Beyoncé is one of those artists who never ceases to amazes me in how her timing is always perfect. Beyoncé can go under the radar for awhile and be someone to drop an album overnight, and sell over 800,000 copies worldwide. "Beyoncé" was, of course, the name of this album that was dropped and it quickly became the fastest selling album in the history of the iTunes Store at that time. Beyoncé quickly became one of the few artists who can release an album overnight with little to no promotion and have such a success with the album. She definitely knows her timing and always gets it right.
Beyoncé's timing was perfect when it was announced that she would make an appearance at the Superbowl 50. We were all looking for new Beyoncé music and it was coming. Beyoncé performed alongside Coldplay and Bruno Mars. The hype around Beyoncé was incredible and had everyone tuning in to the performance. She released a new song and music video for it just days before the Superbowl performance. “Formation” was the song and it was of course released on Tidal, and available on Youtube. The video on Youtube has managed to rack up over 20 million views without even being listed on Youtube. Beyoncé wants everyone to get to the video and song through Tidal which can take you to the YouTube link. Beyoncé definitely knows how to get the public talking about her as well. Beyoncé then brought this song to Superbowl 50 and that’s where things got a little out of hand.
Beyoncé wasn’t getting out of hand. The public’s reaction is what was out of hand. Beyoncé came out in a formation with her back up dancers that fit the song she was performing quite well. The reaction after her performance led to a good number of people to protest outside the NFL headquarters on her performance and what it stood for. The reaction is that Beyoncé and her backup dancers were portraying the Black Panther Party, which was a black nationalist and socialist organization that was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982. The public was quick to see the salute to the Black Panther Party when all of her dancers were wearing all black, and formed and X on the field. You may be wondering what an X has to do with anything. Me too. The X was seen as a reference to Malcolm X. I think at this point people are just looking for something to protest against. I personally love what Beyoncé is doing, especially with this song.
Beyoncé hasn’t always embraced her culture ever since being in the spotlight. Beyoncé has been an idol for a while now and everyone knows who she is. Beyoncé has released many hits over the years as well, but I think that this new song truly shows that Beyoncé is embracing her culture and heritage. Beyoncé is one of the few artists that can get away with a song like “Formation” because of her roots. I don’t believe that she is saying that the African-American race is superior to any other culture because that is not what the song states. Nowhere in the song is there hints that the culture is better than others, but rather Beyoncé is just saying what she loves. She loves her child with afro hair and her man to have Jackson Five nostrils. Everyone sings about what they love and that is what she doing; just embracing what she loves. Also, if anyone would have had listened to the song prior or watched the video before judging anything, I don’t think there would’ve been such an uproar. Beyoncé did kind of keep the performance underwraps, but that’s what Beyoncé does. I personally think people are looking too deep into this performance and song. Beyoncé can have all the haters out there but she will continue to do what she does and sell out her tickets for her “Formation” world tour.
