Lemonade: Matt McGorry vs. Piers Morgan

With the release of her most recent album, Lemonade, Beyoncé shows her fans a more vulnerable and relatable side of herself. And of course, as usual, with the release of new material comes speculation and debate. The most heated debate took place between Piers Morgan and Matt McGorry.

In a statement, Morgan states the following:

“The new Beyoncé wants to be seen as a black woman political activist first and foremost, entertainer and musician second. I still think she’s a wonderful singer and performer, and some of the music on Lemonade is fantastic. But I have to be honest, I preferred the old Beyoncé. The less inflammatory, agitating one. The one who didn’t use grieving mothers to shift records and further fill her already massively enriched purse. The one who didn’t play the race card so deliberately and to my mind, unnecessarily. The one who wanted to be judged on her stupendous talent not her skin color, and wanted us all to do the same.”

This remark is only part of a much larger response that Morgan had crafted after hearing Beyoncé’s tracks. I would have to completely disagree with everything that Morgan says. Beyoncé is not “playing the race card”, she is simply singing about her experiences as a Black woman. Additionally, she is not using “grieving mothers to shift records and further fill her already massively enriched purse.” As I have said before in regards to her Super Bowl performance of Formation, Beyoncé is simply using her platform as a superstar to draw attention to topics that usually do not receive a lot of coverage. This shift in her music is not meant to agitate anyone, it is meant to do the opposite, it is meant to open other people’s eyes to the struggles that others are facing.

            Morgan received harsh backlash from many after he issued the above statement, and the one of the most outspoken individuals who responded was Matt McGorry. One of the points that McGorry stated was that: “But if you’re critiquing her way of speaking about her experiences as a black woman (something that you and I will never experience) you are essentially colluding with the status quo (which is the silencing and discrimination of black women).”

            I would have to agree with McGorry in this section of his response to Morgan. It is perfectly normal to critique a musician on their beats; however, if you are critiquing the material that the performer is singing about you have to be informed and aware of what they are going through and what they are trying to convey. It is very clear that Morgan has absolutely no idea what Beyoncé was trying to achieve with the release of Lemonade, and it is also very clear that the White patriarchy is still very dominate in our culture. However, with the release of this album, Beyoncé is giving a voice to those experiences have previously been silenced. 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheridanwatson/matt-mcgorry-vs-piers-morgan?utm_term=.ca2m7O4pG#.qrwMpZEw7