Lemonade is the sixth studio album by American singer Beyoncé. It was released on April 23, 2016 through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. It's Beyoncé's second "visual album" following her eponymous fifth studio album (2013), as well as a concept album accompanied upon its release by a sixty-five-minute film which aired on HBO. Primarily an R&B album, Lemonade encompasses a variety of genres, including pop, reggae, blues, rock, hip hop, soul, funk, Americana, country, gospel, electronic, and trap music. The album features guest vocals from James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and Jack White. The album contains samples and interpolations of a number of hip hop and rock songs.
The album was made available for online streaming on April 23, 2016 through Beyoncé's co-owned streaming service Tidal. It was released for paid purchase the following day, and later launched for purchase by track or album to Amazon Music and the iTunes Store on April 25, and at physical retailers on May 6. Lemonade debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 485,000 copies in its first week (653,000 with additional album-equivalent units), and earning Beyoncé her sixth consecutive number-one album in the country. The album was supported by five singles: "Formation", "Sorry", "Hold Up", "Freedom" featuring Kendrick Lamar, and "All Night"; alongside a promotional single "Daddy Lessons" featuring the Dixie Chicks.
In April 2016, Beyoncé embarked on The Formation World Tour, to promote the album. It appeared on several music publications' year-end lists, with Rolling Stone listing Lemonade at number one on its list. As of December 2016, Lemonade has sold 1.5 million copies in the United States, making it the third best-selling album of the year in the United States. Lemonade was the best-selling album of 2016, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), selling 2.5 million copies that year alone. On August 18, 2017, Beyoncé released a limited edition Lemonade box set that included a double vinyl LP and a book titled How to Make Lemonade, featuring a set of pictures and behind-the-scenes content showcasing the making of the album.
Lemonade was nominated for nine awards at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards (2017), winning Grammy Awards for Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video. Its leading single "Formation" received nominations for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Music Video, while "Hold Up", "Don't Hurt Yourself", and "Freedom" were nominated in pop, rock, and rap categories respectively. The album won a Peabody Award in the Entertainment category, and Metacritic named it the second most critically acclaimed album by music publications of 2016 and is the site's eighteenth highest-rated album of all time. On July 24, 2017, Lemonade was listed as the sixth greatest album made by a woman of all time by NPR.
Video Lemonade (Beyoncé album)
Background
On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé released "Formation" for free on the music streaming service Tidal and its accompanying music video on her official YouTube account. The following day on February 7, 2016, Beyoncé performed "Formation" during her performance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. Immediately after the performance, a commercial aired announcing The Formation World Tour, which kicked off in Miami, Florida on April 27, 2016, with the first pre-sales going on sale just two days after the announcement on February 9, 2016.
Leading up to the tour announcement, Beyoncé was both praised and criticized over her new song and Black Panther-influenced costume for the Super Bowl halftime performance. As a result of this, the hashtags "#BoycottBeyonce" and "#IStandWithBeyonce" began trending on social media platforms such as Twitter. A group of protesters planned to stage an "anti-Beyoncé" rally outside of the NFL's headquarters in New York City, New York on the day general sale of tickets went for sale, but no protesters showed up and instead dozens of Beyoncé supporters held a rally for her.
Maps Lemonade (Beyoncé album)
Visuals
Lemonade was accompanied by the release of a sixty-five-minute film of the same title, produced by Good Company and Jonathan Lia, which premiered on HBO on April 23, 2016, logging 787,000 viewers. It is divided into eleven chapters, titled "Intuition", "Denial", "Anger", "Apathy", "Emptiness", "Accountability", "Reformation", "Forgiveness", "Resurrection", "Hope", and "Redemption".
The film uses poetry and prose written by expatriate Somali poet Warsan Shire; her poems which she adapted were "The Unbearable Weight of Staying", "Dear Moon", "How to Wear Your Mother's Lipstick", "Nail Technician as Palm Reader", and "For Women Who Are Difficult to Love". It also features Ibeyi, Laolu Senbanjo, Amandla Stenberg, Quvenzhané Wallis, Chloe x Halle, Zendaya and Serena Williams. In "Forward", the mothers of Trayvon Martin (Sybrina Fulton), Michael Brown (Lesley McFadden), and Eric Garner (Gwen Carr) are featured holding pictures of their deceased sons. After "Forward", a scene showcases a Mardi Gras Indian circling a dining table, paying homage to the culture of New Orleans, Louisiana. Jay-Z and Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy appears in home video footage at one point, as does Jay-Z's grandmother Hattie White, and Beyoncé's mother Tina Knowles, who is shown with her second husband Richard Lawson on their wedding day in 2015. The film also samples work by Malcolm X, specifically an excerpt from his speech "Who Taught You to Hate Yourself", which is featured on the track "Don't Hurt Yourself".
In "Hold Up", Beyoncé appears as Oshun, a Yoruba water goddess of female sensuality, love and fertility. Oshun is often shown in yellow and surrounded by fresh water, and folktales of Oshun describe her malevolent temper and sinister smile when she has been wronged. Donning a flowing yellow Roberto Cavalli dress, gold jewelry and bare feet, Beyoncé channels the orisha, or goddess, by appearing in an underwater dreamlike state before emerging from two large golden doors with water rushing past her and down the stairs. During the "Hold Up" video, a smiling, laughing and dancing Beyoncé smashes store windows, cars and cameras with a baseball bat, representing Oshun's furious temper in a modern context. It also pays homage to artist Pipilotti Rist's video installation "Ever Is Over All". "Love Drought" video features Beyoncé leading a line of black women dressed in white along a shoreline. They stand, unified, looking out into the water as they hold hands and lift them one by one. This second reference to baptism is heavy in this scene along with messages of faith and love, which are, the lyrics say, "strong enough to move a mountain" or "end a drought". Comparisons have also been drawn between the imagery of "Love Drought" and the Igbo Landing, a historic location that was the site of a mass suicide by drowning of Igbo people who had been taken as slaves.
In June 2016, Matthew Fulks sued Beyoncé, Sony Music, Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment for allegedly lifting elements of his short film Palinoia for Lemonade. The lawsuit specifically targets the trailer for the HBO special. Fulks had accused her of stealing nine visual elements from Palinoia. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed by New York federal judge Jed S. Rakoff, siding with the defendant.
The film was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Special and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. From the four categories, Beyoncé was nominated in the aforementioned two. The album's visuals received eleven nominations at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, including Breakthrough Long Form Video for Lemonade, Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography for "Formation", Best Female Video and Best Art Direction for "Hold Up", and Best Choreography for "Sorry" and "Formation"; Beyoncé won eight of her nominations. Lemonade won Best TV Show - Special or Limited Series at the African-American Film Critics Association Awards 2016 and Outstanding Television Documentary or Special at the 2017 Black Reel Awards.
Music and lyrics
The album features musicians Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, and bassist Marcus Miller, and sampling from folk music collectors John Lomax, Sr. and his son Alan Lomax on "Freedom". Beyoncé and her team reference the musical memories of all those periods, including a brass band, stomping blues rock, ultraslow avant-R&B, preaching, a prison song (both collected by John and Alan Lomax), and the sound of the 1960s fuzz-tone guitar psychedelia (sampling the Puerto Rican band Kaleidoscope). The Washington Post called the album a "surprisingly furious song cycle about infidelity and revenge", referencing the classical compositional genre defined in German lieder by Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms. The Chicago Tribune described the album as not just a mere grab for popular music dominance, rather it is a retrospective that allows the listener to explore Beyoncé's personal circumstances, with musical tones from the southern United States, a harkening back towards her formative years spent in Texas. AllMusic wrote that Beyoncé "delights in her blackness, femininity, and Southern origin with supreme wordplay."
According to The A.V. Club, the tracks "encompass and interpolate the entire continuum of R&B, rock, soul, hip hop, pop, and blues", accomplished by a deft precision "blurring eras and references with determined impunity." The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly both noted that the album touches on country, and Entertainment Weekly noticed the use of avant-garde musical elements. Consequence of Sound wrote that the album's genres span "from gospel to rock to R&B to trap"; On the album, Isaac Hayes and Andy Williams are among the sampled artists. PopMatters noticed how the album was nuanced in its theme of anger and betrayal with vast swathes of the album bathed in political context; however, it is still a pop album at its essence with darker and praiseworthy tones. Melina Matsoukas, the director of the "Formation" music video, said that Beyoncé invited her to her house in Los Angeles, California, and explained the concept behind Lemonade, stating: "She wanted to show the historical impact of slavery on black love, and what it has done to the black family, and black men and women--how we're almost socialized not to be together." In an interview with W, Beyoncé's creative director Todd Tourso further explained the concept behind the album, referencing Beyoncé's desire of "placing it in the context of a generational relationship".
Title and artwork
The album title was inspired by Beyoncé's grandmother Agnéz Deréon, as well as her husband Jay-Z's grandmother, Hattie White. At the end of the song "Freedom", an audio recording of Hattie White heard speaking to a crowd at her ninetieth birthday party in December 2015 is played. During the speech, Hattie says: "I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade." Streaming service Tidal described the concept behind Lemonade as "every woman's journey of self-knowledge and healing."
The cover artwork for Lemonade features Beyoncé standing next to a car, wearing a fur coat and box braids, hiding her face behind her arm. It was shot during the filming of the music video for "Don't Hurt Yourself".
Release and promotion
Lemonade was first made available for online streaming via Tidal on April 23, 2016 through Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, and for digital download the following day. It was released for CD and DVD on May 6, 2016. A limited edition box set titled How to Make Lemonade was made available for pre-order on August 18, 2017, containing a six-hundred-page coffee table book, featuring a set of pictures and behind-the-scenes content showcasing the making of the album, and a double vinyl LP of Lemonade. Standalone vinyl was released on September 15, 2017.
Beyoncé performed "Formation" at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show as part of her guest appearance at the event. Beyoncé performed "Freedom" with Kendrick Lamar as the opening number at the 2016 BET Awards on June 27. At the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, Beyoncé performed a sixteen-minute medley of "Pray You Catch Me", "Hold Up", "Sorry", "Don't Hurt Yourself", and "Formation". The performance was ranked at number one on Andrew Unterberger's list of the "100 Greatest Award Show Performances of All Time" for Billboard. On October 19, Beyoncé performed "6 Inch" and "All Night" at the TIDAL X benefit concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York City, New York.
A remix of "Daddy Lessons" featuring the Dixie Chicks was released as a promotional single on November 2, 2016 for free on Beyoncé's SoundCloud. It previously debuted at number forty-one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its music video was released on Tidal in November 5, 2016. On November 20, 2016, it was released on the iTunes Store for purchase and on all streaming services. On November 2, Beyoncé performed "Daddy Lessons" with the Dixie Chicks at the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards (2016). Beyoncé performed "All Night" in December 2016 at the Parkwood Entertainment Holiday Party. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, 2017 Beyoncé performed "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles".
In order to promote the album, Beyoncé embarked on The Formation World Tour which visited countries in North America and Europe from April to October 2016. The Formation World Tour was ranked at number one and number two on Pollstar's 2016 mid-year Top 100 Tours chart both in North America and worldwide respectively, with a total mid-year worldwide gross of $137.3 million from the first twenty-five shows (including $126.3 million from the first North American leg of the tour). In total, the tour grossed $256 million from forty-nine sold out shows according to Billboard box score, and ranked at number two on Pollstar's 2016 Year-End Tours chart.
Singles
"Formation" was released as the album's lead single exclusively on Tidal on February 6, 2016, along with its accompanying music video. The following day, Beyoncé performed it at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show as part of her guest appearance at the event. "Formation" peaked at number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The music video for the song was uploaded onto Vevo in December 2016.
"Sorry" was released as the second single and serviced to rhythmic adult contemporary radio in the United States on May 3, 2016, and its music video was uploaded onto Vevo on June 22, 2016. The single debuted and peaked at number eleven on the US Billboard Hot 100.
"Hold Up" was the third single and was first released to contemporary hit radio stations in Germany and the United Kingdom on May 12, 2016, and was later serviced to rhythmic contemporary radio in the United States on August 16, 2016. It debuted at number thirteen on the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "Hold Up" was uploaded onto Vevo on September 4, 2016.
"Freedom" was released as the fourth single and was sent to radio stations on September 9, 2016. It previously peaked at number thirty-five on the US Billboard Hot 100.
"All Night" was released as the fifth and final single on December 6, 2016. It previously debuted at number thirty-eight on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its accompanying music video was released onto Vevo in November 30, 2016.
Critical reception
Lemonade received widespread acclaim from music critics and is also Beyoncé's most critically acclaimed album to date. AllMusic writer Andy Kellman felt that "the cathartic and wounded moments here resonate in a manner matched by few, if any, of Beyoncé's contemporaries." In Spin, Greg Tate wrote that the album "is out to sonorously suck you into its gully gravitational orbit the old fashioned way, placing the burden of conjuration on its steamy witches' brew of beats, melodies, and heavy-hearted-to-merry-pranksterish vocal seductions. In her mastery of carnal and esoteric mysteries, Queen Bey raises the spirits, sizzles the flesh, and rallies her troops."
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that the album "feels like a success" and that Beyoncé sounded "genuinely imperious". The Daily Telegraph writer Jonathan Bernstein felt it was her strongest work to date and "proves there's a thin line between love and hate." Nekesa Moody and Mohamad Soliman from The Washington Post called the album a "deeply personal, yet ... a bold social and political statement as well". Writing for The New York Times, Jon Pareles praised Beyoncé's vocals and her courage to talk about subjects that affect so many people, and noted that "the album is not beholden to radio formats or presold by a single". Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune felt that "artistic advances" seem "slight" in context towards the record's "more personal, raw and relatable" aspects, where it came out as a "clearly conceived" piece of music, meaning it had a "unifying vision" for what may have lent itself to being "a prettily packaged hodgepodge".
Reviewing the album in The Independent, Everett True wrote that it "is fiery, insurgent, fiercely proud, sprawling and sharply focused in its dissatisfaction." Ray Rahman wrote for Entertainment Weekly that Beyoncé is way "too busy putting out her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date", declaring simply "middle fingers up." Writing a review for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield opined that she affirmed her "superhero status" with this album. Jillian Mapes of Pitchfork wrote that her pursuit of "realness" gives the album a certain "quality to it that also invites skepticism". In The A.V. Club Annie Zaleski wrote that it was "yet another seismic step forward for Beyoncé as a musician." Shahzaib Hussain, writing for Clash, stated: "Lemonade is Beyoncé at her most benevolent, and her most unadulterated. Treating her blackness not as an affliction but a celebratory beacon, Lemonade is a long overdue, cathartic retribution." In the NME, Larry Bartleet said the album was "sweet but with an edge". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine wrote that the album "is her most lyrically and thematically coherent effort to date." Maura Johnston of Time wrote that its tracks were "fresh yet instantly familiar" with an "over-the-top but intimate" sound. Jamie Milton of DIY wrote that "there's so much more than an enthralling story to draw out of this all-slaying work", where "Beyoncé can count herself as a risk-taker breaking new ground, up there with the bravest." Exclaim!'s Erin Lowers wrote that "If you've ever been handed lemons, you need Lemonade." Britt Julious of Consequence of Sound described the album to a "gift" Beyoncé has given to the listener that is "raw yet polished, beautiful yet ugly." PopMatters writer Evan Sawdey felt few albums could ever be considered "as bold, complex, or resolute as Lemonade," and the BBC's Mark Savage noted that Beyoncé had become an albums artist, with a range extending beyond that of radio play.
Accolades
At the end of 2016, Lemonade appeared on a number of critics' lists ranking the year's top albums. According to Metacritic, it was the second most prominently ranked record of 2016. Lemonade was ranked as the best album of the year by such publications as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, Digital Spy, The Independent, The Associated Press, The New York Times (Jon Pareles list), Los Angeles Times (Mikael Wood list), Pop Matters, Pretty Much Amazing, Idolator, Stereogum, Complex, Consequence of Sound, Wired, and US Weekly. Paste, USA Today, NPR, and We Plug Good Music also included the release on their list of best albums of 2016 at number two.
On the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, Lemonade was ranked at number two. For Slant it was the third best, while Exclaim! listed the album at number four on their list of the Top 20 Pop & Rock Albums of 2016. According to Spin, it was the sixth best album of 2016. NME listed Lemonade at number eleven on their list of best albums of the year, FACT at number fifteen, Drowned in Sound at number twelve, Uncut at number ten, Mojo at number twelve, Q at number thirteen, while Tiny Mix Tapes at number thirty-two. Esquire magazine included Lemonade among the twenty best releases of 2016. Pitchfork listed Lemonade at number one on their list of best music videos of 2016. The publication would later name Lemonade the third best album of the same year. It was also included on Sight & Sound's best films of 2016 list at number twenty-six. David Ehrlich, a film critic for IndieWire, placed Lemonade at number twenty-three on his Best Films of 2016 list. Jen Yamato from The Daily Beast ranked it at number nine on her list of the Top 10 Best Films of 2016. In 2017, the album was ranked at number six on NPR's list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women.
"Formation" won in three categories at the 2016 BET Awards for Video of the Year, the Centric Award, and the Viewers Choice Award. At the 2017 BET Awards Beyoncé was nominated in 7 categories and won 5, including Album of the Year, Video of the Year for "Sorry" and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist. The Lemonade film was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Special and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special. From the four categories, Beyoncé was nominated in the two mentioned. The album's visuals received 11 nominations at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. They included Breakthrough Long Form Video for Lemonade, Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, Best Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography for "Formation", Best Female Video and Best Art Direction for "Hold Up", and Best Choreography for "Sorry" and "Formation". Beyoncé went on to win eight of her nominations, including Video of the Year and Breakthrough Long Form Video.
She received two nominations at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards Japan for Best Album of the Year for Lemonade and Best Female Video International for "Formation", eventually winning for Best Album of the Year. At the 2016 Soul Train Music Awards, Beyoncé was nominated for eight awards including Best Female Artist, Lemonade for Album of the Year, and "Formation" for Song and Video of the Year. Beyoncé went on to win all four awards. Lemonade won Best TV Show - Special or Limited Series at the African American Film Critics Association. At the 2017 NAACP Image Awards, Lemonade was nominated for Outstanding Album and Outstanding Variety - Series or Special, "Formation" was nominated for Outstanding Song and Outstanding Music Video, and "Freedom", featuring Kendrick Lamar, was nominated for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration and Outstanding Song. The album received four awards, including Outstanding Album, Outstanding Song and Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration for "Freedom" and Outstanding Music Video for "Formation". At the 2016 ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards, Lemonade received the award for Best Awards or Event Special, as well as "Hold Up", "6 Inch" and "Denial" all being nominated for Best Short Format: Web Series, Music Video or Commercial.
At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, Lemonade received three nominations: Album of the Year, Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Film. "Formation" received three as well: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Music Video. "Hold Up" was nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance, "Don't Hurt Yourself" for Best Rock Performance and "Freedom" for Best Rap/Sung Performance. The album went on to win two awards, Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Music Video for "Formation". Lemonade won Outstanding Television Documentary or Special at the 2017 Black Reel Awards. Lemonade won a Peabody Award in Entertainment, along with the following description by the board of jurors: "Lemonade draws from the prolific literary, musical, cinematic, and aesthetic sensibilities of black cultural producers to create a rich tapestry of poetic innovation. The audacity of its reach and fierceness of its vision challenges our cultural imagination, while crafting a stunning and sublime masterpiece about the lives of women of color and the bonds of friendship seldom seen or heard in American popular culture."
Commercial performance
In the United States, Lemonade debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with 653,000 album-equivalent units, out of which 485,000 were pure album sales. Subsequently, she broke the record she previously tied with DMX, by becoming the first artist in the chart's history to have their first six studio albums debut at number one. In the same week, Beyoncé became the first female artist to chart twelve or more songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, with every song on the album debuting on the chart. She passed the previously held record of eleven by Taylor Swift's third studio album Speak Now (2010), while Cardi B passed hers with 13 songs in 2018. Additionally, Lemonade was streamed 115 million times via Tidal, setting a record for the most-streamed album in a single week by a female artist, which was later surpassed by Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy (2018). The album slipped from number one to number two in its second week, selling 321,000 album-equivalent units, out of which 196,000 were pure album sales. It remained at number two in its third week selling 201,000 album-equivalent units, out of which 153,000 were pure album sales. Lemonade was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in June 2016. According to Nielsen's 2016 Year-end Report, it has sold 1.52 million copies and 2.1 million album-equivalent units in the United States. In Canada, the album debuted at number one with sales of 33,000 copies.
The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart selling 73,000 copies in its first week of release, with 10,000 equivalent sales (14% of the total sales) accounting for streaming, marking the largest ever for a number-one album since the chart began including streaming. The album marked the singer's third number-one album on the chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on September 9, 2016 for shipments of 300,000 copies. All of the album's tracks also debuted within the top hundred of the UK Singles Chart.
In Australia, Lemonade sold 20,490 digital copies in its first week, debuting atop the Australian Albums Chart and becoming Beyoncé's second consecutive number-one album in the country. It received a platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 copies.
Lemonade also peaked atop the charts in Brazil, Croatia, Czech Republic, Flanders, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Korea, and Sweden. By the end of 2016, the album sold 2.5 million copies worldwide according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), being the best-selling album of 2016 worldwide and the third best-selling album of the year in the United States.
In May 2018, Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv published a NTNU-assisted report accusing music service Tidal, the only streaming platform where Lemonade is available, of intentionally falsifying streaming numbers for the album by "several hundred million false plays," and consequently paying inflated royalties. The newspaper led the investigation after Tidal claimed that Lemonade was streamed 306 million times in its first 15 days of release, while having 3 million subscribers, according to the music service itself.
Impact
American rapper Snoop Dogg named his fourteenth studio album Coolaid (2016) after Lemonade. Singer Florence Welch was inspired by the record, stating: "We've been listening to Lemonade before every show. It's the record I dance around to before I go on stage." At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards (2017), Adele dedicated her Album of the Year award to Beyoncé and said: "The artist of my life is Beyoncé... the Lemonade album, is just so monumental." Bill Condon, director of the film Beauty and the Beast (2017) says the visuals behind Lemonade inspired him for the movie: "You look at Beyoncé's brilliant movie Lemonade, this genre is taking on so many different forms... I do think that this very old-school break-out-into-song traditional musical is something that people understand again and really want." Many critics have noted that Jay-Z's thirteenth studio album 4:44 (2017) is a response to Lemonade, with Jay-Z referencing lines from Lemonade, such as the "You better call Becky with the good hair" line on Beyoncé's "Sorry", with Jay-Z retorting: "Let me alone, Becky" in "Family Feud".
University of Texas at San Antonio offered a class in the Fall of 2016 based on the album. The course, titled "Black Women, Beyoncé and Popular Culture", explored how the visual album "is a meditation on contemporary black womanhood," before advancing and diving into the "theoretical, historical, and literary frameworks of black feminism," according to the syllabus. Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) announced "The Lemonade Project", a twelve-month series of conversations centered around the visual album. The series will explore the themes of race, gender and class addressed by the album.
Megan Carpentier of The Guardian named the album "a pop culture phenomenon" and wrote: "It is not an exaggeration to say that there is no other living musical artist who could ignite such a broad and unavoidable conversation just by releasing a new album - even a visual one." Writing in the same publication, Syreeta McFadden notes that the "Formation" video depicts archetypal southern black women "in ways that we haven't seen frequently represented in popular art or culture". Melissa Harris-Perry of Time magazine said that "Beyoncé publicly embraced explicitly feminist blackness at a politically risky moment."
Track listing
Credits adapted from Tidal.
Notes
- ^[a] signifies a co-producer.
- ^[b] signifies an additional producer / director.
- "Hold Up" features background vocals by MeLo-X.
- "Don't Hurt Yourself" features background vocals by Ruby Amanfu.
- "Sorry" features background vocals by Chrissy Collins.
- "6 Inch" features additional vocals by Belly.
- "Freedom" features background vocals by Arrow Benjamin.
- "All Night" features background vocals by Diplo and King Henry.
Sample credits
- "Hold Up" contains elements of "Can't Get Used to Losing You", written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, performed by Andy Williams; portions of "Turn My Swag On", written and performed by Soulja Boy, Antonio Randolph, Kelvin McConnell and elements of "Maps", written and performed by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Brian Chase, Karen O and Nick Zinner).
- "Don't Hurt Yourself" contains samples of "When the Levee Breaks", written by Memphis Minnie and Led Zeppelin, performed by Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham).
- "6 Inch" contains samples of "Walk On By", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, performed by Isaac Hayes; and an interpolation of "My Girls", written by Avey Tare (Dave Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), performed by Animal Collective.
- "Freedom" contains samples of "Let Me Try", written by Frank Tirado, performed by Kaleidoscope; samples of "Collection Speech/Unidentified Lining Hymn", recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959, performed by Reverend R.C. Crenshaw; and samples of "Stewball", recorded by Alan Lomax and John Lomax, Sr. in 1947, performed by Prisoner "22" at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
- "All Night" contains a sample of "SpottieOttieDopaliscious", written by OutKast (André Benjamin, Antwan Patton) and Sleepy Brown (Patrick Brown), performed by OutKast.
- Lemonade contains a sample of "The Court of the Crimson King", written by Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield, performed by King Crimson.
Personnel
Credits from Beyoncé's official website.
Charts
Certifications
Release history
See also
- List of Billboard 200 number-one albums of 2016
- List of Billboard number-one R&B/hip-hop albums of 2016
- List of number-one albums of 2016 (Canada)
- List of number-one albums of 2016 (Ireland)
- List of number-one albums of 2016 (Australia)
- List of UK Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s
- List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2016
References
External links
- Lemonade at Discogs (list of releases)
- Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' and Information Resources, a Resource Guide from the Maryland Institute College of Art
Source of article : Wikipedia
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