On June 26, 2020, West unveiled a collaboration between his fashion company
Yeezy and clothing retailer
Gap, and also launched the #WestDayEver promotional campaign on Twitter that accompanied announcements of different projects. One of the projects was a music video for the track "
Wash Us in the Blood" that features fellow rapper
Travis Scott, directed by Jafa; the video was released simultaneously with the song on June 30, following a teaser in which West officially announced the album's title as ''God's Country
. The track was set to be included on Donda'', but did not appear on the final track listing. The song was replaced with another track also titled "Donda" on the final track listing. On September 26, 2020, West shared a 39-second snippet of the track "
Believe What I Say" to Twitter. West later released a song entitled "
Nah Nah Nah" on October 26, calling the song his
2020 presidential campaign's theme music; it includes him referencing his candidacy. On November 13, 2020, West released a remix of "Nah Nah Nah" that features fellow rappers
DaBaby and
2 Chainz. After the original and remix were both removed from
streaming services in the lead up to
Dondas release, neither of them made the final cut. The commercial also showed the release date for
Donda as July 23, 2021, and marked one of the first snippets of the music. French producer
Gesaffelstein later revealed that he produced the song, marking his second time working with West after having previously contributed to the rapper's sixth studio album
Yeezus (2013). Directly after the commercial's debut,
Def Jam reaffirmed the album's release date. In late July 2021, a representative for West announced a release date of August 6 for
Donda, which was later confirmed via both a Beats by Dre commercial and West's Apple Music livestream. A day prior to this, a pre-order for the album was launched on
iTunes, revealing it to feature 24 songs, along with a release date of August 27, 2021, before the date was revised to six days later. Conflictingly, Apple Music displayed the release date to be August 15, before one set for five days later appeared on the service. On August 20, 2021, the service listed a release date of August 28, one day after
Dondas third listening party; Thiam reaffirmed that the release would come after the event. A day before the scheduled release,
Dondas release date experienced another pushback on Apple Music, setting it to coincide with the release of Drake's sixth studio album
Certified Lover Boy on September 3, 2021. It was speculated across social media that the delay was intentional to increase competition between the two artists. On August 29, 2021,
Donda was released by GOOD Music, distributed by Def Jam, succeeding several delays during that month. "Jail pt 2" was originally not able to be played, showing up on the
Spotify version of the album as an "unavailable" track, after DaBaby's manager had not cleared his verse prior to release. Hours after its official release, West claimed that Universal Music had released
Donda without his approval and blocked "Jail pt 2" from appearing on the album. The song later became available on streaming services, including Tidal and Spotify. On September 3, 2021, "Hurricane" was playlisted by Swedish mainstream station
Sveriges Radio P3. The song was sent to American
rhythmic contemporary radio stations by GOOD Music and Def Jam as the
lead single from
Donda on September 14, 2021. Following the album's release, the song entered the US
Billboard Hot 100 at number six, giving West his 19th top-10 hit on the chart. "Hurricane" reached number 12 on the
Swedish Singles Chart, with it debuting five places higher on the
UK Singles Chart. On the Hot 100, the former charted at number 28. West purchased many large billboards to advertise
Donda in Drake's hometown of Toronto during September 2021, outnumbering the ones used for
Certified Lover Boy on the day of its release. A music video for "Come to Life" was released on September 2, 2021. The visual features footage from the album's third listening event at
Soldier Field, showing West setting on fire then reuniting with Kardashian. A music video for "24" was released two weeks after the one for "Come to Life", and begins with footage from
Dondas second Mercedes-Benz Stadium listening event of West ascending towards the sky, before he rises above the stadium and floats around among clouds. A clip for "Donda Chant" was shared exclusively to Instagram by West on September 19, 2021. The
black-and-white visual incorporates aerial footage from the album's Soldier Field listening event that shows the replica of Kanye West's childhood home, on which flashes of old pictures of Donda are projected. On October 16, 2021, West performed a four-song set for
Tiffany & Co. executive Alexandre Arnault and D'estree founder Geralde Guyot after their wedding in Venice, Italy, which included "Come to Life" and "Believe What I Say". He debuted a music video for "Heaven and Hell" during the
College Football Playoff National Championship game on January 10, 2022. The visual has a night setting and shows people wearing new Yeezy Gap hoodies wandering around a city; it concludes with floating bodies spiralling through the skies.
Cover art On July 25, 2020, West tweeted out an album cover, showing an infrared scheme of orange and red mirroring the shape of the people, sun, and moon in the sky, backed by green mountains alongside purple and white clouds designed by Pierre-Louis Auvray. In the painting, a woman is shown in
monochromatic red and a matching ponytail flows behind her, while a fertility idol is also partially present.
Streaming performance and updates In its first day of release,
Donda earned the second-biggest global Spotify debut for album streams ever, with nearly 100 million streams, and broke the record for the biggest first day streams of 2021 on the service that was set by
Olivia Rodrigo's
Sour. The album also set a new record by reaching number one on
Apple Music's top albums chart in 152 countries in its first day, and earned the third-biggest first day debut streams for an album.
Donda broke the 2021 record for the most-streamed album in one day on Apple Music, while 19 of the top-20 tracks on the service's Top 100 Global songs chart were from the album.
Donda amassed 60 million first day streams in the United States on Apple, setting a streaming record for 2021 in the country. After eight days of streaming, it had reached around 423 million on-demand audio streams in the US. 25 of the tracks debuted with the top-40 of Spotify's U.S. chart, with 10 of them occupying the top-10. By October 26, the former had amassed over a billion streams on Spotify, becoming West's fastest album to achieve this milestone. On September 28, 2021, West released an updated version of
Donda separately from the original on streaming services. The changes included the removal of KayCyy and Brown from "Keep My Spirit Alive" and "New Again", respectively; Brown's writing credits were also removed from the latter. Users are also given the ability to control vocals, drums, bass, and samples, isolate parts, and add effects. The player was announced as being set to be released by West's brand Yeezy Tech in collaboration with
Kano Computing and sold for $200. On October 27, 2021, the Donda Stem Player was made available by West, with three extra songs being included. The new songs are a censored edit of "Life of the Party", "
Up from the Ashes", and an updated version of "Never Abandon Your Family". In addition, the player contains a version of "Remote Control" that re-adds Kid Cudi's original contribution. On November 17, 2021, the Donda Stem Player website was updated to include downloadable stems for
Jesus Is King. On December 10, 2021, stems for "Wash Us in the Blood" were added in an update. In February 2022, West announced that
the sequel to Donda would be exclusively released onto the Stem Player.
Deluxe edition On November 5, 2021, in an interview with
N.O.R.E. on Drink Champs, West announced that a deluxe version of
Donda was set to be released, teasing a song called "Let Go". Eight days later, billboards advertising the deluxe edition appeared around Los Angeles. On November 14, 2021,
Donda (Deluxe) was released to streaming services. Simultaneously, an explicit version of "Life of the Party" was released as a single from the deluxe edition. The song charted at number 13 on the US
Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. A 2xCD physical version of the deluxe edition was released on February 11, 2022. A 4xLP deluxe gatefold version was released on vinyl on June 24, 2022. ==Listening events==