Beyoncé suggests Kamala Harris use “Freedom” as her campaign song

Michael Buckner/Variety (Beyonce); Getty Images (Harris)

Kamala Harris is feeling her “freedom” – and it comes with an official nod from Beyoncé. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee entered her campaign headquarters on Monday night to the sounds of this rousing anthem from Beyoncé’s 2016 album “Lemonade,” and CNN later reported that Harris had received the superstar’s explicit permission to use the song on the campaign trail just hours earlier.

The CNN report said a source close to Harris revealed that Beyoncé’s camp gave Harris’ team permission to play “Freedom” not just on Monday night but “throughout her entire presidential campaign” “just hours before she took the stage to perform the song.”

Beyoncé has not yet officially endorsed the Vice President’s ascension to the highest office in the United States (her mother, Tina Knowles, has), but her official endorsement of the song will surely be seen as tacit approval. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that Beyoncé could soon give her explicit endorsement of Harris’ candidacy. The singer endorsed the Joe Biden/Harris platform in 2000 and performed in support of Hillary Clinton four years earlier, as well as performing at Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

“Freedom,” which also features Kendrick Lamar, was never officially released as a single and peaked at number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 as an album track in 2016. Yet in some ways it remains the most enduring song from the acclaimed “Lemonade” album, as a socially critical anthem that was revived with even greater resonance after the murder of George Floyd.

“Freedom” could be just one of many songs Harris will use on the campaign trail, but it’s hard to imagine many that would be as effective with a younger and middle-aged electorate.

In 2020, when the Biden/Harris team won the election, Harris’ victory speech featured the 2007 song “Work That” by Mary J. Blige.

Harris and music were already a closely intertwined topic of discussion and memes on Monday. One of today’s most zeitgeisty singers, Charli XCX, appeared to support Harris when she posted the slogan “Kamala IS Brat” (referring to the title of her current album), and Harris’ campaign embraced the salute by reposting it, even adopting the album’s green color and font, and posting more “brat”-themed memes.

And while it wasn’t new news, music fans began circulating a video from 2023 in which Harris is caught leaving a record store and showing off her new purchases of classic vinyl albums by Charles Mingus, Roy Ayers, and Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald.

In addition to Charli XCX, other musicians who have posted about Harris or otherwise publicly supported her since she received Biden’s endorsement to assume the Democratic nomination on Sunday include Ariana Grande, Barbra Streisand, John Legend, Katy Perry, Janelle Monáe, Carole King, Lizzo, Demi Lovato, Lil Nas X, Cardi B, Moby, Questlove and Kesha.

In recent years, it has become easier for Democrats to find support from many of the era’s top performers. But Republicans also have their own artists willing to make their support for former President Donald Trump public. At the Republican National Convention last week, Trump took the stage while Lee Greenwood sang the venerable “Proud to Be an American” after sitting next to a T-shirt-clad Jason Aldean in the audience. Kid Rock also sang his oldie “American Bad Ass” at the convention, with altered lyrics that included new lines like, “It stinks in here ’cause Trump is the shhh.”