Ahead of her appearance at the Super Bowl 50 show on Sunday, Beyonce dropped a new single "Formation." The video that features New Orleans as its backdrop and inspiration released on Saturday has since racked up more than 7 million views on YouTube.
Beyoncé will perform for the second time during the Super Bowl halftime, three years after a New Orleans performance in 2013. It is not clear if she will perform the new single live at the event.
The new single soon raced to No.1 on Billboard's real time Twitter Trending Chart. "Formation" is not for sale but is available on Tidal, the streaming service owned by her husband JayZ.
Beyonce's new music (since 2014) references police brutality against African-Americans, and the "Black Lives Matter" movement. According to Fortune, Tidal has also made a $1.5 million donation to "Black Lives Matter" on Saturday.
Beyonce has routinely used her music as a platform to discuss issues related to women's roles, beauty standards and power. As one of the world's most influential black celebrities, she uses her platform to showcase these issues and the Internet adores her for that.
Two documentary filmmakers have claimed their footage was used in the video without permission. "New Beyonce video used hella clips from the doc I produced and directed," Los Angeles-based filmmaker Chris Black wrote on Twitter. "...but why?!?!"
However, The Washington Post has reported that those clips were purchased fairly. "The documentary footage was used with permission and licensed from the owner of the footage," a representative for Beyoncé said.
Indeed, Director Abteen Bagheri's name is credited for "additional photography direction on VideoStatic, though not on Tidal or YouTube. "That B.E.A.T." was commissioned by Sundance in partnership with Nokia, whose music services business was sold to Microsoft in 2014.
Must give much love to the beautiful NOLA footage shot and directed by @abteen and @lkeber to make #FORMATION whole.
— melina matsoukas (@melinamatsoukas) February 7, 2016
"Formation" director Melina Matsoukas has since then thanked the film makers and they have responded in kind.
