Listening to Lemonade by Beyoncé for the First Time

On Mondays, I go on a Hot Girl Walk. I pour water into my bottle and set off to daydream and watch the clouds. I listen to an album on this walk. As I was choosing an album for the week, I realized that Lemonade by Beyoncé was still in my downloads. Here I go!

Lemonade, which was released in 2016, is a reflection of Beyoncé’s emotions after Jay-Z—her husband and the father of their then only child—cheated on her. While the tabloids incessantly manipulated the details of Beyoncé’s personal life for money, she herself took to her favorite medium—music—to tell the real story: hers. What resulted was Lemonade, a genreless album of anger, love, and boldness. 

Hearing an album in its entirety makes me think about the construction of an album… how each song raises the intention and the stakes of the entire work. An album done right is a sturdy building with an unfading facade and multiple levels of stories. Something timeless and enduring. Lemonade is no different. As I walked, I looked through the tracklist. I saw “Daddy Lessons,” which was performed at the 2016 CMA Awards with The Chicks. That performance, and the vitriol and racism from viewers, eventually led to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which was named Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys (also understand that Beyoncé has always been country). “Formation,” the first single for Lemonade, was one of the last songs on the album, which surprised me; I thought it would be the first. That song alone may have kept Red Lobster in business.

Another element of Lemonade is that it’s a visual album. The yellow dress from the “Hold Up” music video has been parodied multiple times, and the song itself (along with Beyoncé and her baseball bat) is an homage to shared rage. “Sorry,” meanwhile, features a black-and-white video of her and Serena Williams twerking and not giving a whole damn.

I even recognized some of the songs from the time I watched Beyoncé’s legendary Homecoming performance at Coachella in real time. (Homecoming: A Film is her 2019 documentary about her performance at the 2018 festival.) Beyoncé was the first Black woman to headline the festival, yet she named her performance using a word that is defined as “returning home.” And when she incorporated those emotional songs into the joy of her performance, it further cemented their meaning. Listening to those songs again, they continue to carry so much meaning from their very first notes. 

From track one to 12, Lemonade is a blueprint of forethought. Its contents set the stage for the albums that came after it, works that also act as a continuation of her personal story as told through music.

I can’t help but think that listening to an impactful album for the first time nearly a decade after its release is how it should be. In a time where the attention economy thrives off of having the best “take” nearly three seconds after an album or song is released, I think music needs to marinate. I think about people who listen to or watch a seminal work for the first time. When Toni Morrison passed on, a lot of people became acquainted with her work for the first time. At the time, cultural commentator Aminatou Sow encouraged us to celebrate people who were getting to experience Morrison’s work for the first time, rather than scolding them.  

I have several albums spanning decades in my downloads. It may be years before I listen to them. I do know that when I do, those albums will still evoke the emotions and intentions from when the first note was breathed on the recording. Until the end of time.

Ashley Paul

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Ashley Paul is a traveler, runner, and baker. She is an Everlasting Bookworm and Culture Maven. She is passionate about supporting high school juniors and seniors to write compelling stories for their post-secondary careers. She loves stories with social commentary, atmospheric writing, and compelling characters.