Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ up for four Emmys

Beyoncé’s concept musical drama film “Lemonade” picked up four nominations for the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards announced Thursday.

The film, which premiered on HBO in April and preceded the release of the pop star’s latest album (also titled “Lemonade”), is up for variety special against Adele’s NBC concert, a one-off built around late-night host James Corden’s popular “Carpool Karaoke” segment, the Kennedy Center Honors and Amy Schumer’s stand-up show.

Beyoncé snagged a nod for directing the film along with Kahil Joseph — five other directors contributed to the project as well — and it is also nominated for production design and picture editing.

“Lemonade” showed Beyoncé at her most experimental.

The hourlong film unspooled over tiny chapters, with portions of songs tied together by poetry from the Somali-British writer Warsan Shire, which the singer narrated. The album, and its video, is a deeply experimental — and personal — statement that explores a relationship severely tested and strained.

The work brims with bitterness, revenge, heartbreak, reconciliation and triumph through the lens of black womanhood, celebrating the female body in all its forms while also connecting to a larger frustration that extends to society as a whole, with onscreen cameos in the film from the mothers of black shooting victims Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and floating between fairy tale narrative, documentary and extended music video.

It was a throwback to landmark visual work from Michael Jackson and Prince (you know, back when music videos were still major events) that ended with the surprise release of the album — and lots of speculation about her marriage.

As for “Lemonade” the album? Beyoncé, and a shed of collaborators, packed electronic R&B, country, blues, rock, soul, trap, folk, gospel and piano balladry into an album that boasted some of her most incendiary lyrics. Critics heralded it (it made our list of the year’s best pop music so far) and she’s packing stadiums across the globe with her husband supporting her from the wings.

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