Beyoncé’s Lemonade

Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen Beyonce’s new album. “Lemonade” appeared out of nowhere on music website Tidal. Released without so much as a save-the-date, it was hailed as a “changer” for the classic way of making music.

But the Queen of Music wouldn’t be the queen if that was the whole story. Her sixth album consists of 12 tracks, each with its own video that can be watched separately or all together. Oh, and it’s about infidelity. And this is what made the internet explode. What did it mean? Had her husband Jay-Z cheated on her? Is this payback time?

Strong reactions. Fortunately, there were also a lot of funny reactions, such as the enormous amount of memes that appeared on the internet of Jay-Z with a troubled look. Followed by a whole bunch of 100 problems jokes (whereas before he only had 99). In ‘Pray you catch me’ Beyonce sings ‘you can taste the dishonesty / It’s on your breath as you pass it off so cavalier’. But it doesn’t stop there.

In ‘Hold up’ the words are uttered “Can’t you see there’s no other man above you / what a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you”. In ‘Don’t Hurt yourself’ she throws a ring at the camera as a final warning: “If you try this shit again you gon’ lose your wife”.

And the list goes on. Enough reasons for fans and media all over the world to see this album as an unofficial confirmation that the power couple is indeed getting a divorce. But as The Guardian already headlined ‘Beyonce’s Lemonade is about more than just infidelity and Jay-Z’. The album and the accompanying film are full of references to strong black women, ’the most disrespected person in America’ as pop star Malcom X quotes in the video. About women who work hard, take care of their families and their (often absent) men.

Beyonce, who has previously been called the embodiment of the new feminism, shows with this album that indeed; ‘girls run the world’.