Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ Jumps 1,300% as Harris Campaign Latches Onto the Song

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Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ sees a massive surge in streams after its feature during Harris’ first appearance as the Democratic presidential candidate.Beyoncé’s 2016 track “Freedom” is seeing a significant surge in streaming traffic after Vice President Kamala Harris walked out to the tune during her first official appearance as the leading Democratic candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Luminate data shows the US on-demand streams for “Freedom” are up over 1,300% between Sunday and Tuesday — jumping from 16,600 streams to 235,400 in that time.

“Freedom,” which features Kendrick Lamar, was included on Beyoncé’s sixth studio album, Lemonade. The song samples two John and Alan Lomax field recordings which document Jim Crow-era folk spirituals of Southern Black churches and work songs of Black prisoners from 1948 and 1959.

The song got a big feature when it played as Harris visited her Delaware campaign headquarters the day after President Joe Biden officially bowed out of his run for re-election. CNN reports that Beyoncé granted the Harris campaign permission to use “Freedom” as her walkout song on Monday, just hours beforehand. She used the song again the following day at the opening and closing of her rally in Milwaukee.The track also features in a campaign video from Harris released on Thursday and appears to be a significant part of her campaign motif. Notably, Beyoncé has not made an official endorsement of Harris’ presidential candidacy, but she previously supported Biden and Harris in 2020, and encouraged her fans to vote.

Interestingly, while Beyoncé’s permission isn’t expressly required for Harris to use her music at campaign events under US compulsory public performance laws, the song’s use in campaign ads does require explicit permission and licensing.

Musicians including Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Barbra Streisand, and Lizzo have either expressed their direct support for Harris’ candidacy, or have praised her politics in some form. Charli XCX recently tweeted, “Kamala IS brat,” referencing her most recent album, Brat. In response, the Harris campaign used the album art for their header on the former Twitter.