Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ Helps Kick Off the DNC in New Kamala Harris Ad
Night one of the 2024 Democratic National Convention featured a couple of major music moments, but maybe the biggest was from an artist who wasn’t actually in attendance: Beyoncé.
The evening kicked off with a new campaign ad for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running-mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, titled “Freedom” — and it fittingly featured Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” from 2016’s Lemonade. The song soars over the typical parade of extremely American images you usually see in campaign ads while actor Jeffrey Wright provides the narration: “What kind of America do we want?” he asks. “One where we’re divided, angry, depressed? C’mon! We’re Americans! Fascism? We conquered it. The Moon? Landed on it. The future? Building it. Freedom? Nobody loves it more.”
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While the ad that aired at the DNC last night was totally new, Harris has been using “Freedom” since her presidential campaign began earlier this summer (following Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election). At her first public appearance after securing Biden’s endorsement, Harris walked out to the podium while “Freedom” played. And not long after, her campaign dropped an official launch video featuring the song.
Beyoncé’s reps reportedly gave the vice president permission to use “Freedom” during her campaign just a few hours before that campaign launch event in July. In the aftermath, “Freedom” saw a big uptick in streams, jumping 1,300 percent according to data from Luminate (which powers the Billboard charts).
Along with the debut of the new “Freedom” ad, night one of the DNC featured two musical performances: Mickey Guyton playing her 2021 song “All American” and Jason Isbell performing his 2015 track, “Something More Than Free.” James Taylor was also slated to close the night, but his performance was reportedly bumped to accommodate time for Biden’s speech after applause throughout the night led to a time crunch.
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