Beyoncé's "Lemonade"

About

Beyoncé's "Lemonade" is the sixth studio album and the second “visual album” released by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. Upon its premiere as an hour-long special on HBO in late April 2016, the album instantly earned critical acclaim for its innovative methods of storytelling and high production value, as well as fan speculations about its autobiographical allusions to the marriage between the artist and her husband, Jay-Z, in a similar vein to the reception of "Drunk In Love" from her first self-titled visual album.

Origin

On April 16th, 2016, Beyoncé announced the upcoming release of Lemonade with a preview video and trailer on her official YouTube page, although the accompanying description didn't reveal much about the nature of the project, aside from its scheduled premiere date and time on HBO. The preview video received over 3 million views in the week between its release and the premiere of Lemonade on April 23rd.

In anticipation of the event, which also coincided with the season premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO announced that its internet streaming app, HBO Go, would allow people to sign up for a free 30-day trial. The music from the visual album was later released as a stream on Tidal, for which people could also sign up for a trial.^[1] Originally, the music was not going to be released anywhere else, but due to popular demand, Beyoncé agreed to release it on iTunes and Amazon for download at midnight on Sunday, April 24th.^[2]

Spread

HBO and Tidal don't release statistics for viewership, but soon after the airing Lemonade was a trending topic on Facebook^[3] and Twitter.^[4] Due to the album's exclusive availability, Tidal immediately rose to be the third most popular free app in the iTunes App store.^[5] The album featured many cameos from other artists and notable people, including Serena Williams, Zendaya, and Amandla Stenberg; in addition, the album's credits were more than 3,000 words long.^[6]

Jay-Z's Infidelity

Much of the immediate discussion surrounding Lemonade featured its content. In the lyrics of the songs and in spoken word songs, much reference is made to Beyoncé's personal relationship to the rapper Jay-Z, to whom she is married. The lyrics speak frankly about infidelity on Jay-Z's part, at one point indicating that he had cheated on her with a "Becky with the good hair," which is a derogatory way of referring to a basic white woman.^[10] Many fans who follow Beyoncé's personal life believed she was referring to the fashion designer Rachel Roy, who has had a close relationship with her husband since before they were married, and several hours after the release Roy posted a selfie to Instagram in which she alluded to the lyric. Beyoncé fans soon began posting the emojis for bees and lemons as comments on Roy's Instagram, prompting her to make the account private. She later posted a tweet that read "I respect love, marriages, families and strength. What shouldn't be tolerated by anyone, no matter what, is bullying, of any kind."^[7] In addition, many Beyoncé fans also mistakenly posted bees and lemons to the television chef and talk show host Rachael Ray's account because of the similarities in their names.^[8]

Left: Fan reaction to Beyoncé's lyrics; Right: Rachel Roy's now-deleted Instagram post.

Solange Knowles' Elevator Fight

Meanwhile, other fans of Beyonce and Jay-Z recalled the infamous elevator fight between Jay-Z and Solange Knowles that was caught on surveillance camera at a New York City gala in May 2014 in the light of the revelations made in the album.

Social Justice and Equality

One of the overarching themes of the album is social justice as viewed through the lens of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Several scenes in the film speak to these themes, most notably a scene in which the mothers of several black men and children who were killed by police, including the mothers of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin are seen holding photographs of their sons. Much of the online reaction was devoted to these moments in the film.^[9]

Search Interest

External References