“Formation” appears on Beyoncé’s 2016 visual album Lemonade.
“Formation” was released as the project’s lead single in February 2016 and later appeared in Lemonade’s track sequence. The song and its video address Black identity, Southern heritage, police violence, and cultural pride through dense imagery and references.
Lemonade was released on April 23, 2016, after a premiere on HBO. It combines music with poetry, narration, and short-film visuals, and its songs move through themes commonly described as intuition, denial, anger, forgiveness, and hope.
The album received widespread critical acclaim and won the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album. A frequent mix-up is treating “Formation” as part of the earlier self-titled album Beyoncé; it belongs to Lemonade and was released nearly three years later.