Beyoncé 2018 Coachella performance

American singer Beyoncé headlined the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, performing on April 14 and 21 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Her April 14 performance immediately received enormous critical praise, with press widely describing the performance as "historic".[1][2]

Background

On January 4, 2017, Beyoncé was announced as a headlining act for the April 2017 Coachella festival.[3] However, on February 23, 2017, she postponed her performance until the following year, due to doctor's concerns regarding her pregnancy with twins (born in June 2017).[4][5] The secondary (resale) market for tickets to the festival that year fell 12% after the announcement she was postponing.[6]

Playing her rescheduled dates in 2018, Beyoncé became the first black woman ever to headline the festival. In its nearly twenty years of existence, the festival has only had two other women solo headliners, Lady Gaga (who replaced Beyoncé in 2017) and Björk (2002 and 2007).[6]

Even prior to Beyoncé's performance, the nickname "Beychella" emerged for the 2018 festival.[6]

Tina Knowles-Lawson, mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles, later said that prior to the show, she had expressed reservations about the performance Beyoncé had planned, worried that the largely white audience at Coachella “might not get” a show so steeped in black culture, particularly black college culture.[7] Knowles-Lawson recounted that Beyoncé replied saying that given the platform she had achieved in her career, she felt “a responsibility to do what’s best for the world and not what is most popular.”[8]

Synopsis

For her April 14, 2018, performance, some 100 dancers as well as her sister Solange, her husband Jay-Z, and her former girl group Destiny's Child joined Beyoncé on stage. She played a 26-song set to 125,000 concert-goers in attendance including Bajan singer Rihanna as well as millions watching via the live-stream on YouTube and subsequent playback.[9] The set sampled Malcolm X and Nina Simone among others.[10] Beyoncé wore five different costumes through the two-hour performance, designed with Olivier Rousteing of French fashion house Balmain.[11]

Musical style

Writing in The New Yorker, Doreen St. Félix described the musical style of the performance as an "education in black expression[...and] musical history--a mélange of New Orleans and its horns, Houston and its chopped and screwed beats, Brooklyn and its rap velocity, Kingston and its dancehall, and Nigeria and the legacy of its dissenter, Fela Kuti...underscoring not only [Beyoncé's] Southernness but the global black vernacular that continues to shape her."[12] Near the beginning of the set, Beyoncé sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing," colloquially known as the "black national anthem".[13] The Wiz (film), one of Motown's most notable motion pictures, was also sampled in the horn arrangement that heralded Beyonce's return to the stage after her first costume change. [14]

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU)

The performance has been credited as paying a strong tribute to the HBCU experience.[15] A full marching band played during much of the set, accompanied by majorette dancers.[12] Writing for Mic.com, Natelegé Whaley stated that the band consisted of members from various HBCUs and played samples of songs that are often played at an HBCU such as "Swag Surf", Broccoli (song), and "Back That Thang Up", along with samples of gospel and go-go music.[16] Journalists also noted that the set incorporated various aspects of black Greek life, such a step show along with strolling by probates (pledges). School Daze, a notable Spike Lee film is also referenced. Beyoncé's first outfit was a yellow sweatshirt with the Greek letters ΒΔΚ which reads Beta Delta Kappa.[17] Later, she came out in a shirt with a shield designed with Nefertiti, Black Panther, black power fist along with a bee, which outlets such as the Washington Post credited as a reference to the shields each black fraternity and sorority have signifying the important values of the particular fraternity and sorority.[18][19][20]

Following the show, Beyoncé announced the expansion of her HBCU scholarship fund, BeyGOOD Initiative's Homecoming Scholars Award program (previously known as the Formation Scholars Award program, announced on the one-year anniversary of Lemonade). In the program's second year, it will support one student at each of eight HBCUs: Texas Southern University, Morehouse College, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Wilberforce University, Tuskegee University and Bethune-Cookman University.[21][22]

Black feminism

Reviewers noted the influence of black feminism on Beyoncé's performance, including her sampling of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED Talk on feminism and the appearances on stage of former collaborators Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child well as her sister Solange; writing in Cosmopolitan, Brittney Cooper read Beyoncé's decision to involve these black women in the landmark performance as a gesture of sisterhood.[23]

Critical response

The performance received broad and overwhelming critical acclaim. In The New York Times, music critic Jon Caramanica wrote: "There’s not likely to be a more meaningful, absorbing, forceful and radical performance by an American musician this year, or any year soon, than Beyoncé’s headlining set" at the festival. "It was rich with history, potently political and visually grand. By turns uproarious, rowdy, and lush. A gobsmacking marvel of choreography and musical direction."[24] In Variety, Chris Willman wrote, "The show served as testament...to Beyoncé as the premier musical performer of our time."[25] The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, Entertainment Weekly, and Billboard all described the performance as "historic".[1][2][26][27][28]

Viewership

Beyoncé's performance garnered 458,000 simultaneous viewers and 41 million total viewers, from around the world, to become the festival's most viewed performance to date, and the most watched live streamed performance of all time.[29][30] It was also a 75% increase in viewers over the previous year when Lady Gaga headlined the festival as Beyoncé's replacement due to Beyoncé's pregnancy.

Set list

The following songs were performed during both sets.[31][5][32]

Notes

References

  1. 1 2 Suskind, Alex (April 15, 2018). "Beyoncé's historic Coachella performance may be the best of all-time". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Chavez, Nicole (April 15, 2018). "Beyoncé makes history with Coachella performance". CNN. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ Vaglanos, Alanna (January 4, 2017). "For The First Time Ever, A Black Woman Will Be Headlining Coachella". The Huffington Post. AOL. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  4. ↑ Strauss, Matthew (February 23, 2017). "Beyoncé Will Not Perform at Coachella 2017". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Wood, Mikael (April 15, 2018). "Beyoncé's Coachella performance was incredible — and she knew it". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 Kennedy, Gerrick D. (April 14, 2018). "After a year's wait, Beyoncé fans brace for the singer's Coachella set". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  7. ↑ Rosa, Christopher (April 17, 2018). "Tina Knowles-Lawson Was Worried the Coachella Audience Wouldn't 'Get' Beyoncé's Performance". Glamour. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  8. ↑ Puckett, Lily (April 16, 2018). "Tina Knowles-Lawson thought white people would be "confused" by Beyoncé's Coachella performance". The Fader. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  9. ↑ Exposito, Suzy (April 15, 2018). "#Beychella: Beyonce Schools Festivalgoers in Her Triumphant Return". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  10. ↑ McKenzie, Joi-Marie (15 April 2018). "Beyonce at Coachella: All of the hidden meanings explained". ABC News. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  11. ↑ Holt, Bethan (2018-04-15). "The meaning behind Beyoncé's five-outfit Coachella stage wardrobe". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  12. 1 2 Félix, Doreen St (2018-04-16). "Beyoncé's Triumphant Homecoming at Coachella". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  13. ↑ Schmidt, Samantha (2018-04-16). "'Lift Every Voice and Sing': The story behind the 'black national anthem' that Beyoncé sang". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  14. ↑ https://m.mic.com/articles/188907/beychella-unpacking-all-of-the-odes-to-black-culture-during-beyonces-flawless-coachella-set#.6ZocOTZU6
  15. ↑ Hudson, Tanay (2018-04-15). "Beyoncé's Coachella Performance Had HBCU Vibes And We Are Loving It". MadameNoire. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  16. ↑ Whaley, Natelegé. "Beychella: Unpacking all of the odes to black culture during Beyoncé's flawless Coachella set". Mic.com. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  17. ↑ "What Does 'BAK' Mean? Fans Think Beyoncé's Coachella Top Might Have A Hidden Meaning". Capital XTRA. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  18. ↑ Lee, Shannon (April 15, 2018). "Beyoncé's Historic Coachella Set Was A Celebration Of Black Culture". Refinery 29. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  19. ↑ Izadi, Elahe (2018-04-15). "Perspective | Beyoncé's Coachella performance wasn't just pure entertainment. It was a historic cultural moment". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  20. ↑ Beck, Kellen. "Beyoncé's Coachella set has people ready to enroll in her university". Mashable. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  21. ↑ Reed, Ryan (April 16, 2018). "Beyonce Expands HBCU Scholarship Program in Second Year". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  22. ↑ https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/beyonce-announces-more-post-coachella-college-scholarships-this-time-in-partnership-with-google-1202782060/
  23. ↑ Cooper, Brittney (2018-04-16). "Beyoncé Brought Wakanda to Coachella". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 2018-04-19.
  24. ↑ Caramanica, Jon (April 15, 2018). "Review: Beyoncé Is Bigger Than Coachella". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  25. ↑ Willman, Chris (April 15, 2018). "Beyonce Marches to a Different Drumline in Stunning Coachella Performance". Variety. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  26. ↑ Horowitz, Steven J. (April 15, 2018). "Beyonce Brings Out JAY-Z and Destiny's Child for Historic Coachella Headlining Set". Billboard. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  27. ↑ Dzhanova, Yelena (April 15, 2018). "Coachella dubbed 'Beychella' after historic Beyoncé set". NBC News. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  28. ↑ Izadi, Elahe (April 15, 2018). "Perspective | Beyoncé's Coachella performance wasn't just pure entertainment. It was a historic cultural moment". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  29. ↑ Korosec, Kirsten (April 17, 2018). "How Beyonce's Coachella Performance Broke Records". Fortune. Time Inc. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  30. ↑ Honeycutt, Shanté (April 17, 2018). "Beyonce's Coachella Set Is the Most-Viewed Performance on YouTube Live Stream". Billboard. Billboard-Hollywood Media Group (Eldridge Industries). Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  31. ↑ "Watch Destiny's Child Reunite For Beyoncé's Coachella 2018 Performance". Harper's BAZAAR. April 15, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  32. 1 2 Kennedy, Gerrick D. "Beyoncé turns Coachella into Beychella once more". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
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