[WATCH] Beyoncé Unveils Trailer For Disney+ Visual Album ‘Black is King’

Beyoncé released a trailer Sunday (July 19) for her new visual album, Black is King, which aims to promote “the beauty of tradition and black excellence.” The film features appearances by Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong’o, JAY-Z, Kelly Rowland, Pharrell Williams, Tina Knowles Lawson, and more.

Black is King will premiere globally on Disney+ on July 31. It is described as a visual album that “reimagines the lessons of 2019 blockbuster The Lion King for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns.” Many artists featured on The Lion King: The Gift album will also make appearances on Black Is King.

The film will focus on “the voyages of black families … [and] a tale about a young king’s transcendent journey through betrayal, love, and self-identity,” according to a press release, which also says it is a celebration of “black resilience and culture”.

It adds: “His ancestors help guide him toward his destiny, and with his father’s teachings and guidance from his childhood love, he earns the virtues needed to reclaim his home and throne.”

Black Is King includes full-length videos for the songs “Already,” “Brown Skin Girl,” “Mood 4 Eva” and “My Power,” which is heard in the new trailer.

The visual album shot in South Africa, West Africa, Belgium, Los Angeles, New York and London over the course of a year, with Beyoncé serving as executive producer. Disney has reached a distribution deal to make Black Is King available in much of Africa, including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Namibia, Cameroon, Liberia, Burundi, Senegal, Togo, Somalia, Benin, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Gabon, Cape Verde, and many more countries through MultiChoice Group’s M-Net and Canal+ Afrique.

In 2016, Beyoncé released her sixth record, Lemonade, as a visual album with a premiere on HBO that featured poetry by the Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, with segments that were shot by a group of film-makers including the Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas and Kahlil Joseph.

Lemonade was one of the first times that Beyoncé had openly expressed her political views, with scenes that depicted the mothers of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin holding photographs of their sons.

In an address to the BET awards, the singer called on African-Americans to vote in order to “dismantle a racist and unequal system” in the U.S. On Juneteenth – a holiday celebrated to mark the official end of slavery – Beyoncé released Black Parade, a track calling for “peace and reparation for my people”.

She also wrote to the attorney general of Kentucky to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman killed by police officers while asleep in her home. Taylor’s death sparked Black Lives Matter protests.