The world buzzed when Beyonce posted an ominous announcement, with the words “Lemonade” – 4.23. 9pm ET, HBO” stretched across the screen. Beyonce, a notoriously private person, started a worldwide speculation of what this could mean.

 After dropping her single “Formation” in February, the “Beyhive” buzzed with excitement. Her last self titled visual album, “Beyonce,” dropped in 2013 with no announcement or promotion, and became the fastest selling album in the history of iTunes. Whatever was coming, people knew it would be big.

Following the premiere, “Lemonade” proved to be more than an album, and more than a movie. It was an extremely personal portrayal of love, loss, and raw emotion. The hour long special glided through 11 brand new songs, using powerful speeches and poetry as the transition in between.

As a whole, the piece depicts the story of Beyonce going through the heartbreak of being cheated on, presumably by husband Jay Z.

Each song is a new chapter of emotion, taking viewers and listeners on a journey of this painful ordeal, starting with intuition, which opened the special, followed by denial, anger, apathy, emptiness, reformation, forgiveness, resurrection, hope, and ending triumphantly with redemption.

From the suspicion her husband may be cheating, Beyonce starts extremely clean and soft, with “Pray You Catch Me,” accompanied by a moving poem written by Warsan Shire.

Beyonce then assures her husband that “they don’t love you like I love you” in the dancehall infused track, “Hold Up.” She is seen joyfully walking down a street, smashing car windows with a baseball bat

The next track features rock artist Jack White, where Beyonce screams in rage over a strong drum beat, dissing Jay Z in the process. Queen B then assures him that she doesn’t take back what she said in “Sorry,” accompanied by cameo from tennis star Serena Williams.

This is followed by “6 Inch” featuring The Weeknd, where Beyonce stands confidently next to a wall of flames, asserting her dominance. However, it ends with Beyonce’s voice cracking as she pleads, “come back.”

Next is a country song, “Daddy Lessons,” which is new ground for Beyonce, but her Texas roots make it a strong track, with her speaking about how her father told her to shoot any man that hurt her. Ouch.

“Love Drought” marks the beginning of a new, softer side of the album. Beyonce and other women stand in all white, reflecting upon how even though she was hurt, the love she shares with her husband “can move a mountain.” The powerful song, “Sandcastles” depicts the “forgiveness” stage, where Beyonce’s vocals are shown in a beautiful piano ballad. The video for this song shows her sitting on a bed with Jay Z, symbolizing that although “I promised I couldn’t stay, every promise don’t work out that way.”

Then, with a bang, “Freedom” is a civil rights fueled anthem, with a verse from Kendrick Lamar, showing the ‘hope’ for a better future. The video has powerful cameos from Trayvon Martin’s mother and Mike Brown’s mother, as well as Zendaya, Amandla Stenberg, and Quvenzhane Wallis. The message behind these cameos is to bring influential African Americans from the past, present, and future.

The final chapter and song shows the growth Beyonce has made in her journey of emotional healing and what she has learned from it. But it also shows that she is not alone, as videos of many couples accompany the home movies of her and husband, while she croons “when we’re together, I remember sweet love all night long,” The album comes to a close with Beyonce speaking sweetly over the string section saying “how I missed you, my love.”

After the premiere on HBO, the entire album was released on Tidal, and then, a week later, on Apple Music.

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone gave “Lemonade” 5 stars, saying “Whether Beyoncé likes it or not – and everything about “Lemonade” suggests she lives for it – she’s the kind of artist whose voice people hear their own stories in, whatever our stories may be.”

As much as tabloids were overjoyed with the new evidence of infidelity, this story is not just about trouble in the Knowles-Carter household. “Lemonade” is a piece that tells a story that everyone can relate to. Whether you’re full of anger or emptiness or hope, “Lemonade” embodies the real, unabridged story through both visuals and music.

The HBO special has been sent for Emmy nomination, and every single track on “Lemonade” is on the Billboard 100. Beyonce is leading the movement of a new era of music production and distribution, proving that when life gives you lemons, you make Lemonade.