“Beyoncé's 'The Lion King: The Gift' Album Review - Vulture” plus 3 more |
- Beyoncé's 'The Lion King: The Gift' Album Review - Vulture
- I was just like, dying, Austin jeweler says after work appears in Beyoncé video - Austin American-Statesman
- Blue Ivy Paved the Way for the Joyful Challenge Taking the Internet By Storm - TIME
- Beyoncé Lion King album: The young Brit who wrote the first track - BBC News
| Beyoncé's 'The Lion King: The Gift' Album Review - Vulture Posted: 22 Jul 2019 09:33 AM PDT  These songs represent mainstream American music's most concerted push into the intercontinental sounds of blackness since Drake's More Life. Photo: YouTube The Lion King is an interesting curio, a dream of the Kenyan plains relayed through words and drawings from an American film and animation studio, the songs of a British singer-songwriter, and the score of a German composer. The story takes cues from Hamlet (and the Bible, and Bambi). The big love song has more in common with the music of Tin Pan Alley than Tanzania. The wide-ranging talents of the group of creatives who brought the story of Simba to life awarded the saga broad international appeal, but what makes the film work for everyone also detracts from a sense of specificity of place. Outside of "The Circle of Life," the cinematic opener where composer Hans Zimmer gets the bright idea to call up Soweto-born producer Lebo M. (whose catalogue included arrangements and supervision on the South African apartheid dramas Cry Freedom and The Power of One), and "Hakuna Matata," a song that came to life after the animation team returned from a field trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya with a Swahili catchphrase, the music of The Lion King failed to evoke Africa as acutely as the animators' sketches of Hell's Gate did. One wonders whether the choice to lead Disney's big African power play with anthropomorphic animals and stately English ballads was an exercise in getting in without getting too political, or if the story couldn't help but relay its creators' distance from its setting. (In producer Don Hahn's making-of featurette, original director George Scribner suggests that he was released from the project not long after pitching a fit about what he saw as an inappropriate choice of songwriter. It is fascinating also to note that a chunk of the Lion King team ditched the project to work on Pocahontas, a story more acutely rooted in the human ambition, division, and cruelty the other film pins on its dandy lion, Scar.) It wasn't until 1995, when Lebo M.'s side project turned official sequel soundtrack Rhythm of the Pride Lands was released, that The Lion King began to visit its roots in music. Rich choral exercises like "He Lives in You," "One by One," and "Lea Halalela" (which would later be reworked into the fan favorite, "Shadowland") were strong enough to grace the official straight-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride and the successful Broadway musical adaptation of the first film. The enterprise found its proper course in time. Beyoncé — being a sharp performer, a savvy businessperson, and above all things, a showbiz lifer — is eager to achieve in her first Disney gig, so in addition to playing the role of Nala, our lion queen, she has given us The Gift, a tie-in soundtrack that mixes new original songs with collaborations between popular African artists. The album affords each artist the opportunity to visit a theme in the Lion King saga worth expounding upon further, recentering a story about Africa in the music of producers, rappers, and singers who live on the continent. Tracing the lines of connection between different quadrants of the African diaspora allows Beyoncé to expand on the themes of family and justice present in her music and her activism as of late; it also introduces her fandom to great music they should know about if they don't already. The Gift's coalition includes Nigerian stars Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Tekno, Wizkid, and Tiwa Savage; South African singers Moonchild Sanelly and Busiswa; Cameroonian singer Salatiel and Ghanian star Shatta Wale; and Stateside hip-hop stars like Tierra Whack, Pharrell, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar. Afrobeats luminary Burna Boy shines in "Ja Ara E," a cautionary solo tune where, like Mufasa, he warns a child to be distrustful of people who seek to lead him astray, using the Pride Lands' hyenas as exemplars of all the users and usurpers the child stands to meet in life. "Brown Skin Girl" sees Blue Ivy, Brooklyn rapper-singer Saint Jhn, and Lagos-born singer Wizkid build a gorgeous hook celebrating black women's beauty as Beyoncé sends messages of love and solidarity to her daughter, her friends, and noteworthy women she admires: "Pose like a trophy when Naomis walk in / She need an Oscar for that pretty dark skin / Pretty like Lupita when the cameras close in / Drip broke the levee when my Kellys roll in." "Already" uses the moment where a lost and dethroned Simba is forced to come to terms with his legacy for a Bey and Shatta Wale tune about remembering your roots in all your pursuits; in "My Power," Bey and Tierra trade prideful verses that call back to the climactic power struggle that turns the tide at the end of the film. In solo songs like "Otherside," "Bigger," and "Find Your Way Back," Beyoncé bridges the themes of her film to her real-life journey as a wife, mother, and entrepreneur. "Bigger" and "Find Your Way Back" lead the way into the album's sound and scope with sweeping, cinematic poise. The former revisits gems of past albums (see Beyoncé's "Haunted" and Lemonade's "Pray You Catch Me") in easing the unassuming listener into the world of the new project, while the latter's skipping rhythms and choir vocals are the earliest indication that we're working with a different tool set this time around. "Mood 4 Eva" teams the singer up with her husband, Jay-Z, and her co-star Childish Gambino in expounding on the generational mogul talk of Everything Is Love. Beyoncé is a light inside her comfort zone and out of it. She grasps the variety of melodies and rhythms at play in this album because the cornerstone of her kingdom is practice. These songs represent mainstream American music's most concerted push into the intercontinental sounds of blackness since Drake zipped through trap, grime, house, dancehall, and Afrobeats on More Life. The Gift matches his eagerness while subverting his urge to remake world music in his own image. "Spirit" is a melodramatic closer and the only time an album that miraculously evades the kids'-movie schmaltz involved in remaking a 25-year-old Disney classic appears to willfully give in to it. A lesser artist might pad the whole album with songs as cloyingly direct as "Spirit," falling prey to the drippy Hollywood sentimentality of a "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." Beyoncé knows better. But in calling together a coalition of artists from West and South Africa under a banner of Pan-Africanism, this album repeats the original soundtrack's crucial error. The heart of The Lion King lies in Kenya, but The Gift gives most of its time and attention to the music of America and Nigeria. In "Nile," Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar celebrate the waters that run from tributaries in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia up through Sudan and Egypt and out into the Mediterranean Sea. But these songs don't feature guests from any of those countries. The Gift is a great album and a wise, cross-cultural movie tie-in bound to be a force at next year's Grammy and Oscar ceremonies (can she Bey-GOT?), but it also passes up a chance to celebrate the music of the East African lands our photo-realistic talking lions call home. A queen has her limits. |
| Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:49 AM PDT Six years ago, when Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, one of her guitarists was wearing a necklace and ring made by Austin jewelry designer Nina Berenato. "That was like, 'Oh my god, this is the closest I'll ever get to Beyoncé,' " Berenato said. "I actually already thought I had by Beyoncé moment." That changed last week when a gold face ornament made by Berenato appeared front and center in Beyoncé's new music video for "Spirit," a song in the new live-action movie "The Lion King." Berenato was at Alley Cat, an East Austin food truck, last week when she was scrolling through Instagram and saw a photo of Beyoncé's dancers wearing one of her face pieces. "I was just like, dying," Berenato said. A minute and 14 seconds into the video, Beyoncé appears in royal form, wearing black and white prints as she stares into the camera with a thin, flat strip of gold wiring running down the center of her face. The gold strip is molded to her face, fitting over her nose and mouth, stretching from the back of her head to her chin. Berenato's pieces and similar jewelry created by African clothing label Tongoro were used in the video, according to Beyonce's stylist Zerina Akers. Tongoro is tagged in Akers' Instagram photos as the artist behind the gold face ornament Beyoncé is wearing at the beginning of the music video. About 20 seconds later, one of the ornaments can be seen up close on a dancer wearing a chartreuse dress. "I get a phone call from the showroom and she's like 'Oh, my God, Beyoncé is wearing one too,' and I was just like 'Oh, my God!' losing (it) obviously and hyperventilating," Berenato said. "Beyoncé is like definitely the ... holy grail of everything." Just a little over two weeks before, a woman who runs Berenato's New York showroom in Brooklyn texted the designer in Austin: Beyoncé's people were calling. They requested 10 of the face pieces inspired by Swedish designer Gijs Bakker for the video, which premiered on ABC's broadcast of a "The Lion King" television special last week and has since racked up more than 19 million views on YouTube as of Monday. Berenato needed at least 60 feet of gold-filled bezel wire, and had to ship more of the material overnight from New Mexico to get all the jewelry done. She finished the face pieces in three hours, shipped them out to Beyoncé and tried to keep calm while she waited to see if they'd end up in the video. "You have no idea what is going to be used," Berenato explained, sometimes the direction of a shoot can change. But once she saw the video online, she posted screenshots featuring her work onto her Instagram page and hundreds of congratulatory comments have flooded in. Berenato said she is proud to represent the Austin jewelry community. "That was the most cool, just being able to represent and all the messages I received back from other designers about how much it meant to watch me grow and get to this place," Berenato said. The face pieces, dubbed the "Lioness Mask," are available for $80 at Berenato's store at the Domain, and were so popular that they were sold out on Friday. View this post on Instagram 2 weeks ago, through my showroom @theshinysquirrel I was asked to make 10 custom face masks for an upcoming Beyonce video. I had one day to make them and somehow we pulled it off. We didn't know if they were ever used, would ever be used. Tonight I saw the design worn in @beyonce new Lion King video & her dancers OMG - they look like total warriors in them!!! - #spiritmusicvideo - WOW! Speechless, heart thumping out of my chest. A day I'd never imagined I would see! #beyonce A post shared by NINA BERENATO Austin (@ninaberenato) onJul 16, 2019 at 6:31pm PDT |
| Blue Ivy Paved the Way for the Joyful Challenge Taking the Internet By Storm - TIME Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:21 AM PDT  Blue Ivy, the firstborn heir to the Knowles-Carter dynasty, has already had a busy summer: the 7-year-old made a gracious cameo in her mother's music video for The Lion King track, "Spirit" and contributed her vocals to another song for the film, "Brown Skin Girl." Now, the song has inspired a viral Internet challenge, with women and girls around sharing their joyful celebrations of their beauty. The song, which name checks women like Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Campbell and Bey's Destiny's Child co-singer, Kelly Rowland, resonated with black women and girls online, who took to the Internet to share pictures, videos and selfies of themselves on social media, celebrating their brown skin using the hashtag #BrownSkinGirlChallenge, referring to the title of the song.  The Brief NewsletterSign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Many also used the lyrics of the songs as affirmations in their captions, with one of the favorites being Blue Ivy's own line, "the best thing in the world." The challenge attracted followers like Nyong'o, who was tickled at her mention, and Ava DuVernay. It also inspired many to celebrate their beauty online, in a series empowering tweets. |
| Beyoncé Lion King album: The young Brit who wrote the first track - BBC News Posted: 22 Jul 2019 02:50 AM PDT  Image copyright Getty ImagesWhen she was 16, singer Raye told herself she was going to work with Beyoncé. As ambitions go, it's similar to a child making a rocket out of loo rolls and telling themselves they're going to the moon one day. But just five years later, Raye has done it - having co-written Bigger, the first track on Beyoncé's new Lion King album The Gift. "It's absolutely crazy how things have turned out," she tells Newsbeat. Raye's scored solo hits and written big songs for people like Ellie Goulding, David Guetta, Little Mix and more. But having a cut on a Beyoncé record is arguably her biggest song-writing credit yet. "Everyone in my age bracket grew up listening to her religiously. "I studied Beyoncé and all of her performances, I used to watch her videos crying." The song was penned at a writing camp at Beyoncé's studio - which is where songwriters and producers all work together over a short period of time to come up with songs for a major new project. Six people are credited with writing Bigger - including Beyoncé - but Raye says the song began life due to a bond with US songwriter Stacy Barthe. Bigger was written in a 'dark, sad place'"I remember we were both in a really dark, sad place and we wanted to create something to empower ourselves," says Raye. "We spent maybe two or three hours on it. It was 3am and I remember Beyoncé's team came in and heard what we'd created so far and just completely freaked out. It was incredible." But while Raye knew Beyoncé and her team liked Bigger, she didn't find out the song had made the album until a few days before the record was released. "There were hundreds of songs and you never know. So it was a real moment to hear it was going to be track one and that she's done a video for it." And while Raye says she kept her composure in front of Beyoncé, while she was working with the star, she admits she was "completely losing it". Since coming to attention in the UK with Jax Jones and Jonas Blue collaborations in 2016, Raye's become an in-demand vocalist, writer and hit-maker in her own right. When we spoke to Raye, she was chatting by a pool at David Guetta's studio in Ibiza. But she says having a credit on a Beyoncé song is validation for several years of hard work in the music industry. "I want to be taken seriously as a writer," she says. "It took a lot of work to find my way into the writing rooms, then the bigger rooms, to eventually get into a room like this. Then to actually have a cut, it's just crazy, I'm over the moon." |
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