Why Beyonce (Really) Won Best Personality of The Year
Published in Le Nouvel Observateur
(France) on 24 April 2014
by Editorial (link to original)
(France) on 24 April 2014
by Editorial (link to original)
Translated from
by Wade Halliburton.
Edited by Kyrstie Lane.
Time magazine has chosen the singer Beyonce to be number-one on its list devoted to the 100 most influential people in the world. How did she get there?
"Beyonce doesn't just sit at the table. She builds a better one," starts off Sheryl Sandberg, director of operations for Facebook, in the article dedicated to the singer that she has penned for Time.
In 1998, 17-year-old Beyonce, leading member of the group Destiny's Child, first achieved mainstream success with the hit "No, No, No." That was 16 years ago. This is the time it took the self-proclaimed "Queen B" to rule the pop world – all while managing her life as a couple and mother with the rapper Jay-Z.
"In December, she took the world by surprise when she released a new album, complete with videos, and announced it on Facebook and Instagram," continues Sheryl Sandberg, before adding, "Beyoncé shattered music-industry rules — and sales records." A masterstroke which is worth today’s recognition from Time, but also a way for her to show the world her emancipation, as an artist, but especially as a woman. "I’m a grown woman / I can do whatever I want," Beyonce sings in the song "Grown Woman." And it works.
An Accomplished Artist
Beyonce has sold nearly 100 million albums and 30 million singles, not counting the 60 million sold as the leader of Destiny's Child. She has undisputed commercial and popular success, always accompanied by a genuine critical recognition (from her peers and the industry). With 17 Grammy Awards, Billboard magazine awarded her the title of the singer who has had the most success between 2000 and 2010, as well as the most played artist in radio in the same decade.
And the one who sang the American anthem at Obama's inauguration speech last January has no fear, especially since her album "4" (2011), which ventured off the beaten path.
On "Beyoncé," there is no true hit. No "Crazy in Love" or "Single Ladies," but 14 titles – long, complex, more polished than ever – repeating more highbrow RnB like "The Weeknd" that sounds formatted for the dance floor from Rihanna or Katy Perry.
Ten years after "Crazy in Love," the hit that has propelled her relationship with Jay-Z to the height of glamor, make way for "Drunk in Love." In this five-minute song, the diva originally from Houston, almost tries to rap and do so without flaw or window dressing, alongside Jay-Z, who is especially in tune on his verse.
An Innate Sense of Business
The way that Beyonce has released her fifth solo album – without promotion and without a date, but a general surprise release of her CD, with videos accompanying each title – responds as much to the needs of the public as to her music. The format is revolutionary, freed from the traditional pattern, and is evidence of her emancipation. In a week, 1 million copies have been sold, thus classifying the "visual album" as number- one in iTunes sales in more than 100 countries.
Everything that this album contains had been outlined in "4," her previous album released in June 2011. From a young age (she was 12 years old when she started in Destiny's Child), she was pushed by her producer father and manager, Matthew Knowles, but she broke away a little bit before releasing the CD.
She then decided to manage her career by herself, and to do things her way. Less promotion, a slower pace, and also a willingness to no longer submit to the dictates of radio format: three minutes of hooks and bridges, dragged out and as bland as necessary to satisfy the attention deficit of digital addicts.
While all the other pop divas release hits and albums like crazy (Rihanna has released seven albums in seven years), she decided to slow down. As she says on "Partition": "Radio say speed it up/ I just go slower."
A Model for Women
On the day of the surprise release, a picture circulated on the Internet and social networks: We see Beyonce as Christ, a finger lifted, all-powerful, with a commentary sentence, "Chicks be like: Thanks B for waking me up and giving me life." Because if there is a singer for girls, and women, it is Beyonce. It is her that Michelle Obama chose to speak to young American girls. It is the same women whom we discover to be hypersexualized in her video clips, and in her lyrics ("Let me sit this ass on you" in "Rocket").
Yet, it is also her who inspired Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to speak about feminism on "Flawless": "We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much." All the while professing her now famous, "Bow down bitches." And most of all, it is her who almost mushily proclaims love for her daughter on "Blue." The album was to be called "Mrs. Carter," the last name of her husband Jay-Z, but it is called "Beyonce."
So, what are we to understand from it? Simply that it is trying to show that today, power and sexuality are reconcilable with maternity and women helping women.
The ultimate proof of her acceptance as a woman: the video for "Yonce." We discover the singer on the same level as the three most beautiful mixed-race models of the moment – the stars Jourdann Dunn, Chanel Imman and Joan Smalls (this is a first in the history of pop divas). Beyonce no longer fears anything.
"Beyonce doesn't just sit at the table. She builds a better one," starts off Sheryl Sandberg, director of operations for Facebook, in the article dedicated to the singer that she has penned for Time.
In 1998, 17-year-old Beyonce, leading member of the group Destiny's Child, first achieved mainstream success with the hit "No, No, No." That was 16 years ago. This is the time it took the self-proclaimed "Queen B" to rule the pop world – all while managing her life as a couple and mother with the rapper Jay-Z.
"In December, she took the world by surprise when she released a new album, complete with videos, and announced it on Facebook and Instagram," continues Sheryl Sandberg, before adding, "Beyoncé shattered music-industry rules — and sales records." A masterstroke which is worth today’s recognition from Time, but also a way for her to show the world her emancipation, as an artist, but especially as a woman. "I’m a grown woman / I can do whatever I want," Beyonce sings in the song "Grown Woman." And it works.
An Accomplished Artist
Beyonce has sold nearly 100 million albums and 30 million singles, not counting the 60 million sold as the leader of Destiny's Child. She has undisputed commercial and popular success, always accompanied by a genuine critical recognition (from her peers and the industry). With 17 Grammy Awards, Billboard magazine awarded her the title of the singer who has had the most success between 2000 and 2010, as well as the most played artist in radio in the same decade.
And the one who sang the American anthem at Obama's inauguration speech last January has no fear, especially since her album "4" (2011), which ventured off the beaten path.
On "Beyoncé," there is no true hit. No "Crazy in Love" or "Single Ladies," but 14 titles – long, complex, more polished than ever – repeating more highbrow RnB like "The Weeknd" that sounds formatted for the dance floor from Rihanna or Katy Perry.
Ten years after "Crazy in Love," the hit that has propelled her relationship with Jay-Z to the height of glamor, make way for "Drunk in Love." In this five-minute song, the diva originally from Houston, almost tries to rap and do so without flaw or window dressing, alongside Jay-Z, who is especially in tune on his verse.
An Innate Sense of Business
The way that Beyonce has released her fifth solo album – without promotion and without a date, but a general surprise release of her CD, with videos accompanying each title – responds as much to the needs of the public as to her music. The format is revolutionary, freed from the traditional pattern, and is evidence of her emancipation. In a week, 1 million copies have been sold, thus classifying the "visual album" as number- one in iTunes sales in more than 100 countries.
Everything that this album contains had been outlined in "4," her previous album released in June 2011. From a young age (she was 12 years old when she started in Destiny's Child), she was pushed by her producer father and manager, Matthew Knowles, but she broke away a little bit before releasing the CD.
She then decided to manage her career by herself, and to do things her way. Less promotion, a slower pace, and also a willingness to no longer submit to the dictates of radio format: three minutes of hooks and bridges, dragged out and as bland as necessary to satisfy the attention deficit of digital addicts.
While all the other pop divas release hits and albums like crazy (Rihanna has released seven albums in seven years), she decided to slow down. As she says on "Partition": "Radio say speed it up/ I just go slower."
A Model for Women
On the day of the surprise release, a picture circulated on the Internet and social networks: We see Beyonce as Christ, a finger lifted, all-powerful, with a commentary sentence, "Chicks be like: Thanks B for waking me up and giving me life." Because if there is a singer for girls, and women, it is Beyonce. It is her that Michelle Obama chose to speak to young American girls. It is the same women whom we discover to be hypersexualized in her video clips, and in her lyrics ("Let me sit this ass on you" in "Rocket").
Yet, it is also her who inspired Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to speak about feminism on "Flawless": "We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much." All the while professing her now famous, "Bow down bitches." And most of all, it is her who almost mushily proclaims love for her daughter on "Blue." The album was to be called "Mrs. Carter," the last name of her husband Jay-Z, but it is called "Beyonce."
So, what are we to understand from it? Simply that it is trying to show that today, power and sexuality are reconcilable with maternity and women helping women.
The ultimate proof of her acceptance as a woman: the video for "Yonce." We discover the singer on the same level as the three most beautiful mixed-race models of the moment – the stars Jourdann Dunn, Chanel Imman and Joan Smalls (this is a first in the history of pop divas). Beyonce no longer fears anything.