Sunday is the nine year anniversary of Beyonce’s fourth album, 4, and the Beyhive likely thought they’d simply celebrate the occasion. But the singer had something else up her sleeve: In a trailer posted on her website, she revealed that she would be releasing a visual album at the end of July.
BLACK IS KING — A Film by Beyoncé.
July 31st on @disneyplus. pic.twitter.com/FNEoJaQFUd
— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@BeyLegion) June 28, 2020
Entitled Black Is King, it will premiere on the Disney Plus platform on July 31, and it will also be written, directed and executive produced by Beyonce herself. In a statement about the project, she described it as “a celebratory memoir for the world on the Black experience.” The film will, the statement read, be “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.”
Disney and Parkwood Entertainment also revealed that Black Is King will reimagine the lessons presented in last year’s The Lion King remake, in which she co-starred and for which she produced the soundtrack, in order to help “today’s young kinds and queens in search of their own crowns.” The announcement comes almost two weeks after Beyonce shared “Black Parade,” a track that delivered praises to the ancestors.