Beyoncé can now add the Cannes Lions’ most prestigious honor to her awards shelf.
The superstar’s surprise music video for “Formation,” the first single off her new album Lemonade, took home one of two Grand Prix Lion Awards at the inaugural Cannes Lions Entertainment for Music, awarded Friday night (June 24.)
“Formation” was the top winner in the highly competitive Excellence In Music Video category, which shortlisted 13 music videos on Thursday and awarded eight with prizes on Friday.
Other honorees included Silver Lion winners “Voodoo In My Blood,” by Massive Attack feat. Young Fathers; “Luminous Freedom” by New Build and “Blackstar” by David Bowie; as well as Bronze Lion winners “Hello” by Adele; “Runnin” by Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé & Arrow Benjamin, and “Wide Open” by the Chemical Brothers featuring Beck.
Queen Bey isn’t the only member of the Carter family with a Cannes Lions Grand Prix under their belt: in 2011, Jay Z took home two — from the Integrated and Outdoor Lions — for Droga5 and Bing’s “Decoded” campaign, which hid all 320 pages of Jay Z’s autobiography in 13 cities across the globe.
Though “Formation” doesn’t represent the typical Grand Prix-winning campaign in that no corporate brand was attached, Grey Group’s evp-director of music Josh Rabinowitz, jury president of Lions Entertainment for Music, argued that the video’s re-positioning of Beyoncé’s personal brand was just as powerful. “[You have] the biggest artist on the planet taking serious risks,” Rabinowitz said in a press conference earlier in the day, announcing the winners. “This is a mainstream pop artist pushing the limits on the way we perceive things of race in culture, and the perception of women in culture.”
via Billboard
