Beyonce released a short film with the title "Lemonade," that featured 12 songs, on HBO on April 23. Then, the songs were streaming exclusively on Tidal. Tidal is owned by Jay-Z, her husband. But the songs were very different from Beyonce's normal music. The album shows Beyonce trying out new music styles and hopefully, she continues to explore and grow as an artist.
1. Hot Sauce is not just a condiment.
In February, Beyonce dropped the song "Formation" with little to no warning. In "Formation" she sings: "I got a hot sauce in my bag, swag," which everyone thought to mean an actual hot sauce bottle. When Beyonce premiered the short film "Lemonade," in one of the scenes she had a baseball bat that said "HOT Sauce" on the end. Clearly, Beyonce is always packing heat.
2. Ezra Koenig got writing credits for his tweet.
Ezra Koenig, of the band Vampire Weekend, tweeted the lyric "hold up...they don't love u like i love u" back in 2011. He held onto the lyric for five years and was accredited as a writer and producer of "Hold Up," the song with the above lyrics. He recently replied to the first tweet "slow down...they don't love u like i love u" as a reminder of the original tweet.
3. Beyonce brought in some friends
Beyonce brought in some prominent singers to take part in her short film. Beyonce brought in Chloe and Halle Bailey from the group Chloe x Halle which is signed to Parkwood Entertainment, Beyonce's label. From the duo, Ibeyi, Beyonce was joined by Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, who are twin sisters. Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in "The Hunger Games," was also involved. Zendaya is not the least nor the last of the amazing women featured in the short film, but she is the one completing the picture on the bottom left. All of these women are prominent young stars.
4. Rachel Roy was the suspected Becky, and her Wikipedia page reflected it
There is speculation that Jay-Z cheated on Beyonce with Rachel Roy. In Beyonce's song "Sorry," Beyonce ends with the line "He better call Becky with the good hair." Rachel Roy later posted a picture on Instagram with the caption "Good hair don’t care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truths, always." This caption caused Beyonce fans to comment on her post with bee emojis and lemon emojis. Rachel Roy is presumed to be the reason Beyonce's sister, Solange, attacked Jay-Z in an elevator in 2014. Fans started to change Rachel Roy's Wikipedia page, adding "Famously known as Becky with the Good Hair, as featured in Beyonce's latest visual album 'Lemonade'. Sad." Other changes include adding a death date on the day the album was released with the location as "Under a Lemonade stand" referencing the album "Lemonade. "
5. Featured Model Winnie Harlow
Model Winnie Harlow is a Canadian model, and she came in sixth place on "America's Next Top Model." The model has had a skin condition called vitiligo since the age of four. She has also given a TED Talk and has spoken out about her condition. Winnie is an inspiring woman.
6. Included a clip of Hattie White's 90th Birthday Party
Hattie White is Jay-Z's grandmother. The short film included a clip from Hattie White's 90th Birthday Party. During the clip, she reads "I had my ups and downs but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up...I was served lemons, but I made lemonade. " This line could be where the album got its name. But the album may have earned its name from an included lemonade recipe that came from Beyonce's late grandmother.
7. The entire project was kept secret.
In today's world, it is hard to keep a secret. People tweet, people post, people upload, people spoil, people do everything to get the word out about everything, making it almost impossible to keep a secret. But Beyonce managed to shock people. No one knew exactly what was coming. Beyonce had been dropping hints about the possibility of an album, and this picture had been leaked with a trailer. But that is all that had been leaked. No one knew how many songs or what they were.
