Beyoncé has released a single and music video on the eve of her performance at the Super Bowl half-time show with Coldplay, surprising fans with her first solo song since 2014.
The singer offered free downloads of the song, titled Formation, on Tidal, the subscription-based music streaming service co-owned by her husband, Jay Z. Coldplay featured Beyoncé in a music video for the song Hymn for the Weekend, released last week.
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Filmed in New Orleans and set to a mix of 19th century and 20th century aesthetics, with allusions to the Black Lives Matter movement, anti-police protests around the US, the floods of Hurricane Katrina and her husband’s business empire, the video shows a police cruiser submerged in flooded streets, frills and fans in an old city mansion, take-out crawfish and riot police, a southern gothic funeral, and an 80s-style dance routine in a gymnasium.
Beyoncé’s Super Bowl appearance on Sunday will be her second on the main stage. She and Destiny’s Child performed Crazy in Love, Single Ladies as well as Bootylicious and Independent Women in 2013.