This song, in Bey’s own words:

‘Heaven’ is about death and finding the strength in knowing that someone had an incredible life and that giving you some type of closure.

It is easy to speculate that this song is about Beyoncé’s first child, who died due to a miscarriage. She hinted in her documentary Life is But A Dream that the first thing she did afterwards was ‘[go] into the studio and [write] the saddest song [she’s] ever written in [her] life, and it was actually the first song [she] wrote for [her] album.’ However, Todd Tourso also said specifically that “Heaven” was inspired by Bey’s mother, Tina Knowles, losing one of her friends.

The song contradicts the popular idiom ‘Heaven can wait,’ which suggests that you should focus on living more than preparing for the afterlife. Instead, the loss of someone causes the speaker to assume that heaven couldn’t wait, and accepts it by telling the other person to “go home.”

The video for the song featured Beyoncé with her dance captain, Ashley Everett, portraying two best friends. At the end, one is shown mourning and praying, presumably for the other. “The Lord’s Prayer” is recited at the end of the song by Melissa Vargas in Spanish as it segues into “Blue.”