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Beyonce’s Lemonade is an ‘elaborate marketing trick’

Getty

Getty

Beyoncé and Jay Z have reportedly sent the world on a carefully-crafted witch-hunt, using rumours of infidelity to drum up album sales.

The wild emotional rollercoaster of Beyoncé’s sixth studio album, Lemonade, was widely interpreted as a musical exploration of her troubled marriage with rapper Jay Z, but now some have questioned if the world has fallen for an elaborate marketing stunt.

The 12-track album was released exclusively on Tidal, a music streaming service co-owned by both Beyoncé and Jay Z, last week.

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The album’s one-hour visual feature premiered on American network HBO just before the release, while it was added to Amazon and iTunes about 24 hours later.

Beyonce formation tour

Jay Z was in the front row at the launch of Beyonce’s Formation World Tour. Photo: Getty

Many quickly questioned the meaning behind the album’s songs, which seemed to tackle long-standing rumours of Jay Z’s infidelity.

A lyric in the album’s fourth track, Sorry, called out “Becky with the good hair”. It was interpreted as a reference to one of Jay Z’s purported lovers.

But speculation has been growing that those rumours alone might have been the inspiration for the album.

“They’re marketing masters. They’re pros at this. The more attention, the more they sell, the better,” one insider told PageSix.

All that speculation is to get press when they need it.

“Lemonade is much deeper than infidelity, but that’s the focus. As long as people are talking, they don’t care.”

The release of Beyoncé’s first studio album in three years saw Tidal shoot up 148 places on the United States’ list of most downloaded applications and took it into the iTunes top five.

It was a carefully calculated release, another source told PageSix.

beyonce formation

Beyonce is yet to announce any Australian dates for the Formation tour. Photo: Getty

“They develop these storylines to sell albums. Lemonade is a movie crafted to drive sales,” they said.

“Jay and Beyoncé are entertainers at the top of their game. Do you think Jay would release her album on [his own] Tidal if it really was all about him? He is 100 per cent behind this.”

The pair are a powerful couple in Hollywood, considered to be among the celebrity world’s most profitable people. As of June 2014, they were estimated to be worth a combined $US1 billion ($A1.3 billion).

Jay Z was yet to comment publicly on the release, but his appearance in Lemonade‘s visual feature, where he could be seen kissing his wife’s feet, seemingly in contrition, suggested he was closely involved in its making.

“Jay was involved in the creation of Lemonade and knew every song Bey was going to release,” a source close to the couple told E! Online.

“He knew the lyrics, he knew the implications. He had to approve the songs before release. Jay is a very smart businessman … bottom line is that they are both really smart and they both saw dollar signs.”

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