Bow Down Bitches!

Emelah the Blogger
Sep 4, 2021
10 min read

Don't get it twisted: Beyoncé is the greatest artist living

For her 40th birthday, Beyoncé graced the cover of Harper's Bazaar, The Icon Issue, which is more than fitting. With 900 awards to her name, including 28 Grammys, 16 VMAS, 20 NAACP Image Awards and more, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter can now be considered the most awarded artist of all time.

Now that she has surpassed even Michael Jackson's number of credited awards, can we agree that Beyoncé was never overrated? That nearly all others pail in comparison to her be it vocal ability, technique, or performance?

Beyoncé is known to have quite a loyal fanbase, who will go to extreme lengths to defend her. The Beyhive may seem crazy, but that's because we are gaslighted so much!

Every time Beyoncé is celebrated, people hate on her hard! I'm not saying that Beyoncé is above critique, but a lot of the time the critique feels more like hateration or is guised as anti-capitalism and even hate for her husband, Jay Z.

Ten times out of ten, Beyoncé is worthy of the hype, yet she has been disrespected one, two, three times too much! Beyoncé is the greatest performer alive (her only competition has already departed from this world), and it's time we all recognize it.

Vocal Ability

For starters, let's get into her vocals. People like to act like Beyoncé's vocals are basic, or dare they say lesser than, but they are wrong. Beyoncé's vocals are top tier. Singing like Beyoncé is actually quite difficult.

Songs like "Déjà-vu", "If I Were A Boy", "6 Inch", "I Care", and "Love On Top" show her range, tone, falsetto, vibrato and control. Did you know, "Love on Top" has four key changes, but she recorded another two?

Her range is insane. According to Vox, Beyoncé has a vocal range of around 3 to 3.5 octaves, which puts her slightly behind a vintage Mariah Carey but on par with singers like Tina Turner and Michael Jackson.

She is even skilled in operatic techniques. While all of the above is impressive, Beyoncé can also sing while running a mile. She is one of the few artists who can deliver vocals and choreography without missing a beat.

Don't disrespect her pen, either. Though she is not the solo songwriter for most of her songs, she has bars. Never forget, she wrote "Partition" (one of her greatest songs) off the top of her head!

Dance For You

Beyoncé can sing, and she is also a great dancer. She can do both well at the same time, in heels. There have been quite a few notable dance routines over her career, from her music videos to stage performances:

"Crazy in Love"
- The opening is iconic.
- Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, oh, no, no" changed the game. The way her booty bopped is still relevant to this day. Even Megan Thee Stallion referenced it in a freestyle: "make the booty up uh oh like Beyoncé"

"Déjà-vu"
- She was dancing all through the fields!
- She referenced Josephine Baker's banana skirt dance.
- She danced on her man as he rapped!

"Get Me Bodied"
- Extended version is superior. Songs with dance instructions are becoming a lost art.
- "Pat-pat-pat your weave, ladies (Watch it while he check up on it)"
- "Shake your derriere in them Dereon's"
- "Do the Naomi Campbell walk

"Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)"
- The dance routine is a simple concept, but iconic.
- There was a whole SNL skit about it.

"Run the World (Girls)"
- She flew in the dancers from Tofo Tofo, a Mozambican kwaito dance group, who inspired the choreography for the video.

On the Run II Tour
- I love when Beyoncé gets a little ratchet. Her twerking gave me life.

Homecoming
- The "Diva"/"Everybody Mad" mix was a serve!

"ALREADY"
- Her footwork was crazy!

She has belly danced with Shakira, wound it back, and more.

Versatility

Lizzo named Beyoncé as the queen of music and she wasn't wrong. There has been a lot of debate about whether Beyoncé's music should be categorized as R&B or Pop, but the truth is, she transcends music genre. She's done pop, opera, hip hop, R&B, country, rock, you name it.

With each album, she's done a different sound, with many songs sounding like nothing we've heard before.

Visuals

When it comes to visuals especially, no one is seeing her. Damn near every album she's made is a visual album or a musical film. Her imagery is always elite, and often times hold deep cultural significance (her last few projects especially). She says more with her art than she does with her words.

A prime example of this is "Formation", which Rolling Stone recently named the greatest video of all time. The whole Lemonade visual album is significant, though Black is King just might be her best musical film, which I wrote about here.

From the choreography, to her fashion style, and story, her music videos are always worth the watch. In every era of her music, she's topped herself visually, and has even taken on the role of director.

Performance

Performance is also a category Beyoncé is mastered in. The Lemonade Medley at the 2016 VMAs is one of the most notable. She performed multiple songs from this iconic project, and she did not disappoint.

Her "Formation" performance at the 2016 Super Bowl is said to have incited the race war. Seriously though, White people were upset. She lost millions of followers and an SNL skit was created to explain White people's hysteria over Beyoncé's pro-Blackness.

Two of her most iconic performances have occurred while pregnant. The first was when she revealed she was pregnant at the 2011 VMAs while performing "Love On Top". The second was during the 2017 Grammys, when she performed "Love Drought" and "Sandcastles". She threw her pregnant self back all to be snubbed by the Grammys (I will get into this soon).

Aside from award show performances, she gets more dynamic with every tour. When she performed Homecoming at Coachella, months after having an emergency C-section giving birth to her twins, she made history.

She was the first Black woman to headline Coachella, and gave a performance for the books. She is the definition of your fave could never! No detail of performance goes past her. She hand chose every dancer, every light, etc.

Her love for visuals is still present on stage, with exciting imagery and special effects. More than that, she is the queen of medleys - she knows how to mix a song/transition into another song very well.

She sets the standard so high, other artists' live performances often don't live up to the hype. She is in a category of her own. While Beyoncé does not like to share the stage often, she has held her own on stage with the icons that preceded her such as Prince, and Tina Turner.

Unforgettable Snubs:

Even with her hundreds of credited awards and countless nominations, Beyoncé was snubbed several times throughout her career. The most notable time being the 2010 Video Music Awards (VMAs).

Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" lost the award for Best Video for a Female Artist to Taylor Swifts "You Belong With Me", and Kanye wasn't having it. He interrupted Taylor's acceptance speech to let the world know "Beyoncé had one of the greatest videos of all time." His delivery was off, but he had a point.

"Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" was not only the highest selling song off of the I Am... Sasha Fierce album, but a song and video that defined her career, solidifying her emergence into legend status. Though it didn't win Best Video for a Female Artist, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" took the award for Video of the Year.

Another snub that left fans unsatisfied was the 2017 Grammys. Lemonade, considered by many as Beyoncé's most significant album to date, lost Album of the Year to Adele's 25. Even Adele was confused, and was reported to have asked backstage, "What the **** does (Beyoncé) have to do to win Album of the Year?"

Lemonade is iconic for many reasons, starting with the fact that it was incited by Beyoncé's rage against Jay Z's extramarital affair. She turned her pain, her lemons into Lemonade and dedicated her project to Black women's plight. It was an album completely for us, with poetry, redemption, and story.

This work is so meaningful that it is studied in college classrooms. She reaffirmed her love for Black people and Black culture, creating something that would last for generations. She even gave a stunning performance while pregnant the night of the award show, all for the Grammys not to recognize Lemonade for the genius that it was.

The next most hurtful snub occurred at the 2019 Emmys. Beyoncé headlined Coachella the year before, giving perhaps the most iconic performance of all time. Lucky for us, she recorded it and made it into a documentary, giving us the tea on her post pregnancy and emphasizing the significance of Historically Black Colleges (HBCUs). Despite all this, Homecoming lost the Emmy in the Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) to James Corden, who won for “Carpool Karaoke: When Corden Met McCartney Live from Liverpool”. I have no words for this level of disrespect.

Finally, her most recent snub, for yet again another project that impacted the culture was at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards. Black is King, a project inspired by the remake of The Lion King, which was dedicated to African culture, lost to Verzuz for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Variety – Series or Special. Verzuz was a great idea and has become a cultural staple, especially in the pandemic, but it doesn't even start on time! The battles are streamed through Instagram Live and the performances vary! But it beat Beyoncé?

Work Ethic

Beyoncé's accomplishments are top tier, and so is her work ethic. She can work exhausting hours, for months on end (She rehearsed for Coachella for eight months). She is undoubtably a perfectionist. Her work ethic is admired and revered by entertainers across the industry.

Do you know how booked she was in the early 2000s? From her albums to her movie career? She starred in Austin Powers in Goldmember in 2002, released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love in 2003, starred in The Fighting Temptations in 2003, then released Destiny Fulfilled in 2004. She starred in Dreamgirls and appeared in The Pink Pather in 2006, before the release of B'Day in 2007. Not to mention her roles in Obsessed and Cadillac Records around the same time as I Am... Sasha Fierce.

Especially after becoming her own manager in 2011, Beyoncé is heavily involved in every detail of her work. No detail goes past her.

She has sacrificed a lot to prove that Black women can be the standard, and it has not gone unnoticed.

Creativity & Originality

Beyoncé isn't called "Queen Bey" for no reason. She is undeniably a trend setter. Every album she's made has been a distinguished era.

Her release of her self-titled album in 2013 literally stopped the world. An album that had no promotions whatsoever broke the internet, and changed the standard album released day from Tuesday to Friday.

During her Homecoming performance, she changed the name from Coachella to "Beychella". Ariana Grande tried that.

Needless to say, she is named as inspiration for many of this generations' pop stars, as she should be. Beyoncé is a celebrity amongst celebrities. Other celebrities are always excited to meet her. Everybody wants a birthday shoutout on her website.

On another note, she has always been inclusive with her casting - including plus sized women and queer people. Plus, she has always remained true to her Black ass country self. Repping Houston all day!

Big B and that B stand for bands

Together, Beyoncé Jay Z, together they are building an empire. They are building wealth and a legacy for their family, which has exalted them to a level beyond our access.

With the rebrand of Ivy Park and her recent Tiffany campaign, Beyoncé is heavy in her retail bag. Beyoncé and Jay Z are billionaires, which has opened the door for a lot of critique.

I can admit, Beyoncé sporting the notorious blood diamond, in her recent Tiffany ad appearance, wasn't the best look after making Black is King, however some of the critique around the ad felt like anti-capitalism was used as a guise for some people's general disdain for Beyoncé.

Many were also upset about the ad's use of the Basquiat painting, saying that he was an anti-capitalist and wouldn't have wanted it used for commercial purposes. A lot of Basquiat's work had social commentary, however, he frequented with high society, as he was Andy Warhol's protege.

Again, Beyoncé is not above critique, and now that she has reached legend status, people hold her to a higher standard. With great power, comes great responsibility.

Say her name, say her name

People love to say Beyoncé overrated this and that, but always got her name in their mouth. Most of the negative commentary around Beyoncé is for clickbait.

A key example being when Trick Daddy said that Beyoncé can't sing. He was clearly reaching for relevancy, and Beyhive dealt with him accordingly, leaving unfavorable reviews for his restaurant in Miami. The Beyhive will make sure that any tongue that rises against her will fall!

Yesterday, a Glamour article made headlines for ranking Beyoncé's best and worst songs. Why would you even need the latter category? It was extremely inappropriate for her 40th birthday eve. Labeling songs like "Halo", "Sandcastles", and "Kitty Kat" as her worst was not only wrong, but disrespectful.

The Beyoncé hateration is real for no reason, and has been throughout the years. There was even a whole website dedicated to hating Beyoncé. But as she said in "Formation", "You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation".

God is God and She Is Not

Aside from her haters, Beyoncé is not only celebrated, but worshipped. There is literally a church of Beyoncé (She is not affiliated). It takes a special kind of artist to inspire this kind of devotion. She had to remind the world that she is not God during her 2016 VMAs performance.

Legacy

The amount of times Beyoncé has been imitated, copied, and referenced is innumerable. Let's not forget - she changed the world with that digital drop!

She has set the standard for anyone who came after her. Her artistry will live on long after she is gone. She has even become a mentor, discovering a new generation of performers with her quality of performance (i.e. Chloe x Halle).

She still hops on the track for a remix every now and then, and is rumored by the hive to be surprising us with a project soon. She's coming, and I for one am not ready!