Black is King trivia | 50 facts about the new Beyonce visual album

“Black is King” is a new visual album by Beyonce. It had its premiere on Friday, 31st July, on Disney+.

Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about it.

1. Black Is King is a 2020 musical film and visual album
2. It is directed, written and executive produced by American singer Beyoncé
3. The film serves as a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift
4. This was tie-in album curated by Beyoncé for the 2019 remake of The Lion King
5. Black Is King was released globally to stream on Disney+ on July 31, 2020
6. It will air the following day across Sub-Saharan Africa on M-Net and Canal+ Afrique and across the Middle East and North Africa on OSN
7. A young African king is cast out from his family into an unforgiving world
8. He subsequently undergoes a journey “through betrayal, love and self-identity” to reclaim his throne, utilizing the guidance of his ancestors and childhood love
9. The story is told through the voices of present-day Black artists
10. On 19 July, 2019, The Lion King (a photorealistic computer-animated remake of Disney’s traditionally animated 1994 film of the same name) was theatrically released in the United States
11. The same day, an accompanying tie-in album titled The Lion King: The Gift was released by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records
12. The Gift was curated and produced by Beyoncé
13. The singer described the album as “a love letter to Africa” and recounted her determination to find “the best talent from Africa, and not just use some of the sounds and my interpretation of it”
14. Beyoncé explained that she believes The Gift “is the first soundtrack where it becomes visual in your mind”
15. Beyoncé added, “I wanted to put everyone on their own journey to link the storyline. Each song was written to reflect the film’s storytelling that gives the listener a chance to imagine their own imagery, while listening to a new contemporary interpretation”
16. Beyoncé called the film “my passion project that I have been filming, researching and editing day and night for the past year”
17. According to those who have worked on the film, Black Is King contains multiple chapters representing different localities, such as Nigeria and Ghana, with cast and crew of that nationality recruited to contribute and filming taking place in those countries
18. On June 10, 2020, it was reported that Beyoncé was securing a $100 million deal to work on three films for Disney
19. Black Is King was intended to be a companion piece to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift
20. Beyoncé explained that the film was created to “celebrate the breadth and beauty of Black ancestry” and “to present elements of Black history and African tradition, with a modern twist and a universal message, and what it truly means to find your self-identity and build a legacy”
21. To research for the film, Beyoncé described how she “spent a lot of time exploring and absorbing the lessons of past generations and the rich history of different African customs”
22. The trailer shows Beyoncé reading from the 1971 book Black Gods and Kings, written by American art-historian Robert Farris Thompson to record the art history of the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria
23. The film was written by Beyoncé
24. Poet Yrsa Daley-Ward and writer Clover Hope contributing to the script
25. The cast and crew for Black Is King were recruited to “represent diversity and connectivity”, with Beyoncé wanting to feature “raw, new talent”
26. Those recruited to direct segments of the film include Ghanaian filmmakers and visual artists Emmanuel Adjei and Blitz the Ambassador, Nigerian-British artist and director Jenn Nkiru, and South African visual artist Trevor Stuurman
27. Academy Award winner Hannah Beachler was recruited as one of the production designers
28. The artists featured in The Gift (such as Yemi Alade, Shatta Wale, Burna Boy, Salatiel and Wizkid) were recruited for the film
29. As well as special guests such as Blue Ivy, Jay-Z and Kelly Rowland
30. The cast also features South African actors Nandi Madida and Warren Masemola and Nigerian actor Papi Ojo
31. For Papi Ojo, Black Is King is his debut film performance
32. Beyoncé borrowed some of her mother Tina Knowles-Lawson’s art pieces for Black Is King, as revealed by Knowles-Lawson during a February 2020 interview with the Wall Street Journal
33. Filming primarily took place in the latter half of 2019
34. In locations such as South Africa, West Africa (including Ghana and Nigeria), New York, Los Angeles, London and Belgium
35. Post-production took place from December 2019 by Flawless Post
36. MeLo-X, Derek Dixie and James William Blades contributed to the score and sound design
37. MeLo-X described working on the film on Twitter, writing “Truly an amazing and eye opening journey. @Beyonce always pushes for greatness. This is nothing less”
38. Black Is King is based on the music of The Lion King: The Gift. The songs “My Power”, “Don’t Jealous Me”, “Mood 4 Eva” and “Brown Skin Girl” have been confirmed to have videos within the film, which have all been described as “extravagances of elegance and soul”
39. On June 19, 2020, Beyoncé released the single “Black Parade”, in celebration of Juneteenth commemorating the end of slavery in the United States
40. On the film’s release date, the deluxe edition of the The Gift was released, including “Black Parade”
41. Black Is King was met with widespread critical acclaim
42. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 100% approval rating
43. Based on 20 reviews
44. With the average critical rating of 8.33/10
45. Becoming one of few films to achieve this
46. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics
47. The film received an average score of 75
48. Based on 7 reviews
49. An official trailer for Black Is King was released on July 19, 2020 by Beyoncé
50. Some of the members of the cast and crew were subsequently announced