“I still think she’s a wonderful singer and performer, and some of the music on Lemonade is fantastic. But I have to be honest, I preferred the old Beyoncé. The less inflammatory, agitating one. The one who didn’t use grieving mothers to shift records and further fill her already massively enriched purse. The one who didn’t play the race card so deliberately and to my mind, unnecessarily. The one who wanted to be judged on her stupendous talent not her skin color, and wanted us all to do the same.”
—Piers Morgan, The Daily Mail (25 April 2016)
Piers Morgan is clearly upset with the Queen Bey for expressing her blackness, but why? Morgan is wondering what happened to the less in your face Beyonce, the less political and the less agitating Beyonce. He admits to being a big fan but her latest project caught everyone, especially her white fans completely off guard.
Even Saturday Night Live got in on the rant with a piece of the action with a spoof entitle The Day Beyonce Turned Black. With all the racial unrest in the country, Beyonce took to the stage to express her feelings through song and creative expression. First with her powerful Formation performance during the Super Bowl 50 earlier this year and then the release of her Lemonade project.
Why is so much attention being placed on Bey? Well. earlier this year, Beyonce yet again broke records and re-wrote industry rules with the release of her sixth album, Lemonade. Her new album was more political, racially conscious and an ode to blackness than past projects. This time Beyonce dug deep and featured the project with rapper Kendrick Lamar, Serena Williams in video, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown’s mothers with cameo appearances on this project.
Beyonce broke the mold with this latest project. She really stretched herself to create this album. Lemonade is well written, creatively choreographed, and presents a powerful storyline throughout the entire project. Bey really out did herself with this project. Each single has its own video and educates the public about black feminism, misogyny and the societal racial tensions present in this country today.
The Queen Bey is full of so many surprises. Towards the end of 2015, Beyonce gifted the world with her song Formation and later released Lemonade. This influencer is a marketing genius.
With the use of Tidal, the brainchild of Beyonce’s husband, Jay-Z an application for streaming music, Bey released her Lemonade project which was exclusively previewed on Tidal. Later featuring the entire project on iTunes. It is estimated that the Queen Bey made a cool $50 million in the initial days of its release. Tidal has an estimated 5 million subscribers.
Forbes refers to this as the “pre-tour marketing campaign. Beyonce’s visual album was released just four days before her Formation tour. Seat Geek saw record breaking ticket sales – tickets to the highly anticipated concert more than tripled. As one of the biggest touring acts in the world, Queen Bey was estimated to have made more than $200 million.
Did Beyonce use her marital woes to sell albums? Are she and Jay-Z’s marriage really on the skids? Would the Queen Bey really compromise her home life for a few million dollars? If she did indeed do this her fans fell for it hook, line and sinker.
References
Morgan, P. (2016, April 25). The Daily Mail
Rubano, J. (2016, May 4). The brilliant marketing strategy behind Beyonce’s Lemonade. Retrieved from https://www.candoideas.com/blog/the-brilliant-marketing-strategy-behind-beyoncés-lemonade
Saturday Night Live. (2016, February). The day that Beyonce turned black. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociMBfkDG1w
Sawdey, E. (2016, April 28). Beyonce lemonade. Retrieved from http://www.popmatters.com/review/beyonce-lemonade/
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