Lion King: The Gift

 by George Cuthbert

It was announced in 2017 that Beyoncé would take up the role as Nala’s voice actor in the up and coming live action rendition of the Lion King for which she would also go on to write some of the music for. Two years following this initial announcement in 2019, the film was released worldwide, alongside a Lion King inspired album*, The Gift, by Beyoncé featuring various other artists. Beyoncé wanted everyone who listened to the album to be able to interpret it in such a way so that they could relate it to their own personal experiences, so key themes and lessons learnt in the Lion King are conveyed in the song writing rather than explicitly linking the album to the Lion King’s plot to offer the listener a freedom to paint their own imageries in their head.

When delving into the key themes and symbolism of this album, the subjective nature of this incredible conceptual work comes to light and will therefore offer countless different interpretations depending on who you ask. I will ensure to bear this in mind and consider both my own, as well as others’ takeaways from this album.

To begin, The sixth track** on this album, ‘MOOD 4 EVA’*** is a prime example of how the themes of one of the original songs from the Lion King have been reimagined. This song is an indirect reference to ‘Hakuna Matata’ from the original Lion King, predominantly in terms of its thematic material, as both songs express the joy and liberation that comes with living a carefree life. There are also some parallels in terms of the lyrical content, with ‘Hakuna Matata’ explicitly saying that it “means no worries for the rest of your days” and ‘MOOD 4 EVA’ saying that “I (Beyoncé) have my cup up to the heavens, another night i won't remember, promise this my mood for ever, I promise this my mood for ever and ever,” which slightly more implicitly implies a cavalier way of living through the idea of not caring about the consequences of drinking in this instance, with a ‘cup’ being a metaphor for an alcoholic beverage, and living totally in the present. An example of where Beyoncé takes this aforementioned theme and then goes on to interpolate it into a modern context is where she says, “I’m so unbothered” and “you stay Ramada Inn****”.The first lyric is very surface level in terms of its meaning, with Beyoncé simply saying that she doesn't care what others have to say about her, and the second is showing Beyoncé poking fun at her “broke haters.” This reinforces the idea of contemporising an older song and making it relevant to current events and issues.

Beyond the lyrical content, musical production and songwriting elements are used to convey the album's themes, usually coming across much more discreetly and implicitly. A good example of this is in “Brown Skin Girl”, the eighth track on the album, which aims to empower brown skinned girls from across the world, urging self-love and pride in heritage. Although this is made immensely clear through the lyrical content, there are also some key production and songwriting elements which are incredibly reminiscent of traditional African tribal music through the employment of a heavy use of percussion instruments and rhythm-based production. The chorus is very simple and catchy which isn’t dissimilar to that of a nursery rhyme and when added to the fact that Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter sung the vocals for the opening and closing lines of the song who was 8 at the time of recording, it's clear this song was aimed to inspire predominantly younger, more impressionable girls.

Overall this album was very successful and achieved good ratings overall by critics and led up nicely to her film, ‘Black is king’ which released the next year on Disney+. Its social and political messages resonated deeply with fans, particularly inspiring the next generation of brown skinned girls.

* To be clear, this album was totally separate from the Lion King film, instead the album was used more as a means to promote Beyoncé’s forthcoming film, ‘Black is King’ and is a “Lion King inspired album” which follows a modern interpretation of the themes present in the Lion King rather than the plot itself.

** (on the deluxe version)

*** with “4” and “EVA”  being pronounced as ‘for’ and ‘ever’ respectively.  The use of slang possibly used to further convey the carefree attitude portrayed throughout this song

**** Ramada Inn - An international hotel chain, known for its low price point (and questionable room quality)