Call it the Kamala Harris effect: Beyoncé is seeing a huge surge in streams for her song “Freedom” after the leading Democratic candidate for the upcoming presidential election walked out to the 2016 song during her first appearances as a candidate this week.
According to Luminate, the U.S. on-demand streams for “Freedom” are up over 1,300 percent between Sunday and Tuesday, surging from 16,600 streams to 235,400 streams in that timeframe.
“Freedom,” which features Kendrick Lamar and was included on Beyoncé‘s sixth album “Lemonade,” blared as Harris visited her Delaware campaign headquarters a day after President Joe Biden bowed out of his bid for reelection.
According to CNN, Beyoncé gave her approval to use “Freedom” as her walk-out song on Monday just hours before she appeared, and to continue using the anthem for the rest of her campaign.
“Freedom” appears to be a recurring theme song for Harris, who also used the song in a campaign video that released earlier Thursday. Though Beyoncé has not made an official endorsement of Harris for her presidential candidacy, she previously supported Biden and Harris in the 2020 election, encouraging her fans to vote.
Musicians and celebrities have been coming out in droves to champion Harris to become the Democratic presidential nominee. Most notably, Charli XCX made a reference to her most recent album “Brat” by tweeting, “Kamala IS brat,” prompting Harris’ campaign team to use the record’s visual identity for their header on X (formerly Twitter).
Beyond Charli XCX, musicians including Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Barbra Streisand and Lizzo have either expressed direct support or have praised her policies.
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