While on vacation after filming Dreamgirls, Beyoncé began contacting various producers and rented Sony Music Studios, completing the album within two weeks during April 2006.

Most of the lyrical content of the album was inspired by Beyoncé's role in the film, with its musical style ranging from 1970s–1980s funk influences and balladry to urban contemporary elements such as hip hop, pop, and R&B.

Upon its release, B'Day received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who directed most of the acclaim towards its sonic quality and Beyoncé's vocal performance.

In late 2005, Beyoncé decided to postpone the recording of her second studio album because she had landed the lead role in Dreamgirls, a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name (1981).

[16] The plot of the film revolves around "The Dreams", a fictional 1960s group of three female singers who attempt success in the mainstream music industry with the help of their manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (portrayed by Jamie Foxx).

[28][33] Those interpretations are shown in the lines: "It's so good to the point that I'll do anything just to keep you home ... Tell me what you want me to buy, my accountant's waiting on the phone ..."[31] The protagonist also sees the man as a sexual object, asking him to sit on her lap and "take it off while I watch you perform".

[37] The album's fifth track and second single "Ring the Alarm", which is an R&B song incorporating elements of punk rock,[38] is noted for the use of a siren in its melody and "shows a harder edge to Beyoncé's sound".

[43] The standard edition's closing track "Resentment" is a soul and soft rock ballad about a gritty, agitated goodbye, which adds a "different kind of overwrought drama".

[60] She performed "Déjà Vu" at the Fashion Rocks on September 8,[61] and, along with "Crazy in Love", "Green Light", "Ring the Alarm" and "Irreplaceable", during an episode of Good Morning America which aired the same day.

[69] In addition to the original track listing, the Deluxe Edition featured five new songs, including "Beautiful Liar", a duet with Colombian singer Shakira.

"Amor Gitano", a Spanish-language flamenco-pop duet with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández, served as a soundtrack for Telemundo's telenovela El Zorro,[70] and was included in the Deluxe Edition bonus disc alongside Spanish re-recordings of "Listen" ("Oye"), "Irreplaceable" ("Irreemplazable") and "Beautiful Liar" ("Bello Embustero").

The idea of recording songs in a foreign language emanated from her experience when Destiny's Child performed "Quisiera Ser" with Alejandro Sanz at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards (2002).

Most of the videos were accompaniments for the uptempo songs on B'Day;[71] which featured retro stylization, use of color and black hair styles, as Beyoncé thought it would create a resemblance between herself and the character she played in Dreamgirls, Deena Jones.

[74] The shooting of the videos was completed in two weeks;[75] they were directed by Jake Nava, Anthony Mandler, Melina Matsoukas, Cliff Watts, Ray Kay, Sophie Muller, Diane Martel and Beyoncé herself.

[96] The song received mixed reviews from the music critics, who noticed it was different from Beyoncé's earlier works; while some commended her willingness to take risks, others were polarized about her aggressive vocals.

[94] Its accompanying music video, Beyoncé's second consecutive to be directed by Muller, remakes a scene from the 1992 film Basic Instinct, and was choreographed by then-16-year-old Teyana Taylor.

[112] Internationally, it peaked atop the European Hot 100 Singles and on charts in Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.

[119][120] However, as a video of a woman named Deborah Cohen and her doctors dancing to "Get Me Bodied" before she underwent a double mastectomy was posted onto YouTube and went viral in 2013, the song found a new peak position at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[121][122] The song's 1960s-influenced accompanying music video was directed by Mandler and features Beyoncé's sister Solange and former Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

[135] Jody Rosen, writing for Entertainment Weekly, commented that the album's songs "arrive in huge gusts of rhythm and emotion, with Beyoncé's voice rippling over clattery beats".

[14] The Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman commented that the production team helped Beyoncé "focus on edgier, up-tempo tracks that take her sweet soprano to new places".

[138] Robert Christgau from MSN Music said "on most of [the songs] she's wronged yet still in control because she's got so much money" and felt that Beyoncé "earns her props" if "opulence can signify liberation in this grotesquely materialistic time, as in hip-hop it can".

[144] Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone felt that "while the mostly up-tempo disc never lacks for energy, some of the more beat-driven tracks feel harmonically and melodically undercooked, with hooks that don't live up to 'Crazy in Love' or the best Destiny's Child hits".

[18] Priya Elan of NME named only "Freakum Dress" and "Ring the Alarm" as highlights and criticized that "too many tracks sound like updated versions of former glories", with no song on-par with "Crazy in Love".

[162] After seven weeks of being outside the top ten, B'Day reached number nine on the chart dated December 2,[163] due to the success of its single "Irreplaceable", which helped the album regain its strength.

[95] Natalie Y. Moore of In These Times echoed the latter's commentary, writing that the video showcases Beyoncé "strutting her sexuality", and that in Jay-Z's scenes it "looks as if any minute now she'll give him fellatio".

[196] Included in the list of offenses towards the video were "a lack of theme, dizzying editing, over-the-top wardrobe choices, and unacceptable interactions" between Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

[200] As commented by Tom Breihan of The Village Voice, Beyoncé took advantage of "[people's] sympathy and unleash[ed] a burst of public rage in the form of ['Ring the Alarm']".

Taken from the back cover artwork of B'Day, the image provoked response from an anti-smoking group, stating that she did not need to add the cigarette holder "to make herself appear more sophisticated".

1997 published an article about B'Day as well, and wrote that the album's singles became "essential parts" of pop culture, also writing that "Get Me Bodied" is "now cemented as one of those songs that gets played by a DJ to get the crowd dancing at a wedding".