Beyonce fans were in for a massive surprise on July 19 when Queen Bey dropped a new trailer for her upcoming visual album Black Is King, which will arrive on Disney+ on July 31. “You were formed by the heat of the galaxy. What a thing to be, both unique and familiar,” she says in a voiceover. “To be one and the same, and still unlike any other.” The film arrives almost one year after the release of The Lion King, which starred Bey, and is set to “reimagine the lessons from the 2019 blockbuster for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns,” according to Disney.
The trailer revealed that the album’s A-list lineup includes husband Jay-Z, former Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, her mom Tina Knowles-Lawson, Lupita Nyong’o, Naomi Campbell, and models Aweng Ade-Chuol and Adut Akech. She also wore nearly a dozen unique outfits ranging from a white wedding gown, to nothing but green body paint. She begins the video walking through an arid landscape in an orange dress, holding a baby in her arms. Cut to Queen Bey in what appears to be a warehouse, wearing a skintight brown bodysuit by designer Marine Serre, featuring the brands’ signature moon print, with her hair in braids down to her knees.
At one point, the “Crazy In Love” hitmaker stands by a tree wearing very little: in fact she’s covered only in body paint, and wearing oversized gold earrings. The trailer featured an array of different landscapes, and even showed her swimming underwater towards the camera, wearing sparkly silver goggles, no less. Fans will get to see all of the unique ‘fits, and hear her new tracks when the film drops later this month!
More recently, she dropped a surprise track on Juneteenth. She took to Instagram on June 19 to reveal her latest song, “Black Parade” which was co-written by her husband Jay-Z. The track, which has an overarching theme of empowerment and resilience, centers on the recent Black Lives Matter protests which swept the nation in the wake of George Floyd‘s tragic death at the hands of police. “Happy Juneteenth Weekend! I hope we continue to share joy and celebrate each other, even in the midst of struggle. Please continue to remember our beauty, strength and power,” she captioned her Instagram post. “BLACK PARADE celebrates you, your voice and your joy and will benefit Black-owned small businesses.”