It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from superstar Beyoncé, but she’s climbing her way up YouTube’s charts with her latest single, “Be Alive.”
This track was written and produced for the biographical drama King Richard, and it was nominated for a 2022 Oscar for Best Original Song. (It lost to Billie Eilish’s “No Time to Die”.) “Be Alive” focuses on the long, difficult journey that Serena and Venus Williams made, aided by their family, to become the unparalleled athletes that they are today.
Beyonce explains how hard both of these women have had to work to get where they are today (“The path was never paved with gold/We worked and built this on our own/…This is hustle personified”), and how they’ve persevered despite all of the obstacles they’ve faced (“Look how we’ve been fighting to stay alive/So when we win we will have pride/Do you know how much we have cried?/How hard we had to fight?”).
None.
This track praises the work that the Williams sisters put into their sport. Not only does it explain where both women are today (“it feels so good to be alive”), but it shows that they’ve pushed past doubts (“they want to see how far I’ll go”), socio-economic disparities (“the path was never paved with gold”) and racism (“couldn’t wipe this black off if I tried”) to achieve success. And in so doing, the song might encourage others to work and persevere as the sisters did.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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