Lemonade is the Beyoncé album that presents a seven-part story of Black womanhood and includes “Formation.”
Released in 2016, Lemonade combines songs, poetry, spoken passages, and visual imagery. Its accompanying film, also titled Lemonade, premiered on HBO and was directed by Beyoncé with a group of collaborators. The project is structured around chapters including intuition, denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, accountability, and hope.
The album draws on R&B, soul, rock, country, blues, reggae, and hip-hop. Its guest contributors include Jack White, Kendrick Lamar, James Blake, and The Weeknd. “Formation,” released before the album’s arrival, became one of its most recognized songs and addressed Black identity, history, and cultural pride.
Lemonade received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 59th Grammy Awards. Although it did not win that category, it won Best Urban Contemporary Album and helped establish Beyoncé’s album-length visual storytelling as a defining artistic approach.