Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone
Streams of Beyonce’s Lemonade track “Freedom” shot up significantly this week after newly minted Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris began to use it as her new campaign song.
According to data from Luminate, which powers the Billboard charts, “Freedom” streams jumped 1,300 percent from Sunday to Tuesday after Harris first walked out to the song on Monday evening. She had received permission for its use from Queen Bey herself.
While the song had about 16,600 streams on Sunday, on Tuesday, July 23, “Freedom” garnered about 235,400 streams, Luminate reported. Those numbers may jump even further in the days to come; Harris just released her first campaign ad on Thursday, with “Freedom” prominently featured.
“In this election, we each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in? There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos, of fear, of hate. But us? We choose something different. We choose freedom,” Harris said in the new ad.
Harris has received a flurry of support from pop stars in recent days after President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he wouldn’t seek re-election, endorsing his VP as his replacement. Among those who’ve voiced their support of Harris and her policies this week are Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, Barbara Streisand and more.
Also among them is Charli XCX, whose ongoing Brat Summer is helping flood the internet with Kamala memes. The album’s iconic lime green hue and simple black font aesthetic remain the header image for Harris’s campaign hq account on X, formerly Twitter.
