The moment Beyoncé fans have been waiting for is finally here: The 24-time Grammy Award-winning queen of pop has released her hotly anticipated visual album “Black Is King”, inspired by “The Lion King,” on Disney+.
The album, based on the singer’s soundtrack album “The Lion King: The Gift” for the 2019 remake of the Disney film, reimagines the lessons from the movie for “today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns,” Disney+ said in a release, and is a “celebratory memoir for the world on the black experience.”
The vibrant cinematographic album was produced over the course of a year and features a diverse cast and crew hailing from multiple locations where it was shot, including New York, Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London and Belgium.
The singer, who also directed and executive produced the work, first teased the album trailer on YouTube on July 19, in a video that has already racked up more than 2.7 million views.
The album includes full-length videos for tracks including “My Power,” “Brown Skin Girl,” “Mood 4 Eva” and “Already.”
You can watch the video of “Already,” featuring Shatta Wale and Major Lazer and shared to Beyoncé’s official YouTube channel, in full below.
Beyoncé’s first visual album was the self-titled “Beyoncé,” released in 2013, featuring hit tracks “Drunk In Love” and “XO.”
Her second visual album, “Lemonade,” released to HBO in 2016, was a dreamy and powerful mix of visuals, spoken word, confessions and lyrics with themes of love, betrayal, empowerment, tribalism and family.
Earlier that year, Beyoncé released her hit track “Formation” from the album, with a video featuring imagery closely aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement.
One scene in the video features a young African-American boy in a hoodie, dancing in front of a line of police officers wearing riot gear; then, the words “Stop Shooting Us” appear in graffiti on a wall.
There was some controversy over the video and over the Black Panther-esque outfits worn by dancers at a Super Bowl halftime performance of the track.
Some police departments argued the imagery was anti-law enforcement. Fans, however, supported the singer, with one person tweeting: “The American police are bullying Beyoncé because she asked for police not to murder black people, please and thank you.”
