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In the days since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her bid for president, Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” has become the soundtrack to her campaign.
Harris walked out to the song at her first visit to her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday. It played the next day at her first campaign rally in Wisconsin.
On Thursday, the campaign released its first ad, which again featured the song. The video contrasts Donald Trump's vision for the country with hers, with Harris saying in a voiceover: “There are some people who think that we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us? We choose something different: We choose freedom.”
Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” which features rapper Kendrick Lamar, was released in 2016 as part of her visual album “Lemonade.” Rolling Stone called the song at the time “one of the most striking political statements” of Beyoncé’s career.
Although the Grammy Award-winning artist has not officially endorsed any candidate in this year's race, she did grant Harris’ campaign permission to use the song through the next few months of the election, CNN reported on Monday. (That Harris is using the music with the artist's permission also stands in stark contrast to Trump, who's been asked not to play songs by the Rolling Stones, R.E.M., Prince, Neil Young, Rihanna, Guns N' Roses, Queen and Adele — among others.)
Harris is a known Beyoncé fan. She and her husband, Doug Emhoff, went to the singer’s Renaissance World Tour concert in Maryland last August. The tickets, valued at $1,655.92, were a gift from Beyoncé, according to Harris’ financial disclosure report earlier this year.
Beyoncé has a history of supporting Democratic candidates. She sang the National Anthem at President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration and performed at a concert for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign alongside her husband, Jay-Z — much to Donald Trump's consternation, even years later. Beyoncé also endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020.