Beyoncé surprised fans Saturday when she debuted her new single "Formation" on Tidal. She also accompanied the release with a new music video for the song.
The song's release came a day before Beyoncé would perform during the Super Bowl 50 halftime show with Coldplay. "Formation" is expected to be featured on her next album, but no announcements of that collection have come out yet, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Beyoncé set her video in New Orleans and makes references to the Black Lives Matter movement. Her and Jay Z's daughter Blue Ivy Carter also makes an adorable cameo.
The music video did find some controversy from filmmaker Chris Black on Twitter. He claimed that Beyoncé and director Melina Matsoukas used footage from his 2012 nine-minute documentary "That B.E.A.T.," produced by Abteen Bagheri, without permission. The singer's rep later confirmed that the production company granted permission.
"The documentary footage was used with permission and licensed from the owner of the footage. They were given proper compensation. The footage was provided to us by the filmmaker's production company. The filmmaker is listed in the credits for additional photography direction. We are thankful that they granted us permission," the rep said in a statement to EW.
Matsoukas also gave credit to Black and Baheri via Twitter, and Black tweeted back, thanking her and Beyoncé.
