Beyoncé has released the video for her single “All Night” from her album Lemonade. The video opens with the spoken word intro titled “Redemtion,” and famously contains the speech by Jay Z’s grandmother, Hattie White, in which she speaks the lines the album is inspired by. “I had my ups and downs but I always found my inner strength to pull my self up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade,” said White.
The single is notable because it marks a turning point towards hopefulness in an album themed on the up and down nature of an intimate relationship. In the song, Beyoncé states before the music kicks in, “So We’re gonna heal. We’re gonna start again…”
The timing of its release is interesting, too, coming as it does not very long after disappointing election results and harsh words from Kanye West, who told a concert audience before he was hospitalized that Beyoncé had told MTV she wouldn’t perform unless she was guaranteed her visual for “Formation” would win video of the year, eliminating any possibility of West winning the award. Is the release by Beyoncé a message? Perhaps. She’s often said she speaks through her music.
Produced by Diplo, the video includes appearances by Chloe and Halle Bailey, Ibeyi twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, plus actresses Amandla Stenberg and Zendaya.
The video for the “All Night” was probably the most intimate on the album, including as it did personal video of Beyoncé and Jay Z with their daughter, Blue Ivy, along with images of the two getting matching IV tattoos on their ring fingers and also brief clips from their wedding.
