, oh, baby, baby
You won’t break my soul
There are some important lines in the song that quite explicitely point the finger against the way the pandemic and the authorities forced us to live in those months:
There’s a whole lot of people in the house
Tryin’ to smoke with the yak in your mouth
(Good at night) And we back outside
You said you outside, but you ain’t that outside
Worldwide hoodie with the mask outside
In case you forgot how we act outside
In a similar way to how Kendrick Lamar’s new song wanted to remind us how things changed during those months, Beyoncé reminds us how they forced us to behave outside. Walking and behaving with the feeling that the outside is a constant threat. Putting protections on, living in constant fear. Now it’s time to feel again what we really are, what we really want, switching our priorities.
If you don’t seek it, you won’t see it
That, we all know (Can’t break my soul)
If you don’t think it, you won’t be it
That love ain’t yours (Can’t break my soul)
Tryin’ to fake it, never makes it
That, we all know (Can’t break my soul)
You can have the stress and not take less
I’ll justify love
We go round in circles, round in circles
Searchin’ for love (Round in circles)
We go up and down, lost and found
Searchin’ for love
Looking for something that lives inside me
Looking for something that lives inside me
Love is what we are. Love is the main drive that should guide our actions. And if we forgot it for a while, it’s time to come back to our natural balance. It’s time to adjust our actions properly, and rediscover the natural bound between the way we act in life and the values that represent us.
Getting in the bottom of the lyrics meaning, Break My Soul is a song about change. About recovery. About getting in touch once again to our true nature, after a period where the world asked us for a while to forget what we are, what our life is. Luckily, if we are strong individuals, our nature won’t be easily transformed in something that doesn’t come natural. They can force a new balance for a limited period, but it cannot last forever. And now it’s time for our renaissance.
Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave
The complete lyrics
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
I’m tellin’ everybody
Everybody
Everybody
Everybody
Now, I just fell in love, and I just quit my job
I’m gonna find new drive, damn, they work me so damn hard
Work by nine, then off past five
And they work my nerves, that’s why I cannot sleep at night
Motivation
I’m lookin’ for a new foundation, yeah
And I’m on that new vibration
I’m buildin’ my own foundation, yeah
Hold up, oh, baby, baby
You won’t break my soul (Na, na)
You won’t break my soul (No-no, na, na)
You won’t brеak my soul (No-no, na, na)
You won’t break my soul (Na, na)
I’m tellin’ evеrybody (Na, na)
Everybody
Everybody
Everybody
Release ya anger, release ya mind
Release ya job, release the time
Release ya trade, release the stress
Release the love, forget the rest
I’ma let down my hair ’cause I lost my mind
Bey is back and I’m sleepin’ real good at night
The queens in the front and the Doms in the back
Ain’t takin’ no flicks but the whole clique snapped
There’s a whole lot of people in the house
Tryin’ to smoke with the yak in your mouth
(Good at night) And we back outside
You said you outside, but you ain’t that outside
Worldwide hoodie with the mask outside
In case you forgot how we act outside
Got motivation (Motivation)
I done found me a new foundation, yeah (New foundation)
And I’m takin’ my new salvation (Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, new salvation)
And I’ma build my own foundation, yeah (Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh, baby, baby
You won’t break my soul (You won’t)
You won’t break my soul (Break my soul)
You won’t break my soul (You won’t)
You won’t break my soul (Break my soul)
And I’m tellin’ everybody (Everybody)
Everybody (Everybody)
Everybody (Everybody)
Everybody, yeah
If you don’t seek it, you won’t see it
That, we all know (Can’t break my soul)
If you don’t think it, you won’t be it
That love ain’t yours (Can’t break my soul)
Tryin’ to fake it, never makes it
That, we all know (Can’t break my soul)
You can have the stress and not take less
I’ll justify love
We go round in circles, round in circles
Searchin’ for love (Round in circles)
We go up and down, lost and found
Searchin’ for love
Looking for something that lives inside me
Looking for something that lives inside me
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
I’m tellin’ everybody
Tellin’ everybody
Everybody
Everybody
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul, no, no
You won’t break my soul
You won’t break my soul
And I’m tellin’ everybody (Oh yeah, yeah)
Everybody (Oh yeah, yeah)
Everybody
Everybody (Oh yeah, yeah)
I’m takin’ my new salvation
And I’ma build my own foundation, yeah
Got motivation (Motivation)
I done found me a new foundation, yeah (New foundation)
I’m takin’ my new salvation (New salvation)
And I’ma build my own foundation, yeah (Own foundation)
