Beyoncé released Lemonade in 2016 as a visual album exploring identity, marriage, and Black womanhood.
The project premiered on HBO as a one-hour film and was then released as an album. Its music moves across R&B, pop, rock, soul, country, blues, and hip-hop, while the film combines poetry, imagery, and performances. Songs include “Formation,” “Sorry,” “Hold Up,” and “Daddy Lessons.”
Lemonade was widely interpreted as addressing betrayal, healing, family history, and cultural identity. Beyoncé drew on writers, musicians, and visual artists to create a work that connected personal experience with broader Black American history.
The album received the Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. A frequent mix-up is treating Lemonade as only a collection of songs; it was deliberately presented as a linked audiovisual work.