(August 23, 2024). Speculation ran rampant throughout social media yesterday (8/22) as many people opined on whether R&B/hip-hop/pop icon Beyoncé would appear on the final night of the Democratic National Convention to perform the event’s adopted theme, “Freedom,” from her 2016 album Lemonade.
Ultimately, she didn’t and let’s face it — in hindsight having one of the biggest musical stars of the century show up and potentially upstage the night’s headliner — Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris — would not have been a great look for the presidential hopeful or for the Dems.
But anyone viewing not only this week’s convention but also Vice President Harris’ formal announcement of her candidacy four weeks ago knows that she has made Beyoncé’s “Freedom” a centerpiece of her campaign and her messaging, reframing the term that has for so long — and especially the last nine years since her opponent, former president Donald Trump, entered into politics — been championed by Republicans.
For decades, “freedom” was synonymous with conservative values: personal liberty, limited government, and economic independence. It was even a rallying cry during the Covid pandemic for anti-vaccine conservatives who bemoaned government and corporate efforts to enforce policies designed to get shots in arms and mitigate the impact of the disease that has killed more than a million Americans since 2020.
Yet, as the country faces growing debates over civil rights, healthcare, and economic inequality, Democrats have strategically redefined the concept, aligning it with their broader agenda of social justice, women’s rights and inclusivity.
Kamala Harris has been instrumental in this shift, deliberately reframing the term to emphasize freedoms that resonate deeply with the Democratic base: reproductive rights, voting rights, and freedom from gun violence.
Harris’ speeches have frequently highlighted these issues, positioning them as fundamental to the American promise. In doing so, she has not only broadened the appeal of the Democratic platform but also challenged the notion that freedom (and patriotism for that matter) is the exclusive domain of conservative ideology.
This twist in American political messaging has been fascinating to watch in 2024, with VP Harris effectively co-opting the theme of “freedom” and returning it to the Democratic Party, the institution that earlier embraced it during the Civil Rights Movement and which touted it again during the pre- and post-Trump era as the Black Lives Matter movement took hold in the wake of vigilante and police-involved killings of minorities in the early 2010s and again in 2020.
What’s made this yo-yo-ing of the ideology of civil liberties even more interesting to watch is how Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” fits into the picture.
The song is undisputedly — and unapologetically — a Black women’s anthem, one Bey included on her magnum opus Lemonade as a message of empowerment not only to a gender and race of people dealing with social and economic oppression, but to herself at a time when she was dealing with personal abuse in the form of infidelity at the hands of her equally famous husband Jay-Z.
In the latter context, the freedom Beyoncé spoke of was not liberation from the marriage itself, as many righteous folks would have advised her to do in the wake of such a publicly aired grievance, but from the emotional chains and bitterness that likely engulfed her upon discovering the alleged affairs. It was Beyoncé reclaiming her power — the power to choose family and future happiness over despair about the past.
But it was the broader context that made “Freedom” the political statement it’s been for eight years and especially this month as it’s soundtracked Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. As the party’s campaign theme, Beyoncé’s track has gained renewed significance. The song’s raw emotion and calls for liberation perfectly encapsulate the redefined concept of freedom—one that is inclusive, intersectional, and rooted in the fight for equality.
And don’t think that Trump and his people don’t recognize this — both the symbolic transformation of small-f “freedom” as a political ideology from his party to his opponent’s, and the capital-F “Freedom” in the title of the song that has played a crucial role in that transition. Clearly he and they do.
Just this week, the former president’s spokesperson Steven Cheung posted a now-deleted video on X of Trump stepping off an airplane with Bey’s “Freedom” playing in the background. Given Trump’s recent history with Black women, the move by his campaign couldn’t have appeared more tone-deaf. It was at least equally as bad as when Trump, also without permission, used Celine Dion’s sinking-ship anthem “My Heart Will Go On” from the 1997 movie Titanic as his walk-on music during a Montana rally earlier this month, triggering hilarious analogies between his own campaign and the fate of the ship.
Trump’s use of both iconic songs also prompted condemnation from the two artists — Dion’s team incredulously punctuating theirs with the now-viral question “And really, THAT song?” and Bey’s team issuing a cease-and-desist letter prompting the Trump campaign’s removal of the video mere days after it was posted.
That order came on the same day that Kamala — with permission granted by Bey — used “Freedom” as both her walk-on and walk-off music for the historic acceptance speech she gave as the now-official Democratic nominee for president.
The juxtaposition between the two political parties’ interpretations of “Freedom” is stark. While Republicans have traditionally tied the term to individualism and deregulation, Democrats, under Harris’ influence, have shifted the focus to collective empowerment and the protection of rights for all citizens. This strategic rebranding speaks to the evolving landscape of American politics, where language and symbolism are as crucial as policy positions.
As the 2024 campaign unfolds, the battle over who and what defines “Freedom” will likely intensify. By reclaiming this powerful term, Harris and the Democrats are not just engaging in a war of words—they are laying the groundwork for a broader cultural shift, one she hopes will promote her to the White House in less than seven weeks.
And with the echo of Beyoncé’s “Freedom” in the background, this transition not only seems deliberate but also deeply resonant with the spirit of these historic times.
DJRob
*Post note: With all of this exposure, Beyoncé’s “Freedom” has returned to the upper echelon of the iTunes chart, where it currently ranks No. 4, behind only her protégé Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the Pink (who performed it at the DNC’s final night) classic “What About Us?,” and the new Lady Gaga/Bruno Mars single “Die With a Smile.”
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog and on Meta’s Threads.
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