Kamala Harris taps Beyoncé's ‘Freedom’ for walkout song and new ad — with special permission
Kamala Harris walked through her Delaware campaign headquarters to speak with staff as the Beyoncé track played on Monday.
It looks like “Freedom,” from Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade, is the soundtrack of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign so far as both an ad spot and walkout track.
For her first public appearance on Monday, a day after President Joe Biden’s endorsement, Harris walked through her Delaware campaign headquarters to speak with staff as the Beyoncé track played.
The Grammy-winning song, which features Kendrick Lamar, is anthemic and saw a second wind of popularity in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. The lyrics call for the end of police brutality and racial discrimination, and demand criminal justice reform.
The chorus goes: “Freedom/ Where are you?/ ‘Cause I need freedom, too/ I break chains all by myself/ Won’t let my freedom rot in hell/ I’ma keep running/ ‘Cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
Harris is a longtime Beyoncé fan and has praised the singer’s music and advocacy surrounding racial injustice.
Last year, Beyoncé gifted the vice president a pair of tickets to her Renaissance tour, which were valued at about $1,650, according to a financial disclosure report.
Harris lauded Beyoncé's most recent album, Cowboy Carter, earlier this year.
”Thank you for reminding us to never feel confined to other people’s perspective of what our lane is,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “You have redefined a genre and reclaimed country music’s Black roots. Your music continues to inspire us all.”
According to CNN, Harris’ team received approval from Beyoncé's reps to use the song throughout her campaign, a feat for the singer who is typically guarded about granting usage permissions.
This isn’t Beyoncé's first venture into politics. In 2020, she endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket. Before that, in 2016, she and her husband Jay-Z headlined a preelection concert for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, Beyoncé performed the national anthem at Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Harris unveiled her first campaign ad, which also features the song, Thursday morning.
Harris’ campaign says the spot will air across social media channels, not on TV, radio, or other paid-media channels, for now.