“Your best revenge is your paper,” as its lyric goes.)īeyoncé is selling BOYCOTT BEYONCÉ t-shirts as tour merch ? /zjD3HcV7XG- Beyoncé Australia April 27, 2016īeyoncé’s “going all political” comes much to the dismay of Piers Morgan, who reminisced in a column in the Daily Mail about a simpler time when the pair of them enjoyed scones.
(Her performance of the song Formation at the Superbowl prompted a protest against the musician and the NFL – which she’s referenced in her new merchandise line.
Just as sampling Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk established Beyoncé’s credentials as a public feminist, her Superbowl Halftime Show – when she sang about her “negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils”, flanked by dancers wearing Black Panther berets, concluding with a Black Power salute – signalled a newly politicised chapter of her career. A year later, she performed at the MTV Music awards in front of “FEMINIST” in lights. Level one: you can broadly approximate the Single Ladies danceĪs recently as 2013, Beyoncé was telling Vogue she “guesses” she is a feminist because she “believes in equality”. Now that we find ourselves at the intersection of the tabloids concerned with whether or not Jay Z cheated and, if so, with whom, and the “writerly” press close-reading the lyrics, you can stop reading and still seem informed on the subject if – when – it crops up at the weekend.īut if you fear being pushed further into the Beyhive – the name given to “the Queen’s” fanbase – and coming up short, read on. The title is drawn from Jay Z’s grandmother, who is shown in the film at her 90th birthday party: “I was given lemons and I made lemonade.” Rather more poignantly, it’s about the experience of black women, “the most disrespected person in America”, to quote Beyoncé quoting Malcolm X in the feature film. But his appearance with their daughter, Blue Ivy, at the end of the film – and the softening tone of its latter half – suggests Lemonade is not a critically acclaimed divorce announcement. It’s heavy stuff, made amusing by the myriad resultant memes of her husband, the rapper-mogul Jay Z, looking stricken. Jayz at the #lemonade listening party like /5kDR7cMPLe- Tracy Clayton April 24, 2016 In Don’t Hurt Yourself, she throws her wedding ring at the camera while snarling a “final warning”: “If you try that shit again, you’re going to lose your wife.” It’s more accurate to say that there is no album cycle.īut when Beyoncé is walking down a street demolishing parked cars with a baseball bat, you’re not going to be talking about that at the pub.Īs you’ll have likely heard, Lemonade is about infidelity. Released with next to no advance warning, Lemonade is said to have “disrupted” the “album cycle”, but Beyoncé first did this in 2013 when she put out 14 songs, each with its own video, with not even so much as a “save the date”.
It will likely be on Apple Music and Spotify in time, but for now you’re best off signing up for a free Tidal trial.
It is available only on the streaming service Tidal or for purchase through iTunes. Lemonade is Beyoncé’s sixth album: 12 tracks, accompanied by an hour-long film, which premiered in the United States on Saturday on HBO. Entry level: you are aware there is a musician and public figure “Beyoncé” Here’s what you need to know to get through the coming days – possibly weeks – of Lemonade analysis, broken down by your level of interest, commitment or nigh-on total lack of either. The tens of thousands of words on the subject may have led you to believe otherwise, but it’s not too late to catch up, even if you last remember Beyoncé looking so crazy right now in denim shorts. A week after its release, that may well be all you know.ĭon’t worry. B y now, as a person who breathes oxygen and sometimes does so while browsing the internet, you will know that Beyoncé has put out a new album, Lemonade.