(2019)
"Joro" (2019) | "Brown Skin Girl" (2019) | "Ghetto Love" (2019) |
"Glory" (2012) | "Brown Skin Girl" (2019) |
"Brown Skin Girl" (stylized in uppercase) is a song by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé,her daughter,Blue Ivy Carter,Guyanese-American rapper Saint Jhn,and Nigerian singer Wizkid. Produced by P2J and Beyoncé,it is taken from the 2019 soundtrack album The Lion King:The Gift . The song was sent to Top 40/Rhythmic radio on July 23,2019,as the second single from the album. [2]
The song was released to widespread critical acclaim and received numerous awards,including the Soul Train Music Award for The Ashford &Simpsons Songwriter's Award and the BET HER Award.
The music video for "Brown Skin Girl" was featured in Beyoncé's 2020 film Black Is King and was released separately on August 24,2020. Directed by Beyoncéand Jenn Nkiru,the video acts a celebration and affirmation of the beauty of dark-skinned women. The video,featuring Beyoncé,Blue Ivy and Wizkid won the award for Best Music Video at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards,as well as the Soul Train Music Award for Video of the Year and the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography.
The song marks the second collaboration between Beyoncéand her daughter Blue Ivy Carter,following "Blue",a song from Beyoncé's 2013 album Beyoncé . [3] The song caused the #BrownSkinGirlChallenge to go viral upon release. [4] [5]
The song contains "spare,syncopated African rhythms",while its lyrics deal with colorism faced by darker-complexioned women:"Brown skin girl / ya skin just like pearls / Your back against the world". [6] Billboard magazine called the lyrics "compelling",noting how the song shout-outs pioneering brown girls such as Naomi Campbell,Lupita Nyong'o,and Beyoncé's former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland. [6]
In a positive review,Imani Bashir of Teen Vogue described the song as a "celebration of dark-skinned women". [7] Amanda Mitchell at O,The Oprah Magazine complimented the song for being "unapologetically and fearlessly Black". [3] Time magazine praised Blue Ivy Carter's appearance,calling it a "gracious cameo". [8] Ellise Shafer of Billboard noted that she added a "sentimental tone to the track". [4] Alexis Petridis writing for The Guardian pinpointed "Brown Skin Girl" as one of the album highlights,describing it as "brilliant". [9]
Lupita Nyong'o also reacted by posting a video of herself on Friday,July 19,2019,via Instagram,singing and dancing along to "Brown Skin Girl",in which her name was specifically applauded by Beyoncé.
At the 2019 Soul Train Music Awards,"Brown Skin Girl" won the Ashford &Simpson Songwriter's Award and was also nominated for Best Collaboration. [10]
In September 2019,Stormzy covered "Brown Skin Girl" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. [11] The song was also covered by Kanye West and Sunday Service Choir in December 2019. [12] In April 2020,Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson performed a cover of "Brown Skin Girl" for Global Citizen One World:Together At Home. The performance was nominated for a LiveXLive Lockdown Award for Digital Chemistry:Favorite Duet. [13]
Year | Ceremony | Award | Result | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | The Daily Californian Arts Awards | Best Song | Won | [37] |
Soul Train Music Awards | The Ashford & Simpsons Songwriter's Award | Won | [38] | |
Best Collaboration | Nominated | |||
All Africa Music Awards | Best Collaboration | Nominated | [39] | |
2020 | BET Awards | BET HER Award | Won | [40] |
NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration | Won | [41] | |
Soul Train Music Awards | Video of the Year | Won | [42] | |
2021 | AICP Post Awards | Color Grading: Music Video | Won | [43] |
Cannes Lions Awards | Excellence in Music Video | Gold | [44] | |
Grammy Awards | Best Music Video | Won | [45] | |
NAACP Image Awards | Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album | Won | [46] | |
MTV Video Music Awards | Best Cinematography | Won | ||
Best R&B | Nominated | |||
UK Music Video Awards | Best R&B/Soul Video – International | Nominated | [47] | |
Best Wardrobe Styling in a Video | Nominated |
Chart (2019) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [48] | 60 |
Ireland (IRMA) [49] | 47 |
Lithuania (AGATA) [50] | 29 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [51] | 82 |
New Zealand Hot Singles (RMNZ) [52] | 4 |
Sweden Heatseeker (Sverigetopplistan) [53] | 6 |
UK Singles (OCC) [54] | 42 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [55] | 76 |
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [56] | 27 |
US Rolling Stone Top 100 [57] | 1 |
US World Digital Song Sales ( Billboard ) [58] | 1 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [59] | Gold | 35,000‡ |
Canada (Music Canada) [60] | Gold | 40,000‡ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [61] | Gold | 15,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [62] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [63] | Gold | 500,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
United States | July 23, 2019 | Rhythmic contemporary | [64] |
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, is an American singer, songwriter and businesswoman. Regarded as one of the most influential cultural figures in music history, she has transformed the sound of popular music with her vocal ability, live performances and artistic innovations. Her work is considered to be amongst the greatest in music history.
The Carters are an American musical superduo consisting of singer and songwriter Beyoncé and rapper Jay-Z, who have been married since 2008. Outside of The Carters, the couple has also frequently collaborated in recordings and songwriting. Their first album and single under the moniker, Everything Is Love and "Apeshit", were released on June 16, 2018. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The Carters have performed on two co-headlining concert tours, On the Run Tour (2014) and On the Run II Tour (2018).
Luke James Boyd is an American singer, songwriter and actor from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2004, he began his career as one half of the R&B duo Luke and Q, who served as backing vocalists for R&B singer Tyrese. While doing so, they became acquainted with the singer's primary songwriting-production team, the Underdogs, and were led to sign with the group and Tyrese's mutual record label, J Records. The duo's 2006 debut single, "My Turn" failed to chart, although Boyd continued to write songs—often under the wing of the Underdogs—for other prominent artists including Chris Brown, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber during the duo's inactivity and subsequent disbandment in 2010.
Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. Born in the Ojuelegba suburb of Surulere, Lagos, Wizkid is a voice in the emerging Afrobeats movement. His music is a blend of Afrobeats, afropop, R&B, afrobeat, reggae, dancehall, and pop. He began recording music at the age of 11 and released a collaborative album with the Glorious Five, a group he and a couple of his church friends formed. In 2009, Wizkid signed a record deal with Banky W's Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E). He rose to the limelight after releasing "Holla at Your Boy", the lead single from his debut studio album, Superstar (2011), which also spawned the singles "Tease Me/Bad Guys" and "Don't Dull".
Blue Ivy Carter is an American actress. She is the first-born daughter of musicians Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Two days after her birth, Time dubbed Carter "the most famous baby in the world." That same day, her breathing, cries and coos were featured on the song "Glory", by her father Jay-Z, which earned her a Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to have a charted song on any Billboard chart. She has been the subject of depictions in media, including impersonations on Saturday Night Live and RuPaul's Drag Race.
Lemonade is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Beyoncé. It was released on April 23, 2016, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records, accompanied by a 65-minute film of the same name. It follows her self-titled fifth studio album (2013), and is a concept album with a song cycle that relates Beyoncé's emotional journey after her husband's infidelity in a generational and racial context. Primarily an R&B and art pop album, Lemonade encompasses a variety of genres, including reggae, blues, rock, hip hop, soul, funk, Americana, country, gospel, electronic, and trap. It features guest vocals from Jack White, the Weeknd, James Blake and Kendrick Lamar, and contains samples and interpolations of a number of hip hop and rock songs.
Chloe x Halle is an American R&B and Alternative duo composed of sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey. At a young age, the sisters performed in minor acting roles before moving from their hometown of Mableton, Georgia to Los Angeles in 2012. The two began posting music covers to YouTube and were acknowledged by Beyoncé, who became their mentor and later signed them to her label, Parkwood Entertainment. They subsequently released the EP Sugar Symphony (2016) and the mixtape The Two of Us (2017).
Chloe Elizabeth Bailey, also known mononymously as Chlöe, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. She rose to prominence alongside her sister Halle Bailey as Chloe x Halle. The duo released two studio albums, with their second, Ungodly Hour (2020), being met with widespread acclaim upon release. In 2021, Bailey released her debut solo single "Have Mercy", which was certified platinum in the U.S. Her debut album, In Pieces, was released in 2023. Her second studio album, Trouble in Paradise, was released in 2024.
Halle Lynn Bailey, also known mononymously as Halle, is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She first became known as one half of the musical duo Chloe x Halle with her sister Chloe Bailey. They have released the albums The Kids Are Alright (2018) and Ungodly Hour (2020), and have together earned five Grammy Award nominations. In 2023, Bailey released her debut solo single "Angel", which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.
"Family Feud" is a song by American rapper Jay-Z featuring American singer Beyoncé. It is taken from Jay-Z's thirteenth studio album 4:44 (2017) and was produced by No I.D. The song was released to British contemporary hit radio on January 26, 2018, as the album's third single.
"Apeshit" is a song by American musical duo The Carters, composed of Beyoncé and Jay-Z. The song was written by the duo, Pharrell Williams, and Quavo & Offset from the hip hop trio Migos, with the former three producing the song alongside Stuart White and the latter two providing ad-libs on the song. The song was released on June 16, 2018, as the only single from the duo's collaborative studio album Everything Is Love, along with a music video filmed at the Louvre in Paris. The video received eight nominations at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards, including for Video of the Year, and a nomination for Best Music Video at the 61st Grammy Awards.
"Spirit" is a song by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé for the soundtrack of the photorealistic remake of The Lion King and the companion album The Lion King: The Gift. Released on July 10, 2019, it was written and produced by Ilya Salmanzadeh, Labrinth and Beyoncé. Lyrically, the song discusses Simba's, the film's main protagonist's return home and is played during that particular scene in the film. "Spirit" is a gospel ballad that opens with lyrics chanted in Swahili by male choristers.
The Lion King: The Gift is a soundtrack album created by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé from Disney's 2019 photorealistic computer-generated imagery remake of The Lion King and for Black Is King (2020). It was released on July 19, 2019, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. The album was also produced by Beyoncé and features artists such as Wizkid, Burna Boy, Mr Eazi, Tiwa Savage, Tekno, Yemi Alade, Busiswa, Moonchild Sanelly, and Salatiel, as well as appearances from Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter, Childish Gambino, Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Tierra Whack, 070 Shake, and Jessie Reyez, among others.
"Already" is a song by American singer Beyoncé, Ghanaian singer Shatta Wale and American trio Major Lazer from the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift and featured in the 2020 film Black Is King.
Jenn Nkiru is a Nigerian-British artist and director. She is known for directing the music video for Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" and for being the second unit director of Ricky Saiz’s video for Beyoncé and Jay-Z, "APESHIT" which was released in 2018. She was selected to participate in the 2019 Whitney Biennial.
Temilade Openiyi, known professionally as Tems is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer. She rose to prominence after being featured on Wizkid's 2020 single "Essence", which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following the release of the remix version with Justin Bieber. The song earned her a Grammy Award nomination. That same year, she was featured on the song "Fountains" by Canadian rapper Drake.
"Black Parade" is a song by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé. It was produced by Beyoncé and Derek Dixie in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed it. The song was surprise released on June 19, 2020, also referred to as Juneteenth, a day commemorating the abolishment of slavery in the United States. The song serves as a celebration of Black culture and the support of Black activism. While initially a stand-alone single, an extended version of the song was used in the end credits of Beyoncé's film Black Is King and included in the accompanying deluxe edition of The Lion King: The Gift, both released on July 31, 2020.
Black Is King is a 2020 American musical film co-written, executive produced, and directed by Beyoncé. It is a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift, curated by Beyoncé for the film The Lion King (2019).
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