Kamala Harris is using Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ as her campaign song: What to know about the anthem

NEW YORK (news agencies) — In Vice President Kamala Harris’ first 2024 presidential campaign video, a familiar rhythm rings out. The clip, which touches on issues of gun violence, health care and abortion, is soundtracked by Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” a cut from her 2016 landmark album, “Lemonade.”

“We choose freedom,” Harris says in the clip, as Beyoncé’s powerful chorus kicks in: “Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move / Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah.”

It’s become a campaign song for Harris. She used “Freedom” during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday, and again on Tuesday at the beginning and end of her rally in Milwaukee.

As a whole body of work, “Lemonade” has been celebrated as an instant-classic, a game-changing collection of songs and visuals that function as an examination of personal plight and societal injustice, where revenge songs about infidelity sit next to displays of support for Black Lives Matter.

Omise’eke Tinsley, academic and author of “Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism,” says Beyoncé has performed “Freedom,” in particular, in ways that have made it clear it is a political song. “She performed it at Coachella; it segued into ‘Lift Every Voice,’ the Black national 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.”

Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song on Tuesday, a campaign official confirmed to media who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations.

The Biden-Harris creative team wrote the script for Harris’ video on Tuesday, based on her speech at campaign headquarters on Monday. Harris recorded the voiceover while on the road in Indianapolis Wednesday afternoon.

Kinitra D. Brooks, an academic and author 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.”