A breakaway from her previous effort, Tamia consulted a wider range of musicians to work with her, including Claude Kelly, The Runners, duo Carvin & Ivan, Salaam Remi, and frequent collaborator Shep Crawford.

Upon release, Beautiful Surprise received a generally mixed reception from music critics, many of whom praised Tamia's vocal performances but found the material too generic.

More was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned the top forty single "Officially Missing You".

In addition to co-writing most of the songs, Tamia doubled as executive producer with Claude Kelly, marking the first time the pair worked together.

"[3] Beautiful Surprise received generally mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom praised Tamia's vocal performances but found the material too generic and formulaic.

The New York Times felt that Beautiful Surprise is "wisely out of step with her surroundings, even if not always successfully so [...] Too often on this album Tamia undermines herself and pulls back from her biggest notes.

"[4] Beautiful Surprise was released in the US on August 28, 2012; it debuted and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 album chart with first week sales of 13,000 copies.

[2] Commenting on its commercial success, Tamia elaborated, "considering I don't have a television show or anything else like that pushing the music, this is definitely a testament to R&B and its fans.