Twenty four-time Grammy Award-winning Industry titan Beyonce has released her highly anticipated visual album “Black is King,” inspired by “The Lion King,” on Disney+.
“‘Black Is King,” is a celebratory memoir for the world on the Black experience,” said Disney and Parkwood Entertainment in announcing the visual alalbum. “The film is a story for the ages that informs and rebuilds the present. A reunion of cultures and shared generational beliefs. A story of how the people left most broken have an extraordinary gift and a purposeful future.”
The icon, directed and executive produced the work, first teased the album trailer on YouTube on July 19, in a video that has already racked up more than 2.7 million views.
Based on the singer’s soundtrack album “The Lion King: The Gift” for the 2019 remake of the Disney film, reimagines the lessons from the movie for “today’s young kings and queens in search of their crowns,” Disney+ said in a release.
A bright and vibrant feast for the eyes, the cinematic album was produced over a year with a diverse cast hailing from the multiple locations where the shooting took place, including New York, Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London, and Belgium.The singer touched on the timeliness of her latest project in a recent Instagram post.
“The events of 2020 have made the film’s vision and message even more relevant, as people across the world embark on a historical journey,” she wrote. “We are all in search of safety and light. Many of us want to change. I believe that when Black people tell our own stories, we can shift the axis of the world and tell our REAL history of generational wealth and richness of soul that are not told in our history books.”
Beyoncé works with African artists on the album’s songs, including Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage and Ghanaian singer-songwriter Shatta Wale.