Over the weekend, Beyonce broke the internet. I am not someone who is always on social media, so I may not know what is happening immediately, unless I happen to be on at that particular time. However, when I came online on Saturday, no one needed to tell me that something was going on because all I saw were tweets with the #Formation hash tag. I was confused. But I later figured out that Beyonce had dropped a single and an accompanying video.
Without listening to the song or watching the video, I knew some things about the song, thanks to said tweets. Like I knew that Red Lobster was mentioned (because according to Beyonce, she will take you there if you f*ck her good), and I knew that Beyonce liked her baby’s natural hair, and I knew that she also liked her man’s nose (or was it her own nose she was referring to?). It was only on Sunday evening, on our way to our friends’ house to watch the Superbowl that I watched the video on my phone. Although I was watching the video, what I was really interested in were the words.
She said a lot, but it wasn’t necessarily anything new or unexpected, except the Red Lobster part maybe. I think that as Beyonce gets older, she also gets bolder and more political. It’s not a song you should let your children listen to (and it’s aptly tagged as explicit and dirty), and for me, it is not a song that calls me into any kind of action, but I do admire her for using her platform to shine a light on several issues in America like the shooting and killing of innocent Black people, slavery, racism, police brutality, money, and womanism. At some point in the song, she says, “You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation.”
And that’s what I really actually want to talk about. About her being that bitch. Since the release of the song on Saturday, so many things have happened (1) She increased Red Lobster’s stock (2) She performed in the Superbowl on Sunday; she was not the main attraction, but she took all the attention (3) She announced her Formation World Tour during the most watched and most expensive ad time: Superbowl halftime (4) Pre-sale for her tour started yesterday and some places are already sold out (5) Critics and fans have been out in full force (6) White people are mad that there are no white dancers in her video and she’s apparently promoting anti-police sentiments (which has me cry-laughing) (7) We’re still talking about her.
I think that when you’re good-looking, successful, and great at what you do, you sometimes automatically become a polarizing figure, especially if you dare to have an opinion on serious issues like racism and police brutality. This is more so more evident in racial America. When you’re good-looking, successful, great at what you do, Black, and with little to no issues (like drunk-driving or drug abuse), you will be criticized, just for being great and Black — because these two things are mutually exclusive.
I have mentioned in at least one post how much I admire Beyonce. I am more a fan of what I perceive to be her person, than I am of her music. The music is good, but what I admire most about her is how she’s so public and yet so private. I love that she’s a wife, a mom, and a bad ass singer, performer, and business woman, and apart from that Solange-Jay-Z fiasco, we mostly know only what she wants us to know. She runs a tight ship, and I am here for it.
On Instagram (and I’m one of her followers), she now had 59.2 million followers when I started this post and 59.4 followers at the end of it, and she follows no one, which means that when she logs on to Instagram (assuming she does), her feed will only contain pictures of her. After the Superbowl, she flooded our timelines with pictures of her performing at the Superbowl and pictures of her rehearsing for the Superbowl, and she set all kinds of goals for people. Beyhives responded by commenting with several hash tags: #RelationshipGoals #LifeGoals #MommyGoals #MoneyGoals #YouBetterWerkBitch #Yaaassssss #Perfection and much more.
I’m just in awe of how much influence she has, and I’m wondering how to increase mine. Because love her or hate her, Beyonce is that bitch that’s causing conversation.
Yawn! Oh so overated! The song and vid is just der abeg. Too much hype for nothing!
I’m everly a Beyonce lover!!i must sha attend her concert in this my lifetime. Her work ethic is insane, even when playing, the gal is working. Like u said i also love how private yet public she is.
She is that B*