The great moment is here. I’m finally reviewing the masterpiece of Beyoncé's career: the album Lemonade. The meaning behind Lemonade In 2016 Beyoncé released something that I can't even describe.
It's an album, a movie, a concept, a manifesto, a lesson. It's a work of art! Lemonade is her most acclaimed and consistent work, not only by its artistic depth, but also for showing her vulnerable side.
A personal side. And, of course, by its impact on the racial debate. With this album Beyoncé immersed herself in black culture, in the racial matters that oppress black people all over the world.
She did this while telling us her own story through a body of work that unites music, cinema, fashion, photography, poetry. . .
It's such a masterpiece that untill this day I can't accept that it didn't won album of the year at the Grammys. Anyways, today I'm here to explain to you guys why this album is so amazing. I'm gonna review all the references and I'm gonna show you guys, how Beyoncé used art to heal not only her family but all black families around the world.
I've read several sources for this review because, you know, it's Lemonade, I can't do just a basic video about it. I read articles in english, in portuguese, news and everything it's on the description bellow. But I'd like to highlight the work of Arthur Antunes, a Beyoncé's fan that writes big threads about her on twitter But, let's do this!
What's the concept behind Lemonade? Basically, she wanted to show slavery's impact on love between black people. She wanted to show how the racist structure has, until this day, an impact in black families and practically socialize black people to not be together.
Beyoncé is a feminist, she made it clear on her self title album but for black women, feminism can be challenging sometimes because they fight for women's rights while supporting black men on the fight against racism. Many times, black feminists have to choose between being a politically female or a politically black person. According to Melina Matsoukas, director of Formation music vid, this is a dilemma only black women can understand.
And Beyoncé had to make this choice at the moment that indications that her husband, Jay-Z, was cheating on her started to surface through all the internet. It all started with that famous elevator fight at the Met Gala in 2014, where we saw Solange beating Jay Z while Beyoncé was just there, watching it all. Then started to surface rumors that Beyoncé's marriage was crushing and she was already planning a divorce.
No one knew exactly what had happened there, until April 16, 2016. Beyoncé posted a teaser on her instagram, where she had her head down and asking herself: And it's with this shot of Beyoncé wondering what she is gonna do about the cheating that Lemonade begins. The album is divided into 11 chapters which are based on the Kubler-Ross Grief Cycle, a famous cycle created by a swiss psychiatrist.
In this cycle she describes that we go through 5 phases when we experience a great loss: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Beyoncé adapts this cycle to her own personal tragedy, dividing it into 11 stages: Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, Hope and Redemption. Each one is represented by a song in the album, ending with Formation, which is a joint of everything.
We see an image of a black and white chain on a slave farm in Louisiana. We see images of the Fort Macomb. A fort that was used in the american civil war that ended up culminating in the abolition.
In other words, Beyoncé is building a historical context everything she's going to talk about in this album, about how the marks of slavery are still present in her life. Then we see Beyoncé on a stage, in front of a red curtain. This time though, she isn't all dolled up.
She's not wearing an amazing body suit ready to come on stage singing Crazy in Love. She is actually on her kness, basically wearing no makeup, all in black, grieving for her marriage. This is a clear message.
In this album you aren't going to see only the flawless and unbreakable Beyoncé. She is going to show us her vulnerable side. She is going to show us her now broken relationship.
Then she appears wearing a black hooded jacket which became a symbol of the death of Trayvon Martin, american teenager who was murdered by a security agent and was one of the motivations for the Black Lives Matter. Then she starts to sing, saying: Here Beyoncé starts to suspect she is being cheated on, that her husband is being dishonest with her. And she can't handle this situation anymore.
She can't wait to catch him on the act or that he notices she is eaversdropping, for this doubt to end. Then we see angles of the Fort Macomb that looks like buildings in Africa where black people used to be trapped before being sold as slaves. Then the name of this chapter appears, Intuition.
Which talks about the moment when she has the intuition that she is being cheated on, Chapter 1: Intuition Then we see a slave farm and a poem that says: This poem can refer to Beyoncé's frustration about failing to build a happy family with her husband and also black people frustation when trying to build a happy family in America. It's the first of several poems we going to hear on the beginning of every chapter of Lemonade. All writen by Warsan Shire, a Somali writer and poet raised in London.
. Then we see a shot of several black women in white dresses from different times. They symbolize Beyoncé's ancestors.
The poem describes that the problem Beyoncé has with her husband has happened to all of them before. She says that her father is like a magician, capable of existing in two places at the same time, that is, loving two women at the same time. It’s like a curse in the life of these women that repeats itself in every generation, and this is expressed here: We see beyoncé in an empty bathtub with tignon, a prop that black women were forced to use to hide their hair when out in public.
All this reinforces the feeling that she feels repressed. It's at this moment that she appears on top of a building. She takes off her hood and we can see she is sad!
She is devastated, her hair is messy, showing her vulnerability and then she commits suicide, throwing herself with open arms like a cross, symbol of death and sacrifice, but also resurrection. According to Beyonce, the challenges of her marriage made her die and be reborn in the relationship through a great journey of self-knowledge. It is the mourning for the death of her idea of a perfect relationship that will be addressed throughout the album.
But Bey doesn't fall to the ground, but on the water, introducing the second chapter: Denial. Chapter 2: Denial Then she appears in a submerged room where she sees herself lying alone, still, lifeless. This represents her state in the relationship: silent, still and with her eyes closed to what is happening.
This chapter also begins with a poem by writer Warsan Shire, This is the moment where Beyoncé says she tried to change, to close her mouth, to be soft, prettier, less awake. It's the moment where she thinks she is the problem, and tries to deny that there's a problem in their relationship. She starts to speak several sentences that express her suffering.
"Abstained from mirrors, abstained from sex, Slowly did not speak another word" She levitates in bed like the girl on The Exorcist, and her body begins to squirm as if she were possessed by demons. That's why she says: I crossed myself and saw the devil. She even says she plugged her menses with pages from the Bible a metaphor of the catholic guilt that she feels for not being able to avoid her husband's betrayal.
Then she says: It’s at this moment that Beyoncé really decides to leave the state of denial and to open the doors, releasing all the water and appearing in a yellow dress, full of gold chains. This is Beyoncé's tribute to Oxum. Oxum is an orixá of sweet waters, rivers and waterfalls, of wealth, love, prosperity and beauty.
In Oxum, the faithful seek help to solve problems in love, since she is responsible for the bonds, and also financial life. My interpretation is that Beyoncé freed herself from the catholic guilt through Candomblé. It was the african spirituality freed her out of this passive and painful position that she was in her relationship.
We see that once asleep woman resurface full of power, owning herself, with the strength of a river. It is an extremely strong shot, probably one of the most popular representations of Oxum in pop culture. It has a great symbolic value in the fight against religious racism that discriminates religions of african origins.
That's when Hold Up begins and Beyoncé's penny starts to drop. She says her husband arrives after midnight, that she smells that there's a secret. That she feels worthless and keep scrolling his call list.
Then Beyoncé starts to walk the streets of New Orleans, meets a kid and takes his baseball bat, that has "hot sauce" written on it, that she later mentions in Formation. A nod to the culture from the south of the USA. From the moment she comes out of denial, she starts to feel anger When she says in the music she may be losing her mind, she starts to break everything with the baseball bat, destroying cars, She even destroys a yellow hydrant, releasing the water, reinforcing the reference to Oxum.
Then she looks to the camera and send a message straight to Jay Z She says: "Let's imagine for a moment that you never made a name for yourself, or mastered wealth, they had you labeled as a king. Never made it out the cage, still out there moving them streets. Never had the baddest woman in the game up in your sheets.
Would they be down to ride? No! They used to hide from you, lie to you.
" That's why Beyoncé says they don't love him like she does. Beyoncé loves Jay Z for a quite long time. She fell for him in Crazy in Love, he wasn't this big name.
She saw and valued him before all the others. And that's why she is so mad he can't see all this. Beyoncé then looks at a security camera, maybe a nod to the elevator scene with Solange and Jay Z, and crashes the camera.
This is Beyoncé showing her frustation also with the media, that keeps making headlines of her private life. Then she looks at a straight wig in a window, a reference to Becky with the good hair, that we'll talk about later. She starts to give us small hints that Jay Z cheated on her with a white woman.
Her anger makes her crash the window, setting a fire in the background, that represents this strong emotion being freed. She keeps destroying everything, even the main camera at the end, that represents Jay Z. She drops the baseball bat, get in a monster truck and drives through all the cars, destroying everything, symbolizing she is in full anger.
Then starts the chapter: Anger Chapter 3: Anger In this poem we hear Beyoncé saying: "I can wear her skin over mine". And in this moment, we see black women in white. They're all trying to free themselves.
Symbolizing the pressure that black women suffer to whiten themselves if they want to be loved. Whether it's straighting their hair, having plastics surgeries, using products to lighten their skin, renouncing their black culture. .
. It's this pain that unites black women. Since the media shows through soap operas, movies and shows that the woman who should be loved is always the white woman.
Even after the abolition all black women remain chained by a eurocentric pattern of beauty and affection. Beyoncé feels anger towards the mistress and fantasizes about her death, while the camera descends into a garage. Then we see Beyoncé on that shot that starts the movie.
Wearing a fur coat similar to the one she used in the Crazy in Love music video. Time she started her relationship with Jay Z. She is also wearing braids, showing that she is tired of trying to look white to be accepted.
Then she asks: "Why can't you see me? Everyone else can" Fire appears again symbolizing her anger coming out. That's when Don't Hurt Yourself starts, a rock song, We even get to see a black woman on the drums.
A way to remember that this type of music that today is majority played by white people, had a black woman as pioneer. Anyways, that's when Beyoncé comes with the real talk! And sings one of the most iconic lyrics of the album: Beyoncé says he is going to watch she leaving and getting with anoter man.
That he can keep his money cause she got her own. That she's going to be really fine alone. Then she quotes Malcom X, a part from this famous black leader speech.
This speech is called "Who Taught You to Hate Youself? " and talks about the lack of self-esteem in black people about their hair, nose and skin. Beyoncé is so angry that she feels like a dragon breathing fire, a lion chasing her hunt.
She is basically saying that she is too much for him! She smells her frangance on his clothes, and she wants to do the same thing with him so he feels as hurt as she is right now. That's why she says: The phrase "God is god and I am not" appears on the screen, it’s Beyoncé saying that she is not this flawless godess people think she is.
She is human, feels anger and is not always able to forgive. Beyoncé ends the song reminding her husband that she was to give him life, that's why she wears the Ankh symbol on her neck, the egyptian cross that represents life. She also gives him an ultimatum, saying that if he cheat on her again, he's going to lose his wife.
Then she gets her ring and throws it away, showing that she won't accept to be deceived. At this moment the anger passes and we start the next chapter, Apathy. Chapter 4: Apathy It starts with Beyoncé reading a poem where the husband mourns the death of his beloved, at the funeral.
The poem says: What are you gon do now that you killed me? Beyoncé stopped blaming herself for the problems of the relationship and now blames her husband, who betrayed her willingly and spontaneously. Beyoncé is inside an old bus, similar to the ones that in the 60's were the stage of the beginning of the american civil rights movement.
A black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, something she was forced to do by the legislation of the time. She was arrested and in response the entire black community decided to do a boycott against public transportation. Led by Martin Luther King, the protest worked pretty well and years later culminated in the end of racial segregation across the country.
Something I tell in the video about Luther King's story. The link is in the description. Inside this bus, we see images of several women painted by "Arte sagrada do Ori," by nigerian artist Laolu Sebanjo.
They represent the pass of Bey's soul to the spiritual plane. Beyoncé ends the poem by saying that her heaven will be a love without betrayal. Then we see her on the big house with no husband, on a throne.
It's a reference to Serena Williams' Sports Illustrated magazine cover as sportsperson of the year. Serena is also in the video flawless just like Beyoncé. That's when Sorry starts, where Bey basically says that she's not sorry for fighting with her husband and that she's doing pretty well, thanks.
She says he doesn't fool her anymore. She is going to party with her friends, get drunk and she isn't thinking about him. Here we see a strong and independent Beyoncé, dealing pretty well with the breakup.
Even if he says he is sorry and calls her, crying, she doesn't give a f#. Now she is lying for him too and she doesn't feel bad about it because that's what he deserves. She's even sorry for marrying him.
She had completely lost empathy for her husband, that's why this chapter is called apathy. Then we see Beyoncé as Nefertiti, one of the most powerful queens of Egypt. A symbol of feminine power challenging the patriarchy that neglects black women.
And then we find out that Beyoncé is not doing that well. This means that Beyoncé is that type of person who may be living hell, but she won't let anyone see it, on the contrary: she will always show that she's doing awesome. Even if she says she doesn't think about her husband, she is actually really suffering with the breakup.
At the end of the song she even starts to worry about the women who will want to take her place because of his status. But she is still not ready to forgive him so she tells him to go after Becky with the good hair. Becky is an american slang to refer to any white woman, and it’s in this moment that we have the confirmation that even though she is the Beyoncé, he cheated her with a white woman.
That's when we get to the next chapter: Emptiness Chapter 5: Emptiness She recites a poem saying she sleeps all day and dreams of him in both worlds. That's her now admitting she misses him. Then we see Beyonce in a red dress, surrounded by fire, which can be interpreted as a reference to Pomba Gira, an african religion entity that represents a free and sensual woman who does not see her sexuality as a taboo.
There is even an article by the black intellectual Joice Berth that says that her characteristics are very close to the concept and performance of the feminist movement, since she is free in thoughts and behavior. Questioning the moral values of a society that was structured to subdue women. On this chapter, Beyoncé talks about sex, specifically about the sexual emptiness that her partner left in her.
Then we see a hallway with blood-red lights, something that makes reference to brothels. Places where many black women work as prostitutes to survive. Slowly the camera zoom in to a square with a light at the end.
This square can be interpreted as a symbol of the curse that slavery has left on black families, destroying them socially and affectively. There is a slave house on the coast of Senegal where there is the famous "Door of no Return" a door that opens to the atlantic ocean and which enslaved africans passed through just before embarking on slave ships to be exploited in America. This door became a symbol of the destiny that slavery denied to black people, and has already been visited by President Obama, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Pope John Paul II.
That’s why the camera slowly walks towards this square, as if Beyoncé were slowly walking towards her destiny: to have her family destroyed by the racist structure. Meanwhile, we hear a poem where Beyoncé blames the moon for the floods, for the bloodshed, for the men who turn into wolves, for the night, for the darkness, for the ghosts. For me, this square, this point of light in the middle of the black screen is the moon that she refers to.
It's this mark of slavery that is responsible for the tears, the murders, the aggressiveness, the death, the loneliness and suffering that black people go through until this day. Then Beyoncé starts to sing Six Inch, with The Weeknd. She appears with a big black hat that covers her face while she is inside a car wrapped in a red light.
We also see Beyoncé spinning a red light inside a house, while several other black women with old clothes are watching, her ancestors who also did not escape the curse. Now we see the back of the big house where Beyoncé is stuck in a shop window, on the same stage that she was in chapter 1. We can notice this because she touches the glass that separates her from the outside of the house.
This reinforces the reference to the brothel, after all Amsterdam is known for its sex houses where prostitutes show up in windows under a red light, looking for customers. We also see silhouettes of several men entering and exiting rooms and the word LOST blinks on the screen. Here we see Beyoncé playing two roles: the woman who is in the big house, a prostitute; and the woman who inside a luxury car inverts this logic, seeking men to consume.
Perhaps this symbolizes Beyoncé seeking a man to get a sexual revenge on her husband and fill her void. That's when the singer appears in a bed inside a motel, looking at the glass ceiling, while singing that she grinds day and night, from Monday to Friday, from Friday to Sunday. She says she tries to fill her head with her work, but she still feels empty.
It's in this moment of the song that she understands that neither money nor sex with strangers will be enough to fill her emotional emptiness, she even says she's too smart to crave material things. Then we see that same hallway with the cursed door, but this time everything starts to catch fire. The flames begin to consume the whole house, while Beyoncé walks triumphantly away from that tragic fate her family would have.
That's when we see her in the car assuming to herself that she wants Jay-Z back. The chapter ends with Beyoncé looking powerful along with other black women while the house is destroyed by the fire. representing that they decided to change their destiny and get rid of the curse.
Instead of letting the sexist and racist structure destroy their black families, they will fight so that they will keep together. It's this process of healing, forgiveness and redemption of their marriage that we will address in the next video, where I will review the second part of Lemonade. Don’t forget to subscribe to this channel and hit that bell so you won’t lose anything.
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