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. The following day on February 7, 2016, Beyoncé performed "Formation" during her guest appearance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. Immediately after the performance, a commercial aired announcing The Formation World Tour, which kicked off in Miami 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 also planned to stage an "anti-Beyoncé" rally outside of the NFL's headquarters in New York City on the day general sale of tickets went for sale. However, the planned rally was met with zero protesters and instead dozens of Beyoncé supporters who held a counter-protest.

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 track "Freedom", an audio recording of Hattie White heard speaking to a crowd at her 90th 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."

Visuals

The album was accompanied by the release of a 60-minute film of the same name, which premiered on HBO on April 23, 2016. Lemonade was divided into 11 chapters named 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. Jay Z and Beyonce’s daughter Blue Ivy appear in home video footage at one point, as does Jay Z’s grandmother, Hattie (as previously mentioned), and Beyoncé’s mother Tina Knowles, who is shown with her second husband Richard Lawson on their wedding day in 2015.[1] 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. 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, folktales of Oshun describe her malevolent temper and sinister smile when she has been wronged. In “Hold Up,” a smiling, laughing and dancing Beyoncé smashes store windows, cars and cameras with a baseball bat. In ''Love Drought'', Beyoncé leads 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.”[2]

In the ''Pray You Catch Me'' visual, Beyoncé wears a custom skirt by Enrique Urbina. In ''Hold Up'' Beyoncé's yellow dress is Roberto Cavalli by Peter Dundas, from the brand's fall 2016 collection. The shoes are the "Candy" sandals by Saint Laurent (but Beyoncé is also seen wearing Converse All Stars when she's on the roof of a car.) Her bra is by Agent Provocateur. In the ''Don't Hurt Yourself'' visual Beyoncé wears a Hood by Air fur coat over a Yeezy sports bra and leggings. The dagger necklace is Lynn Ban. In the night vision scenes, she's seen in her wedding dress (a creation by her mom, Tina Knowles). In ''Sorry'', Beyoncé wears a bodysuit by Yousef Al Jasmi, a designer from Dubai. Tennis champion Serena Williams is wearing a lace number by Brandon Maxwell. In ''6 Inch'', In the scene where she's spinning a lightbulb, Beyoncé wears a dress from Nicolas Jebran's fall 2016 collection, she also wears Gucci suit. In ''Love Drought'', Beyoncé and her dancers wear silk dresses by Daniele Carlotta. Beyoncé's gown in ''Freedom'' is by Maria Lucia Hohan.

Reception and accolades

The HBO broadcast logged 787,000 viewers. In June 2016, Matthew Fulks sued Beyoncé, Sony, Columbia 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 visual was nominated for 4 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", she won 8 of her nominations. Lemonade won Best TV Show – Special or Limited Series at the African American Film Critics Association. "Lemonade" won Outstanding Television Documentary or Special at the 2017 Black Reel Awards.

Composition

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 Schumann, Schubert and 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 music, 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"; both Isaac Hayes and Andy Williams are sampled.

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, and explained the concept behind “Lemonade.” “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.”

Tour

In order to promote the album, Beyoncé embarked on The Formation World Tour which visits countries in North America and Europe from April to October 2016. The Formation World Tour ranked at #1 and #2 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 25 shows (including $126.3 million from the first North American leg of the tour). In total, the tour grossed $256 million from 49 sold out shows according to Billboard Boxscore, and ranked at #2 on Pollstar's 2016 Year End Tours chart. The tour is one of the top 20 highest grossing tours of all time.

Live performances

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 16-minute medley of "Pray You Catch Me", "Hold Up", "Sorry", "Don't Hurt Yourself", and "Formation". The performance ranked #1 on Billboard's list of the "100 Greatest Award Show Performances of All Time." On October 19, Beyoncé performed "6 Inch" and "All Night" at the TIDAL X benefit concert at Barclays Center. On November 2, Beyoncé performed "Daddy Lessons" with the Dixie Chicks at the 2016 CMAs. Beyoncé performed "All Night" in December 2016 at the Parkwood Entertainment Holiday Party. At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12, Beyoncé performed "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles", meaning that she had publicly performed every song from the album.

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 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 6 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The music video for the song was uploaded on Vevo in December 2016.

The album's second single, "Sorry" was serviced to rhythmic radios in the United States on May 3, 2016, and its music video was uploaded on Vevo on June 22, 2016. The single debuted and peaked at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The album's third single, "Hold Up" was first released to German and British contemporary hit radios on May 12, 2016, and later serviced to rhythmic contemporary radio in the United States on August 16, 2016. "Hold Up" debuted at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "Hold Up" was uploaded on Vevo on September 4, 2016.

The fourth single "Freedom" was sent to radio stations on September 9. It previously peaked at number 35.

"All Night" was released as the fifth single on December 6, 2016. It previously debuted at number 38 and the music video for the song was released on Vevo in November 30, 2016.

Promotional singles

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 41 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 iTunes for purchase and on all streaming services.

Critical reception

Lemonade received widespread acclaim from critics. 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 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.

Megan Carpentier of The Guardian named the album as ''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." Syreeta McFadden for The Guardian notes that the ''Formation'' video depicts archetypal southern black women "in ways that we haven't seen frequently represented in popular art or culture". TIME Magazine wrote: ''With Lemonade—an album, an Emmy-nominated film and, as America looked on, an experience—Beyoncé publicly embraced explicitly feminist blackness at a politically risky moment.''

"Formation" won in three categories at the 2016 BET Awards for Video of the Year, the Centric Award, and the Viewers Choice Award. 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 is nominated for Outstanding Album and Outstanding Variety – Series or Special, "Formation" is nominated for Outstanding Song and Outstanding Video, and "Freedom", featuring Kendrick Lamar, is nominated for Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration and Outstanding Song. At the 2016 ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards, Lemonade is nominated for Best Awards or Event Special, with "Hold Up", "6 Inch" and "Denial" all being nominated for Best Short Format: Web Series, Music Video or Commercial. At the 2017 NAACP Image Awards, the album won Outstanding Album.

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.

Year-end lists

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.

In the annual Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Lemonade" was ranked at number 2. 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. For Spin, it was the 6th best album of 2016. NME listed Lemonade at number 11 on their list of best albums of the year, FACT at number 15, Drowned in Sound at number 12, Uncut at number 10, Mojo at number 12, Q at number 13, while Tiny Mix Tapes at number 32.Esquire magazine included Lemonade among the 20 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 26. David Ehrlich, a film critic for IndieWire, placed Lemonade at number 23 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.

Commercial performance

In the United States, Lemonade debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with 653,000 album-equivalent units, selling 485,000 copies in its first week. 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 to chart 12 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 11 by Taylor Swift's Speak Now album. 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 in history. The album slipped from number one to number two in its second week, selling 196,000 copies (321,000 with additional equivalent-album units). It remained at number two in its third week selling 153,000 copies (201,000 album equivalent units). Lemonade was certified platinum by the RIAA in June 2016. According to Nielsen's 2016 Year-end Report, it has sold 1.52 million copies and 2.1m 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 included streaming. The album marked the singer's third number-one album on that chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on September 9, 2016 for shipment of 300,000 copies. All of the album's tracks also debuted in the Top 100 of the Official Singles Chart in the UK.

In Australia, Lemonade sold 20,490 digital copies to debut at the top spot and become Beyoncé's second consecutive number one album in that country. It received a platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 copies.

Impact

American rapper Snoop Dogg named his Coolaid album after Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Singer Florence Welch was inspired by the record: ''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, 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.”

The University of Texas at San Antonio offered a class on the fall on 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 12-month series of conversations centered around the visual album. The series will explore the themes of race, gender and class addressed by the album.

Track listing

Credits adapted from Tidal.

Notes

Sample credits

Personnel

Credits from Beyoncé's official website.