Beyoncé’s Search for Home Continues on <em>Black Is King</em>
In recent years, Beyoncé has prefaced her musical homecomings with a glimpse of the final destination. She released the song “Formation” well ahead of her 2016 visual album, Lemonade, which contained lessons in ballads and rock anthems alike about how to go through despair and return to oneself again. Though it debuted early, “Formation” serves as the record’s final track and credits music, announcing a new beginning for Beyoncé and an end to heartbreak in its many forms.
Similarly, the song “Black Parade” debuted this year on Juneteenth but plays at the end of ,Beyoncé’s visual project released on Disney+ last month. With a playful burst of trumpets and bass, the song is a departure from the Afrobeat and South African house music that give the album its collaborative, diasporic feel. Between and was the 2019 concert, which celebrated the marching-band traditions of historically Black colleges and universities in the American South. Together, these works comprise a trilogy of Beyoncé’s sonic and visual teachings about ideas of home and exile, and the particular meaning they hold for Black Americans.
