It’s safe to say that Beyoncé is one of the world’s most popular and successful singers. Whenever she performs, she delights fans and critics alike and whenever she releases a new album or song, she gets millions around the world talking about it. Many people call her ‘Queen B’ simply because she’s so amazing everything she does. Here are the things Beyoncé has done that remind us of her superstar status.
1. Not only did she surprise release an album, it contained a full-length video for every song
Her eponymous album Beyoncé was the fifth released by the singer. Instead of following the traditional routine of announcing and promoting it for several months before its eventual release, Beyoncé surprised us all and released it without any prior announcement or promotion on 13 December, 2013. The album contained 14 tracks and came with 17 videos, plus a credits video.
2. For her sixth album, she shot a movie
The singer’s sixth album Lemonade was also a surprise-release visual album, though instead of each song having its own video, a one-hour movie featuring the album’s songs was produced. Of course, the album received commercial success and heaps of critical acclaim, with many calling it Beyoncé’s best piece of work to date.
3. She headlined the Superbowl halftime show
Back in 2013, she had one of the largest audiences in American TV history watch her perform a medley of her hits as she headlined the Superbowl XLVII halftime show in New Orleans. Naturally, her performance was the talk of the night and won her many new fans. In fact, her performance was at the time the second most tweeted about event in history, with more than 300,000 tweets a minute sent.
4. When she returned to the Superbowl halftime show as a guest, she stole the show
In 2016 at the Superbowl 50 halftime show, Coldplay were headlining, with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, both previous headliners, as guests. While Coldplay received lots of acclaim for their performance, it was the guests, in particular Beyoncé, who were the talking point of the halftime show. Beyoncé debuted her song ‘Formation’ and got everyone talking – she even caused some controversy because some found her performance to be anti-police, with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani criticising the singer’s use of Black Panther Party and Black Power symbolism during her performance.
5. When she played Glastonbury, she won over everyone
In 2011, she was booked as one of the three headliners at Glastonbury, the world’s largest music festival. Not only did she impress everyone, including those who thought she was too pop for the festival, she also became the first solo female act to headline the Pyramid Stage in more than 20 years.
6. She broke records for her Grammy wins
At the 52nd Grammy Awards in 2010, she received 10 nominations and won a total of six awards, the most wins for a female solo artist in the award show’s history. Adele managed to match this record in 2012 thanks to the huge success of her album 21.
7. She sang at Barack Obama’s first and second Presidential inaugurations
When Barack Obama was sworn in for his first term as President of the United States, Beyoncé provided the music, singing ‘At Last’, then for his second inauguration, she sang ‘Star-Spangled Banner’.
