Beyoncé’s career has been so successful that some of her songs are unavoidable. Even years after their release, they can be heard at clubs, on curated playlists, and through the open window of a passing car. She continues to release celebrated music, but her old hits endure. At one point in her career, though, she wanted to separate herself from two major songs. Beyoncé shared why she wanted to move past them.

Beyoncé said she wanted to move on from 2 of her famous songs

In 2011, Beyoncé released her fourth studio album, 4. At that point, she’d already released monster hits like “Crazy in Love” and “Single Ladies.” She didn’t want to think about those songs as she entered into a new era with 4, though.

“I don’t want to hear about ‘Single Ladies’ or ‘Crazy In Love’. I don’t want to hear it,” she told Dazed Magazine, adding, “I believe that there are certain things that happen and they happen naturally.”

She added that she had fully moved past the need for her Sasha Fierce alter ego on the new album. She was moving forward as a new, more confident artist. 

“I killed off needing Sasha Fierce,” she said. “I don’t need her anymore.”

In this new era, she wanted to show fans a more vulnerable and mature side of herself.

“Honestly, I’m much more interested in showing people the sensitive, the passionate, and the compassionate person that I am,” she said. “More so than Sasha Fierce.”

One of these Beyoncé songs served as her only statement on her marriage at the time

“Single Ladies” is still one of Beyoncé’s most memorable songs. When she released it, it served as her only statement about her recent marriage to Jay-Z. They secretly wed in an intimate ceremony in New York.

“It was the only public statement that they ever made about marriage,” the song’s producer, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, told People. “When we went into the studio she didn’t have a ring on or anything, because at that point they were still really hiding it. That’s where Dream got that concept from.”

Singer-songwriter The-Dream shared his inspiration behind the lyrics.

“I thought it was a subject that most women wanted to talk about because most of us men are scared as s*** to be bound to a commitment,” he said.

She continues to reinvent herself on every album

As with 4, Beyoncé has continued to reinvent herself on every new album. She gave listeners a raw look at her personal life on Lemonade, delved into disco and house on Renaissance, and explored country and Americana on the Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter. 

“Not only does she do things her own way, she does things really well,” music critic Rawiya Kameir told Time. “The extent to which she’s able to pull this stuff off relies on not just the ideas, but the fact that the execution is still top-notch: the Virgo ethos of it all, her attention to detail, the depths of the research — all of that is really important because you can’t pull off these impactful changes without having the art to back it up.”

Cowboy Carter was the second installment in a musical trilogy. She has yet to announce the genre of the final installment, but fans have speculated that it could be rock or R&B.