In Vice President Kamala Harris’ first 2024 presidential marketing campaign video, a well-known rhythm rings out. The clip, which touches on problems with gun violence, well being care and abortion, is soundtracked by Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” a minimize from her 2016 landmark album, “Lemonade.”
“We choose freedom,” Harris says within the clip, as Beyoncé’s highly effective refrain kicks in: “Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move / Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah.”
It’s change into a marketing campaign music for Harris. She used “Freedom” throughout her first official public look as a presidential candidate at her marketing campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday, and once more on Tuesday at first and finish of her rally in Milwaukee.
As an entire physique of labor, “Lemonade” has been celebrated as an instant-classic, a game-changing assortment of songs and visuals that operate as an examination of private plight and societal injustice, the place revenge songs about infidelity sit subsequent to shows of help for Black Lives Matter.
Omise’eke Tinsley, tutorial and creator of “Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism,” says Beyoncé has carried out “Freedom,” specifically, in ways in which have made it clear it’s a political music. “She carried out it at Coachella; it segued into ‘Lift Every Voice,’ the Black nationwide anthem,” she says. It was used by activists ahead of the 2016 presidential election, and “in 2020, it was taken up by activists again. In the wake of the George Floyd killing … It’s a song of hope. It’s a song of uplift.”
Kinitra D. Brooks, an educational and creator of “The Lemonade Reader,” says much of Beyoncé’s album “focuses on the infidelity of the partner, but it’s really about her learning to love herself and coming to her own and then being able to deal with other ramifications of coming into her own.”
“’Freedom’ is so important because it shows that freedom isn’t free. The freedom to be yourself, the political freedom… it’s the idea that you must fight for freedom, and that it is winnable,” she adds, referencing some of the lyrics in the chorus: “I break chains all by myself / Won’t let my freedom rot in hell / Hey! I’ma keep running / ’Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
Arriving within the back-half of “Lemonade,” “Freedom” samples two John and Alan Lomax subject recordings, which doc Jim Crow-era people spirituals of Southern Black church buildings and the work songs of Black prisoners from 1959 and 1948, respectively.
Brooks calls it a sort of “inheritance.” “It’s necessary that Beyoncé is using, you know, the cadence and the rhythm and the foundation of spirituals and things like that in a song called ‘Freedom,’” she says, as a result of it’s a part of a higher custom of Black Americans imagining new concepts and ideas round freedom.
“Freedom” additionally options Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar, the L.A. rapper on the prime of his sport having lately launched the No. 1 hit music “Not Like Us” within the midst of his beef with Drake. Brooks says, “Lamar has that momentum, the momentum of winners.”
“These are winners that Kamala is evoking,” Tinsley agrees. “How does Kamala use music and prominent musical voices to inspire people to take a black woman seriously? I think Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar are both voices that make that message clear.”
“Harris is taking their energy and incorporating it into her own campaign,” Brooks provides. “Remember the population she wants: She wants young people.”
Eric T. Kasper, tutorial and co-author of “Don’t Stop Thinking About the Music: The Politics of Songs and Musicians in Presidential Campaigns,” says there is a long history of presidential campaign songs having a title or hook about freedom or liberty: In 1800, John Adams used the song, “Adams and Liberty” and Thomas Jefferson used “The Son of Liberty.” In 1860, Abraham Lincoln used “Lincoln and Liberty.” As latest as 2012, Mitt Romney used Kid Rock’s “Born Free.”
“The use of a song with that type of title, or a hook with lyrics referring to liberty or freedom, often tries to portray the candidate as supporting voters’ personal autonomy and security from government overreach,” he says.
“Democrats across the board have been saying freedom is at stake,” says Tinsley, “And this literally makes that into a refrain. (She’s) associating her campaign with a literal call for freedom and a reminder that that’s what’s at stake.”
Kasper says there’s a profit to marketing campaign songs the place “the musical artist is popular, as the candidate may use the song to connect their campaign to a popular celebrity,” and “if the artist supports the candidate, as that can turn into a type of celebrity endorsement.”
In 2013, Beyoncé sang the nationwide anthem on the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Three years later, she and her husband Jay-Z carried out at a pre-election live performance for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland.
“Look how far we’ve come from having no voice to being on the brink of history — again,” Beyoncé stated on the time. “But we have to vote.”
“If we remember at the end of Hillary Clinton’s (campaign,) they were still trying to get certain populations out. They brought out Beyoncé at the last minute,” says Brooks. Harris differs, as a result of she’s using Beyoncé early on, interesting to “the many populations that are Beyoncé fans, who are people the Harris campaign needs: people of color, queer folks, young people, etc.”
Last 12 months, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour in Maryland after being gifted tickets from Queen B herself. “Thanks for a fun date night, @Beyonce,” Harris wrote on Instagram.
Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, shortly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to tackle Trump and inspiring his get together to unite behind her, the world of pop music has equally embraced the VP.
Support poured in from Janelle Monáe, John Legend, Katy Perry and Charli XCX, whose album “brat” impressed the Internet pattern of “brat summer” and lots of Harris memes. (As a outcome, Harris’ marketing campaign shortly set its X banner photograph to the placing Shrek-green colour of Charli’s “brat” album cowl.) On TikTok, customers have remixed Harris’ speeches into songs by Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Carly Rae Jepsen and extra.
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