2016Released
1:19

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Forward (feat. James Blake). By Songfacts®.

Having vented her anger over her husband Jay-Z's infidelity over the first half of Lemonade, Beyoncé now feels ready to move on. This short, hymn-like duet finds her singing along with James Blake. The British electro-soul singer also co-wrote and co-produced the song with the Texan songstress.

James Blake's self-titled debut album was released in the United Kingdom in 2011 to critical acclaim. Its follow-up, Overgrown, was even more successful, winning the Mercury Prize in 2013. Blake also co-wrote Lemonade's opening track "Pray You Catch Me."

James Blake told Pitchfork how the collaboration came about: "Beyoncé came to the studio, and I was sitting at the piano when I met her. She was just lovely. I came up with something to go with an idea she had; I just embellished her melody. I think the idea was to use some of her lyrics, but I didn't realize that - I misunderstood and did something entirely different from what she wanted. But it didn't matter, because she really liked it, and they ended up using [my version]." "Blue Ivy was there, too, which was nice. She was singing along to the song, which was a huge compliment, because kids just don't have any pretence whatsoever."

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Forward (feat. James Blake).
GKey
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
124BPM

Album

The album Forward (feat. James Blake) is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Forward (feat. James Blake).
Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia
(P) 2019 Parkwood Entertainment LLC, under exclusive license to Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment

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