Beyoncé

[Beyon]

1. Hip hop star/be with you
2. Upgrade U
3. Hello/Radio
4. End of time/ I care
5. Haunted
6. 6 inch/Daddy Lessons
7. Summer
8. Water but extended and add a bridge

[Omiros]

After Mood 4 Ever she should have released an extended remix of Water (feat. Rihanna)

[BeeBoy]

1. Signs
2. Upgrade U
3. Scraed of Lonely but back then Radio feat. Lady Gargoyle
4. End Of Time
5. Mine
6. 6INCH
7. FRIENDS
8. Find Your Way Back and Water

[theMathematician]

I would only handle one era differently and that's 'Dangerously In Love'. I remember how I bought the album back in the day expecting it to sound like 'Crazy In Love' and 'Baby Boy' and was sad to hear that it's full of midtempo soul songs. Considering this, I would've chosen one of the uptempo songs and only as like 3rd single.
So maybe something like:
1. That's How You Like It
2. Be With You
3. Baby Boy
4. Dangerously In Love

[DC34ever]

8. Water but extended and add a bridge

this would be a MONSTER

[BeeBoy]

I dont want to talk about The Gift because ift was literally killed by the way they handled it and I'll get mad....imagine the vicusal album on time and a proper single with video beforehand. Already, Water and Find Your Way Back all had potential, even My Power and Brown Skin Girl. I mean I don't expect that album to have 2m sales for what it is but she has had a lot of bangers on there.

[KEY9481]

The sound was perfect, the art direction was everything, the commercial handling was ridiculous.

Find Your Way Back
MOOD4EVA
Already
Water
My Power
Brown Skin Girl

Those could have been big.
But Spirit gave the wrong idea, GP had no clue about what was The Gift and paid no attention, Parkwood was too slow to capitalize on the incredible buzz BSG had...

[Noahh]

Yeah, The Gift has so much potential and commercial appeal.
Its visuals were out of this world.

Spirit definitely was the wrong song to start the era with. It was a very plain middle of the road song, while the album was packed with flavor, culture and interesting sounds.

[KEY9481]

The initial video made me love Spirit, but if they wanted to go with a mid tempo / ballad type of song, Bigger would have made a far better job.

[Omiros]

The annoying thing for me with Spirit is that it wasn't even implemented in the story. It was just a song in the background for 20 secs, so they could have chosen literally any song fron the album in its place.

If it was part of the story (i.e. Nala singing it) it would have surely performed better commercially as well.

My Power could have been an amazing moment in the film in my opinion.

[KEY9481]

[Aaronsmithjune1]

The sound was perfect, the art direction was everything, the commercial handling was ridiculous.

Find Your Way Back
MOOD4EVA
Already
Water
My Power
Brown Skin Girl

Those could have been big.
But Spirit gave the wrong idea, GP had no clue about what was The Gift and paid no attention, Parkwood was too slow to capitalize on the incredible buzz BSG had...

Mood4eva sat at the top of TTH and didn't do a thing. Lol.. Brown skin girl could've smashed if radio wasn't so racist. Even urban radio didn't support it. It was really strange considering
how everyone Loved it.. already could've probably been a little cute top 10

[aang]

Yeah basically just wanted to echo what everyone has said regarding The Gift. "Sprite" was basic as heck, and it did give the wrong impression of what the album really was. Also I do think the vocals were a bit too heavy for a commercial Pop song.

Had they released something like "Already" or "Water" as the lead, people would've realized that the album was not a basic Disney-sounding body of work. Even Kendrick released multiple songs leading to the soundtrack of Black Panther to tell people HERE! WE HAVE EVERYTHING! (the poppier-rap "All The Stars", the R&B/Pop "Pray For Me" & the straight up Hip-Hop "King's Dead").

Also agreed with Aaronsmithjune1 "Mood 4 Eva" would've done nothing on the charts. If "Shining" & "Top Off" didn't do anything with much bigger hype, why would you think people would like the former? And I do agree that the "Brown Skin Girl" flopping big time on Urban was very surprising although I think it could've done better if they had the video ready during its initial release. Or maybe they should've sent it to Urban AC instead where they're more open with ballads?

[aang]

Also I'm not gonna lie, I actually haven't really checked out the full The Gift documentary special but I guess the whole project was kind of last-minute as in suddenly Beyonce was in the mood for making a Lion King-inspired album while she was recording the movie? Maybe that's why they didn't prepare a proper campaign & promotion for the whole era?

I believe the video for "Spirit" was also recorded only 1-2 weeks prior to the movie release if I could recall.

[BeeBoy]

There have been rumors from day 1 that her contract included curating a soundtrack like Back Panther...It was also promoted via ABC and GMA which is affiliated to Disney. I mean I get why they went for Spirit in the disney movie and for the Oscar/GG theme but they were WRONG for thinking it could lead the Gift, let alone do anything on the charts. It's sad the Elton was in the credits with his terrible single so they could've included Find Your Way Back for example or Water and then drop Already as the lead with the video.

People like to forget about Spirit though that it was again a middle of the week release (wednesday) so big chunks of sales and inital streaming interest lost, then it was never included on TTH, dropped hard on streaming and then the video came 10 days later also in the middle of the week. Never send to radio until the Gift dropped. The launch was terrible for a disney releated track. There they got what they wanted: 98-OUT. I mean if a single is a hit it's a hit and climbs anyway but it could've had at least two weeks charting, UAC airplay and a much better peak.

I blame one person and her name starts with B and ends with eyoncé

[KEY9481]

I blame one person and her name starts with B and ends with eyoncé

Hmmm can't figure out who it could be

[KEY9481]

Three years ago

[BeeBoy]

Only one of the most iconic performances of all time Crazyyy how time flies but at the same time it feels like 10 years ago considering she hates performing since then and all that has changed in the world

[aaliyahman]

I loved Spirit it's a beautiful song with a brilliant video. It's too Disney for what Beyoncé was trying to do with the imagery and sound of that album and so I understand why it just didn't work.

[BeeBoy]

I agree, the video is great but I think the song is too middle of the road. It tries to be Disney and it tries to be mature and fit on the Gift album, in the end it just misses the mark for both. They should've went for easy pop disney singalong woth african elements for the movie. It didn't need to fit on The Gift, tuck it on at the and and call it a day. It'S what she did with Formation and Run The World as well

I mean I get why people like it and I still think it's a great blum closer, it's just not giving what y'all said it's supposed to gave

[Hugo]

[Hugo]

The top 100 women of all time according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/explore/1...women/profiles

[DnBLover]

The Gift is really a good example of how to ruin an album.
- Wrong branding, leading many people to think it was a soundtrack or something associated with the movie.
- filling the album with awful interrupting snippets from the movie on Spotify, and not providing even a Playlist to remove them.
- Awful lead single. It's by far her worst lead single, it's dripping with cheese, empty lyrics, boring melody and try hard vocals. If anything, release the piano version instead which was already a million times better than the overproduced cut. Obviously they were aiming for the Oscar, but the song did not deserve even a nomination in my opinion. Bigger deserved an Oscar. Now that song was haunting, and one of her best ever no question.
- Not changing the album name to Black Is King. This one was an easy late fix which didn't happen either.
- flat out ignoring all the hits in that album. It was literally all hits, even the tracks not featuring herself.

[Artoo]

You could argue she wasn’t interested in the era but the fact she produced a movie says otherwise. I just don’t get it with her anymore, I really don’t. She used to be thirsty for success but now just doesn’t ‘care’. I understand life changed and she doesn’t want to do the whole promo thing anymore, but it feels like her music is disposable and simply secondary to everything else - like touring and filmmaking.

[Omiros]

To be honest I'm starting to think she never cared for the success and it was all Mathew.

I think that she's passionate about music and performing, but doesn't care as much about having hits. Her self-sabotage during the past decade and her lack of certifications is evidence enough.