She did it again. Beyonce, who in 2013 changed the rules for how pop superstars deliver music with the surprise simultaneous release of a self-titled album and corresponding videos, has returned with a follow-up in the same vein. Lemonade, the singer’s sixth solo album, arrived Saturday night after the HBO premiere of an hourlong, conceptual short film based on the music. In a twist that played the personal off the professional, the new album and its accompanying visuals — which describe, in sometimes brutal detail, the tribulations of Beyonce as a scorned lover — were made available to stream Saturday night exclusively on Tidal, the music streaming service owned by her husband, Jay Z. Lemonade is “based on every woman’s journey of self-knowledge and healing,” Tidal said in an announcement. The album’s 12 tracks feature contributions from The Weeknd, James Blake, Jack White and Kendrick Lamar; the songs sample from a varied slate of artists, including Led Zeppelin, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Soulja Boy and Animal Collective, with production from Just Blaze, Diplo and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend. The HBO special, which was shot primarily in New Orleans, featured cameos from Serena Williams and Jay Z, with spoken-word interludes from Beyonce, residents and others.
Actor George Clooney presented a $1.1 million award on the 101st anniversary of a massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks to a Burundi woman who offered sanctuary to thousands of orphans in the middle of a civil war there. The killing of more than 200 Armenian intellectuals on April 24, 1915, is regarded as the start of the massacre — widely viewed by historians as the first genocide of the 20th century — in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered. Clooney presented the first Aurora Prize, an award recognizing an individual’s work to advance humanitarian causes, to Marguerite Barankitse, who saved thousands of lives and cared for orphans and refugees during the Burundi civil war lasting from 1993 to 2005. Armenian philanthropists selected her for the award. Before he presented the award, Clooney reminded the audience that Adolf Hitler once reportedly said, “Who remembers Armenia?” Clooney said, “The whole world.”