Beyoncé’s ode to Levi’s Jeans is giving the brand a moment
A member of the Bey Hive wears a denim jacket with Beyoncé’s name. Photo by Emil Ravelo/Getty Images
By PJ Grisar April 8, 2024
Beyoncé’s latest alter-ego is a blue jean baby — and that’s leading to some real-world profit for an iconic American brand founded by a Jewish immigrant.
Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s new No. 1 album, features a track called “Levii’s Jeans,” in which the singer invites her lover to play the part of her dungarees, so they might “hug that ass all day long.” As a lyrical comment on Genius.com helpfully elaborates, “instead of feeling the denim gripping on her butt, Beyoncé allows her man’s hands to do this job.”
Levi’s was quick to seize on this prominent homage, adding an extra “I” to their social media to fit how Beyoncé styled it in the title. Since the song dropped, Levi’s stock rose 20%, once again proving that when Queen Bey speaks, the world listens.
Levi Strauss, born in Buttenheim, Bavaria, invented blue jeans as we know them with the help of another Jewish immigrant, Jacob W. Davis, who hailed from Riga. In a classic tale of immigrant industry, Levi Strauss became a brand synonymous with the United States, and thus a fitting touchstone for Beyoncé’s Americana album.
It’s not clear if Beyoncé, who sings the song with Post Malone, is fully aware of the company’s origins — maybe she attended the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibit on Strauss — but she, like so many Americans, clearly has a history with it.
“Denim on denim on denim on denim,” she sings, bringing to mind a Canadian tuxedo, but she also avers that “these blues” are in her genes, which she shares with her sister and Celestine (her mother).
In the grand American tapestry, denim is an inseparable part of the fabric. Looking ahead, and knowing Beyoncé’s penchant for referencing past work and gifting us double meanings, the nod to Levi Strauss suggests this may only be the beginning.
I’m not saying to expect an ode to anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, but don’t rule it out. After all, they have that accented e in common.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Today is the last day of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need you to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Today is the last day to contribute.
