Political candidates blasting the song of their choice all over the campaign trail—often without checking with the artist first—is nothing new. But current vice president and 2024 presidential hopeful Kamala Harris clearly does things a bit differently. On Tuesday, news surfaced that Beyoncé herself had given Harris permission to use her song “Freedom” throughout her presidential campaign. This isn’t the first time Beyoncé has lent her support (or, at the very least, her music) to prominent Democratic candidates—she famously sang the national anthem at former president Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration—but the speed with which she must have greenlit Harris’s song choice is genuinely impressive, given that President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday and Harris walked out to “Freedom” at her first official visit to her campaign headquarters on Monday.
“Freedom,” which also features Kendrick Lamar, remains one of the most popular songs on Beyoncé’s hit 2016 album Lemonade, making it clear that Harris’s team is already very good at aligning with the musical zeitgeist. (I mean, she’s got Charli XCX’s approval!) Beyoncé isn’t the only member of the Knowles family to mobilize around Harris’s newly minted campaign, either. Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles (known to fans as Ms. Tina), endorsed Harris on Sunday, sharing a photo of them together and writing on Instagram: “New, Youthful, Sharp , , energy !!!!…Go Vice President Kamala Harris for President.”
True coconut-pilled Kamala heads will know that this song has some thematic relevance to Harris’s own family lore: In 2020, she shared a story about attending a civil rights march in Oakland, California, with her family as a child. “I’m fussing,” Harris explained, “and [my mother’s] like, ‘Baby, what do you want? What do you need?’ And I just looked at her and I said, ‘Fweedom.’”
Hopefully, more freedom—especially for the marginalized groups who would suffer most under a second Trump presidency if the repressive policies outlined in Project 2025 are realized—is exactly what a Harris presidency could bring about.