Kamala Harris is feeling her “Freedom,” with an official nod from Beyoncé. The presumed Democratic candidate for the presidency entered her campaign headquarters Monday night to the tune of that rousing anthem from Beyoncé’s 2016 “Lemonade” album, and CNN later reported that Harris had gotten the superstar’s express permission to use the song on the campaign trail just hours earlier.
CNN’s report said that a source close to Harris revealed that, “just hours before she walked out to the song,” Beyoncé’s camp offered Harris’ team approval to blast “Freedom” not just Monday night but “throughout her presidential campaign.”
Beyoncé has not yet issued an official endorsement of the VP moving up to the United States’ top position (although her mother, Tina Knowles, already has), but her official allowance of the song will certainly be taken as a tacit one. It’s not a stretch to imagine that an explicit thumbs-up from Beyoncé for Harris’ candidacy might come soon The singer endorsed the Joe Biden/Harris ticket in 2000, and she performed in support of Hillary Clinton four years prior to that, on top of performing at Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
“Freedom,” which includes a featured appearance by Kendrick Lamar, was never officially released as a single, and in its album-track status topped out on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 35 in 2016. Yet it remains the most enduring song off the acclaimed “Lemonade” album in some respects, as a socially conscious anthem that was revived with even greater resonance in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
“Freedom” could be just one of many songs that Harris will use on the campaign trail, although it’s hard to think of many that would be as potentially effective with a younger and middle-aged base.
In 2020, when the Biden/Harris team won that year’s election, Harris walked out to Mary J. Blige’s 2007 song “Work That” for her victory speech.
Harris and music were already an entwined theme for discussion and memes throughout the day Monday. One of the more zeitgeist-commanding singers of the moment, Charli XCX, seemed to endorse Harris when she posted the slogan “Kamala IS Brat” (referring to the title of her current album), and Harris’ campaign embraced the shout-out by reposting it, even adopting using the album’s green color and typeface and going on to post further “Brat”-themed memes.
And, although it wasn’t fresh news, music fans began recirculating a video from 2023 in which Harris was caught leaving a record shop and showing off her fresh purchases of classic vinyl albums by Charles Mingus, Roy Ayers and Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald.
Other musicians besides Charli XCX who have posted about Harris or otherwise publicly thrown their weight behind her since she received Biden’s support to take over the Democratic candidacy 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.
Democrats have had an easier time of finding support in recent years from many of the top performers of the day. But Republicans have not been altogether without their own artists willing to go public with their support of former president Donald Trump. At the Republic National Convention last week, Trump came on-stage as Lee Greenwood sang the venerable “Proud to Be an American,” after sitting alongside a T-shirt-clad Jason Aldean in the audience. Kid Rock also performed his oldie “American Bad Ass” at the convention, with modified lyrics that included new lines like, “It smells in here ’cause Trump’s the shhhhh.”
Obviously, not every political candidate waits to get approval to use a song on the campaign trail — or halts it when the artists publicly object or even issue cease-and-desist orders. The long list of rockers who have publicly objected to Trump’s use of their songs in the last three presidential campaign cycles includes the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty, Neil Young, R.E.M. and Adele. The rarer example of it happening on the other side happened when Sam Moore objected to Obama using the Sam and Dave classic “Soul Man” in 2008. As a Republican, Moore presumably had no such objection when Trump used “Hold On, I’m Comin’” as his walk-off music at last week’s GOP convention.
