Beyoncé Was So Proud of “Brown Skin Girl” and the Passionate Fan Response to The Lion King Song
During last night’s ABC special of Beyoncé Presents: Making the Gift, Queen Bey herself took viewers behind the scenes of the passionate process it took to create her accompanying soundtrack for The Lion King. In between moments of recording sessions and interviews, Beyoncé gave fans insight into why recording the project was so important to her — including why she was so proud of the viral song “Brown Skin Girl.”
Beyoncé has previously called the album “a love letter to the sounds of Africa,” but throughout the behind-the-scenes special, she also revealed that she was inspired by the resilience and strength from the women of Africa when it came to conceptualizing the soundtrack. That source of inspiration led to the creation of the track “Brown Skin Girl” — which has been called a lyrical “celebration of dark-skinned women” that also inspired the viral #BrownSkinGirlChallenge.
Beyoncé described the impassioned response to the song as the reason she creates music: “When I see fathers singing ‘Brown Skin Girl’ to their daughters, to know that my daughter can have the same opportunities and feel confident and feel like she doesn’t have to take her braids down, she can comb her Afro out, she can glisten in her brown skin. That’s why I make music,” she said in the documentary.
Viewers even got an inside look at her teaching the lyrics to her daughter Blue Ivy, who sings the song’s opening line — and Blue’s scene-stealing, flawless first attempt at recording her part. Fans even had insight into a previous interview with Bey’s Destiny’s Child bandmate and best friend Kelly Rowland, where she expressed that even in their early Destiny’s Child days when she wasn’t feeling confident, Beyoncé always uplifted her and reminded her that being a darker-skinned woman was “something to be proud of.”
The Lion King was already a cemented cinema classic, but Beyoncé’s musical interpretation of the new movie was truly a gift to her fans and listeners to never forget the very culture that inspired the heart of the film. As Beyoncé said, “To represent Africans and African Americans in a positive light is a blessing for me.”
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Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Beyoncé’s “Brown Skin Girl” Is Not for Every Brown-Skinned Girl
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
