We didn’t exactly need convincing, but after her long-awaited headlining slot at Coachella this weekend, there’s no contesting that Beyoncé is at the top of her game right now.
Her performance on Saturday featured more timeless hits, seamless choreography, note-perfect vocals and unquestionable charisma than most other stars could even dream of.
And while everyone has a favourite part of the show, here are some of the more subtle moments you might have missed out on first time around...
1. Her Queen Nefertiti homage
Beyoncé managed to roll through a fair few eye-catching outfits during her festival set, but her most elaborate was the one she wore for the shortest amount of time.
When the show first began, Bey was seen on camera sporting an outfit which paid homage to the Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. Her dancers, meanwhile, were also seen in ensembles featuring nods to Ancient Egypt, while the band behind her appeared dressed in bright yellow, in pyramid formation.
2. No, her hoodie didn’t say ‘BAK’
The two-hour set was majoritively inspired by and themed around HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities), from the marching band that supported her throughout to the fraternity pledge skit in the middle of the show.
So that ‘A’ in the middle of the sweatshirt is actually ∆, the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet.
As any Beyhive member will tell you, Beyoncé and Jay-Z both have a long history with the number four, whether it’s Beyoncé’s album, ‘4’, or the fact that both their birthdays fall on that date.
Even Blue Ivy’s name is thought to be a nod to her love of the number, IV (get it?) being the Roman numeral for four.
3. The Beyoncé crest
In keeping with the HBCU theme, Beyoncé appeared on stage at one point sporting her own crest, complete with her name rewritten in Greek characters (admittedly she played it pretty fast and loose with meaning but it’s Beyoncé so we’ll not hold it against her).
The crest featured various symbols, including a black power fist and a bee, representing her diehard fandom.
4. ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’
The only song on Beyoncé’s Coachella setlist that wasn’t one of her own was ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’, frequently referred to as the “black national anthem”. The song was originally performed as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, before being set to music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, five years later.
Beyoncé used ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’ in between two of her own black empowerment anthems, ‘Freedom’ and ‘Formation’.
5. But there were plenty of other song references, too...
While ‘Lift Every Voice And Sing’ was the only cover that got a full performance from Bey, the set was seasoned with plenty of references to other artists’ work, from samples of Nina Simone’s ‘Lilac Wine’ and ‘Strange Fruit’ - the latter of which alludes to the lynching of black Americans - to a brief blast of Dawn Penn’s ‘You Don’t Love Me (No No No)’.
During ‘Hold Up’, she also included a sample of the Jamaican dancehall track ‘Bam Bam’, notably used in 2016 by Kanye West, on his track ‘Famous’. At the VMAs that year, Beyoncé included the same sample during her performance of ‘Hold Up’, the same night both she and Kanye were up for Video Of The Year (which, of course, Bey ended up scooping).
6. ...including her own music
She mightn’t have performed all of her hits (mind you, the setlist was already at 27 songs, so how could she?), but thanks to the band behind her, plenty of songs left off the setlist were still briefly given their moment to shine in instrumental form, like ‘Ring The Alarm’, ‘Green Light’ and ‘Irreplaceable’.
Thanks to the fraternity pledge skit (featuring a group of guys dubbed the Bug-A-Boos, a reference to the Destiny’s Child hit), there were also nods to songs as varied as ‘If I Were A Boy’, ‘Party’ and even her very first solo single, ‘Work It Out’.
7. “Coachella, thank you for allowing me to be the first black woman to headline”
Towards the end of what was undeniably a celebration of her black identity, Beyoncé made reference to the fact we still had a long way to go in terms of representation, before paying tribute to the artists who had helped pave the way for her to do so.
“Ain’t that ’bout a bitch?”, she then concluded.
8. And Destiny’s Child made history too
As we’re sure you’re well aware by now, former Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams both joined Beyoncé on stage too, marking the first time in Coachella history that a girl group has performed at the festival.
All we can say is… hard lines, The Saturdays.
9. Solange’s guest spot marked the second time the Knowles sisters have performed together at Coachella
The pair’s frenetic choreography to ‘Get Me Bodied’ was undeniably one of the highlights of Beychella, Solange swiftly pointed out afterwards that they’d actually taken the stage together years before...
Forget ‘On The Run’, this is the joint tour we’d really be living for.
10. Adele wasn’t the only celebrity fan who got their life to the set
We loved those videos of Adele dancing along at home, but Rihanna made it her business to actually witness Beychella in person.
She was spotted next to the runway during the show, clearly having a great time in the presence of the Queen Bey.
