Beyonce released the video for her song Spirit on Tuesday, during the ABC special, The Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight with Robin Roberts. Spirit is the first single from her compilation album The Lion King: Gift, and will feature in Jon Favreau’s upcoming remake of Disney’s animated film The Lion King (1994).
JUST ANNOUNCED: '#TheLionKing Can You Feel the Love Tonight? with @RobinRoberts' special will feature the EXCLUSIVE WORLDWIDE PREMIERE of @Beyonce's music video for “Spirit” & an exclusive interview with the superstar! Watch TONIGHT at 8pmET on @ABCNetwork https://t.co/mfhnDwVq7G pic.twitter.com/bd884lHSy9
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 16, 2019
The Spirit music video, filmed at Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, features clips from the upcoming photo-realistic computer-animated film. It also features Beyonce and her dancers in colorful African-styled costumes against the backdrop of picturesque shots of natural wilderness landscape, waterfalls, rivers, and mountains, to the accompaniment of the uplifting tones and lyrics of Spirit.
“The concept of the video is to show how God is the painter, and natural beauty in nature needs no art direction,” Beyonce told Roberts.”It’s the beauty of color, the beauty of melanin, the beauty of tradition.”
Under the direction of her stylist Zerina Ackers, Beyonce appears in multiple regal custom outfits, and her dancers in various creative costumes that showcase fashion designs from around the world, including African designs by the Dakar-based label Tongoro Studio, known for its Bamako print designs.
The costumes also include creations by the Canadian designer Mark Fast, Italian designer Pierpaolo Piccioli, Laurel DeWitt, Norma Kamali, Hyun Mi Nielsen, and Deviant La Vie.
Beyonce’s seven-year-old daughter Blue Ivy makes a cameo in the video.
During the interview with ABC’s Roberts, Beyonce lavished praises on director Favreau, saying she was impressed with the creative and technical standards in the making of the movie. She said that her song Spirit was meant to capture the “incredible spirit” of the film.
Beyonce releases her Spirit music video after she confirmed that she will be voicing Nala in the upcoming remake of the Disney classic.
Beyonce also released the 14-song tracklist for The Lion King: The Gift on Tuesday. The album is the official musical accompaniment to the upcoming The Lion King movie, scheduled to be released on Friday, July 19, the same day that The Lion King hits theaters in the U.S.
It is, however, separate from the soundtrack for the movie which was released earlier in the month.
The Lion King: The Gift features artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell, Childish Gambino, her husband Jay-Z, and her daughter Blue Ivy. It also features several top African artistes, including Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, Whiz Kid, Burna Boy, Tekno, Mr. Eazi, Yemi Alade, and Ghana’s Shatta Wale.
“The soundtrack is a love letter to Africa, and I wanted to make sure we found the best talent from Africa and not just, you know, use some of the sounds and did my interpretation of it,” Beyonce said. “I wanted it to be authentic to what is beautiful about the music in Africa.”
The Lion King will begin airing in theaters on July 18, 2019.