NEW YORK — With a new album and two movies on the horizon, it appears the Season of Beyonce has begun.
Then again, one could argue that it’s always Beyonce season.
Two years ago, it was all about the release of her second CD, “B’Day,” and her starring role in the movie “Dreamgirls.” Last year, her “Irreplaceable” was up for a top Grammy and she was on a world tour.
And this year, a high-profile Grammy performance with Tina Turner and her hush- hush marriage to Jay-Z generated headlines.
Though it may have been hard to tell, she actually did take a year-long hiatus from recording music.
“I think I did need to take a break. I honestly did,” she says. “I needed to take a break even personally so I could relax and appreciate all the things that I worked for.”
Of course, Beyonce being Beyonce, her hiatus wasn’t a complete vacation. She spent part of that “break” filming her upcoming movie, “Cadillac Records,” in which she peels off the glamour to play R&B great Etta James during her drug-addled years.
Beyonce says not only did the role propel an acting breakthrough, but it also provided a musical one.
“I felt like after I played Etta James, and I sang these beautiful, emotional, deep, honest songs, I really learned a lot about myself. And I wanted to make classic music . . . to grow and make that transition into legendary,” she says.
Her bid at musical immortality comes this week with the release of “I Am . . . Sasha Fierce,” her third solo CD, something of a departure from the frenetic funk of her previous two multiplatinum albums. While the new album certainly has its share of club anthems, it is a double-CD with two personalities. The upbeat side is dubbed “Sasha Fierce” (the namesake of her onstage, divalicious alter ego); the “I Am . . .” portion is a ballad-centric pop album.
Though Beyonce is an established veteran after more than a decade in the spotlight, the 27-year-old has always been among the more guarded celebrities. She refuses to divulge much about her private life.
“I’m learning the importance of balance, which is one of the biggest (concerns) of all working women — when is it enough, when is it time to relax, and to take care of yourself?”
Preparing for her role as James — in the harrowing throes of addiction — in “Cadillac Records,” Beyonce spent time at a Brooklyn rehab center to better understand something she says she’s never done: drugs. The experience, she said, took its toll.
“I don’t go around focusing on negative things, so it was really a difficult thing for me to be in that much pain for that amount of time, crying all day, all night, even when I left I was in a funk. I was a different person.”
