Here’s How Streams of Beyonce’s ‘Freedom’ Have Risen Since Becoming Harris Campaign Official Song

Streams and sales of Beyoncé’s 2016 Kendrick Lamar-featuring song “Freedom” have continued to rise throughout the last month following its pick as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign theme song for her 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, capturing its biggest streaming day in a month on the day after Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination at the party’s national convention on Aug. 22.

On Aug. 23, streams of “Freedom” ballooned to 159,000 official on-demand U.S. listens, up 43% from 111,000 on Aug. 22, the final day of the Democratic National Convention, according to Luminate. (Incidentally, Aug. 22 was also the day Beyoncé was rumored to be performing at the Chicago convention, the whispers of which did not ultimately ring true.)

A week before on Aug. 16, “Freedom” pulled 49,000 such streams, making that gain far more pronounced: a 224% jump.

Streams of the song accelerated once the convention began on Aug. 19. It earned 51,000 streams on day one, followed by sums of 87,000, 101,000 and 111,000 prior to the accumulation of 159,000 on Aug. 23.

That being said, the Aug. 23 count for “Freedom” isn’t its largest over the last month or so. On July 23, one day after Harris walked out to “Freedom” while visiting her newly minted campaign headquarters, the song scored 205,000 official on-demand streams, then a 646% boost over July 22’s sum of 27,000. It rebounded again on July 25 and 26 following the premiere of a campaign ad featuring the song on July 25, racking up 179,000 and 184,000 streams those two days, respectively.

32% of “Freedom’s” on-demand official streams in the U.S., year-to-date, have occurred in the span of time between when Harris used the song at her first campaign event (July 22) and the day after she accepted the Democratic party’s nomination (Aug. 23). In those 33 days, the song garnered 2.8 million on-demand official streams – of the song’s total 8.8 million earned since the start of the year.

As for sales, “Freedom” jumped 216% in the week ending Aug. 22 to 2,000 downloads sold, spurring its coronation at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B Digital Song Sales chart dated Aug. 31. The song had never been No. 1 before; it debuted at No. 15 on the May 14, 2016, survey and had not charted since 2019 until it blasted onto the ranking at No. 2 Aug. 3 due to its initial affiliation with Harris’ campaign.

That 2,000-download count also puts “Freedom” at No. 25 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales list, its first time there since the chart dated May 21, 2016.

“Freedom” was released as part of Lemonade, Beyonce’s sixth studio album, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated May 14, 2016. It peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

—Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield

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