beyonc songs |
- Frankie Beverly says Beyoncé's cover of 'Before I Let Go' is one of the 'high points' of his life - NBCNews.com
- Before You Let Go, Can You Cover These Classics, Beyoncé - Jezebel
- Beyonce's 'Homecoming' Live Album Debuts in Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top 10 - Billboard
- The Small, Precious Insights of Beyoncé’s “Sorry—Original Demo” - The New Yorker
- Review: Beyonce's Homecoming Netflix Documentary and Live Album - NPR
- Mathew Knowles on Beyoncé's involvement in 'Survivor: The Destiny's Child Musical' - Page Six
- Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Adidas, Nike, and the Fight for Cool - WIRED
- Review: Beyonce’s Triumphant ‘Homecoming’ - Rolling Stone
| Posted: 25 Apr 2019 01:02 PM PDT  Breaking News EmailsGet breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. SUBSCRIBEBy Minyvonne Burke Maze frontman Frankie Beverly was just as surprised — and happy — as Beyoncé's fans were when she included a rendition of the group's 1981 song "Before I Let Go" on her new live album. "She's done so much, this is one of the high points of my life," said Beverly, who wrote the song for the band and is the lead singer on the original track. He told Billboard magazine that he's great friends with Beyoncé but was initially unaware of her plans to add the song as a bonus track on her "Homecoming" album, which was released the same day as her Netflix documentary on her groundbreaking 2018 Coachella performance. A few weeks before the documentary dropped on April 17, Beverly said Beyoncé's team called him and played him her cover. "I was blown away. It's a blessing," the 72-year-old singer said. Beverly's song — about a relationship coming to an end — has become an R&B classic beloved by generations and is a staple in the black community. Beyonce's version has also become a hit, leading to the #BeforeILetGoChallenge where fans upload videos to social media of themselves dancing to the track. "Other people have done my songs, but the way she did this was in a class of its own," Beverly said. "She's done something that has affected my life."  |
| Before You Let Go, Can You Cover These Classics, Beyoncé - Jezebel Posted: 24 Apr 2019 01:15 PM PDT   The star of Beyoncé's Netflix special and accompanying live album, Homecoming, is, of course, Beyoncé. The fifth star—after her Louboutin boots, both of her knees, and her powerful creative vision—is "Before I Let Go," a cover of a Maze and Frankie Beverly classic that is the only thing I've listened to for the past week or so. Maybe it's the warmer weather or maybe it's high time to be standing in a backyard in my bare feet, clutching a beverage and executing a middling two step, but whatever the reason, Beyoncé's cover of the most upbeat song about breaking up has awakened something within: Mrs. Carter should do a covers album. It would be a lovely addition to her catalogue and would be a fun thing to throw on when you want to listen to Beyoncé but do not want to go through the emotional turmoil that Lemonade or "Me, Myself, and I" on repeat requires. This is a nice list of suggestions for an album that, if it were to come to fruition, would play well in mixed company as well as in the privacy of your own home, while unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry. The driving principle behind these songs is, unfortunately, vibes—all these songs are songs for any sort of gathering, be it happy or sad or just regular. And while I certainly don't think Beyoncé's voice will convey the same pathos as Luther Vandross does when he says "pret-tay litt-le darling," but I'm willing to let her give it the old college try. Most of these songs are classics in their own right—and some of them require the presence of Kelly Rowland and the non-white Michelle Wiliams, which feels insurmountable until you remember that she could probably pick up a phone and call them immediately with no issue. Would SWV be happy if Destiny's Child covered "I'm So Into You"? Would I feel elation hearing Beyoncé cover "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here," the best song about home invasion and also love lost? There's only one way to find out.  |
| Beyonce's 'Homecoming' Live Album Debuts in Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top 10 - Billboard Posted: 25 Apr 2019 02:17 PM PDT Beyoncé returns to the top 10 of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as Homecoming: The Live Album starts at No. 4 on the ranking dated April 27. The LP, which largely consists of the diva's landmark 2018 Coachella set, arrived March 17 in conjunction with a Netflix special that documented the performance. Homecoming earned 38,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 18, according to Nielsen Music -- notably, with only two days of activity contributing to the latest tracking week. Homecoming is Beyoncé's ninth top 10 set on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and surpasses Live at Wembley as her best showing for a live album. Wembley, which documented a London show of her 2003 Dangerously in Love Tour, reached No. 8 in April 2004. With Homecoming crossing into the top 10 club, here's a rundown of Beyonce's divine nine solo projects that have reached the tier on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums: Title, Peak Position, Peak Date Further, the album Everything Is Love, billed to The Carters (the husband-and-wife team of JAY-Z and Beyoncé) spent one week at No. 1 in 2017. In addition to the live material, Homecoming includes a full-length version of "I Been On" and a cover of "Before I Let Go," by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly. The latter kicks off at No. 17 on R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales with 3,000 sold in the week ending April 18 and becomes her 50th career entry on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay with its No. 45 debut.  |
| The Small, Precious Insights of Beyoncé’s “Sorry—Original Demo” - The New Yorker Posted: 24 Apr 2019 02:04 PM PDT  Last week, Beyoncé released "Homecoming," a documentary and live special that was ostensibly designed to pull back the curtain on her 2018 Coachella set, which was one of the grandest, most innovative performances of the festival era. As in her self-directed 2013 film, "Life Is But a Dream," the documentary component was maddeningly thin. It left viewers with highly stylized platitudes that summarized what was already evident in the festival footage: Beyoncé's work ethic is unparalleled, and the art that she generates is a product of emotional integrity, stylistic ingenuity, and deep reverence for tradition. "Every tiny detail had an intention," she says in a voice-over, discussing the costumes designed by Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of the French fashion house Balmain. If you paid attention to the performance, that statement is altogether redundant. To learn about Beyoncé, you must turn to her work. This week, as an addendum to "Homecoming," she made her tour-de-force album "Lemonade" available on all streaming platforms, after a three-year period during which it was siloed on Tidal, the streaming service that she and Jay-Z partly own. As a bonus, she included the original demo version of the song "Sorry," a searing kiss-off and the album's attitudinal centerpiece. Whereas the final version of "Sorry" was a female-empowerment anthem with a T-shirt-slogan hook ("I ain't sorry / Boy, bye"), the original demo is a subtler, more sedate track with a gauzy sound and a diaristic delivery. For a demo, it's still quite polished, but it contains what seem like unrehearsed moments of confession. "Sorry" is a song about fleeing a corrupted marriage with children in tow—and about the greener pastures that await. On the demo, that narrative is made more potent and explicit. ("Me and my daughter gon' be alright," she sings; the final version substituted "baby" for "daughter.") The demo's hook is also more reflective, less sass than fantasy: "We really could be young, wild, and free," Beyoncé sings breathily, as if in a daydream. These are minor tweaks, perhaps barely perceptible—but they come from an artist who, we know, imbues every detail with intention. If one pays attention, they make for bracing revelations.  |
| Review: Beyonce's Homecoming Netflix Documentary and Live Album - NPR Posted: 21 Apr 2019 09:01 PM PDT  Beyoncé performs onstage at Coachella on April 14, 2018. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella hide caption  Beyoncé performs onstage at Coachella on April 14, 2018. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for CoachellaOn Wednesday, Beyoncé released two major projects. On Netflix, a new documentary captures the process of putting on headlining appearances at last year's Coachella Music Festival. She also surprise-released a double-length live album that contains just some of the highlights from Beyoncé's two ambitious Coachella performances. Both projects are called Homecoming, and they help immortalize a huge stage show full of dancers and drum lines and impeccable choreography and songs that reach across Beyoncé's career. Show Notes: The audio was produced and edited by Jessica Reedy.  |
| Posted: 25 Apr 2019 08:46 AM PDT Mathew Knowles is moving forward with a musical about his daughter Beyoncé's original girl group, Destiny's Child, but he made sure to reach out to the women who were part of the story first. "We have directly and indirectly spoken to — not only Beyoncé, Kelly [Rowland] and Michelle [Williams] or their representatives — but also some of the former members of the group," Knowles, 67, told Page Six. "We've given them the opportunity to be as much involved as they'd like, or [have] as little involvement as they'd like." On Tuesday, the music executive shared on his website that he and director Je'Caryous Johnson have partnered together to develop "Survivor: The Destiny's Child Musical." Knowles told us the production is still in its early stages, and the script is not finished yet, but he doesn't expect to receive a lot of pushback from the members of the group once the script is complete. "Everybody understands this is my perspective, not their perspective," he said. "The girls were very young when they got into this business, so a lot of this perspective, they didn't really understand." Knowles managed the group since its inception in 1990 when Destiny's Child was first known as Girl's Tyme. Knowles said he is working on getting the script to a place where if the original members "want to review it, they can review it," adding, "I wouldn't want to put anything out that didn't have everyone's support." While "Survivor: The Destiny's Child Musical" will cover the group's ever-changing lineup over the years and "the reason for some of the changes," Knowles said the focus is more so on his experience managing a successful group while raising another daughter, Solange Knowles, being married to then-wife Tina Knowles, and their family dynamics.  "[Solange] wasn't getting attention because Destiny's Child was, kind of, consuming the family," he added. "So [the musical] takes you through the ups and downs of a family, as well as Destiny's Child's ups and downs. You will be awakened with information that I think possibly surprises you." Knowles said both Tina and Solange are aware of the musical, and they are "excited to see what the script is going to look like." The musical's storyline will cover two decades, and although Knowles hasn't decided exactly which Destiny's Child songs he will feature, he said it's "safe to say" that "Survivor" will be one of them since the song's title is in the musical's name. When speaking of music, Knowles said he also plans to share never-before-released songs from the group's earlier days as an added bonus for fans.  "The first album they made was back in 1992, 1993, so we'll be simultaneously releasing that album along with the musical," he said. Knowles said he really wants the production to be "an experience from the time you walk into the venue to the time you walk out of the venue," adding that some of Destiny's Child original wardrobe will be featured in the lobby. The musical will reportedly start out in Houston, then make it's way to Broadway, major cities around the country, London's West End and even Australia. Knowles said he plans to launch the show on Feb. 1, 2020, just in time for Black History Month. However, in the meantime, Knowles and Johnson are working on completing the script so that they can begin casting. Knowles shared that actors looking to audition can send an email to Casting@JeCaryous.com and said he has an open mind as to who will be picked — as long as they can sing and act "for real." "It could be a former member," he said. "It could be someone you've never seen before, but they can sing extremely well and they can act extremely well. This starts when the girls are 12 years old and ends when they're in their 30s. Casting is going to be — we're looking forward to it, but it's going to be a challenge."  |
| Beyoncé, Donald Glover, Adidas, Nike, and the Fight for Cool - WIRED Posted: 25 Apr 2019 12:29 PM PDT  Recently, in a group chat, I expressed excitement over an unlikely piece of work: a new short film from Adidas. The sportswear corporation, which now also counts Beyoncé as a "creative partner," had teamed up with Donald Glover to make a series of vignettes featuring him and the actress Mo'Nique trading comic tête-à-têtes. Directed by longtime collaborator Ibra Ake, the film embodies Glover's typical patchwork: It's wonky, narratively indeterminate, and crammed with wit and the occasional inside joke. Related StoriesThe film, of course, wasn't just creativity for creativity's sake; it is essentially one long conceptual ad for Glover's Adidas Original line of sneakers, which release Friday. Still, the vignettes are far more engaging than the average shoe-shilling spot. As a cultural worker, Glover's art stings. Whether as the creator-star of Atlanta or as his music-making alter ego Childish Gambino, his aesthetic practice strives to awaken and unnerve (just look to the video for "This Is America", his berserk trap-gospel from last May). It's always felt countercultural in that sense. Glover's work lives outside the mainstream, as critique. With Adidas, his art becomes the mainstream. This, coupled with Beyoncé's just-announced partnership—which includes a collaboration on a signature Adidas collection in addition to expanding her athleisure line, Ivy Park—suggests Adidas is jockeying for a larger cultural footprint. But it registers as more than that, too. It's the megabrand's attempt to define culture, not simply contribute to it. Today, especially so, sportswear companies are no longer just looking to athletes as brand emissaries, but for social-media-savvy cultural figures of all sorts. Puma's famously worked with Rihanna and Solange. Converse has tapped Millie Bobby Brown and Vince Staples for campaigns. Back in 2016, Complex declared Jay-Z's 2003 Reebok collaboration, the S. Carter, an industry-shifting release. Early rap stalwarts Run-DMC fashioned the Adidas shell-toe into an emblem of cool and were ultimately given their own line. A fundamental partnership like that one opened a pathway for cross-branding deals between the sportsworld and the larger culture. Adidas has since partnered with basketball star James Harden, soccer phenom Lionel Messi, Grammy-winning producer Pharrell Williams, rapper Pusha-T, and fashion maven Stella McCartney. Glover's addition certainly adds cultural currency to Adidas' war chest, but it's the partnership the company has forged with Beyoncé that will likely rival, and perhaps dwarf, the magnetism Kanye West was able to generate, and has wildly sustained, since he signed with the brand in 2015. In that time, he's released both apparel and footwear that, aesthetically, merges sleek cuts and monochrome colorways with an eye for the dystopian. Collectively known as Yeezy Season, releases have created a mania of desire. On Instagram, West's status has helped embolden the rabidness around influencer culture, which has in turn made the brand seem that much more in-demand. Even as Nike outpaces Adidas in sales, and even as West has fallen out of public favor in recent months, he remains an uncommon reservoir of cool for Adidas (so much so that megachurch preachers have fully bought into the hype). Of course, Nike is Nike. Its market cap currently sits at nearly $140 billion, compared to Adidas' $50 billion, and consultancy firm Brand Finance estimated Nike's brand value was worth about $28 billion in 2018, a figure that overshadowed not only Adidas but other apparel companies like H&M, Puma, Hermès, Uniqlo, and Louis Vuitton. You can't escape Nike's reach and power. It eclipses. Part of that has to do with how the company has firmly commanded industry rhetoric—the look and perception of cool—since hiring ad agency Wieden+Kennedy in 1982. The firm minted generation-defining slogans like "Just Do It" and "Bo Knows," and later produced a vibrant series of commercials featuring Spike Lee (as the fictional character Mars Blackmon) and Michael Jordan in the 1980s and '90s. In that time, Nike has, officially and unofficially, corralled some of the most important cultural figures across sports and entertainment into its hive. Serena Williams. LeBron James. Lance Armstrong. Kendrick Lamar. Tiger Woods. Kobe Bryant. Drake. Tatyana McFadden. Andre Agassi. On Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode," one of the most popular and streamed songs of 2018, Nike found itself in the middle of the most exciting cultural tempest of the year. Featured on the song's guest verse is Drake, who raps, referencing Nike's swoosh logo and Adidas' three stripes, "checks over stripes, that's what we like." Months prior, Adidas emissary Pusha-T had released "The Story of Adidon," a diss track against Drake, who was then rumored to be signing a deal with Adidas. The brands had somehow become weapons in a simmering rap war. It was yet more proof of Nike's transcendent authority: as both cultural product and the culture. Donald Glover recently announced a partnership with Adidas. Adidas Just last year, Nike released a striking series of black-and-white ads as part of its push into social justice. Images of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick—who'd been exiled by the NFL because of his criticisms against the ongoing wave of police brutality in black communities—courted the most controversy. But it was a savvy, if noble, move on Nike's end. Kaepernick represents an evolution in the business of sports; his advocacy presents a chance to shift the discourse for Fortune 500 companies who hope to align with socially-minded celebrities. Through him, Nike is able to create and sustain real impact, nationally and globally. With the addition of Beyoncé and Donald Glover into its fold, Adidas is gunning for a similar impact: one that is multilevel, innovative, and authentic (both artists have the ability to tap into vast and disparate communities of people worldwide). It already seems to be working, too. The company saw substantial sales growth in North America last year thanks, in part, to its creative partnerships. But impact is about more than financial gain. Today, social ports like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are a shrewd barometer of cool. Brands crave relevance via social impact, which is measured in likes, retweets, post count, and meme proliferation. All of it furnishes continuous chatter, be it for a pair of new Yeezys or the latest Ivy Park drop. It's a business-defining play for Adidas. One thing Beyoncé has never lacked for is the attention of the crowd. More Great WIRED Stories |
| Review: Beyonce’s Triumphant ‘Homecoming’ - Rolling Stone Posted: 18 Apr 2019 09:47 AM PDT  Before you add any other superlative to her name, Beyoncé is, first and foremost, a performer. She spent her childhood being trained not just to be a great singer but to become the type of athletic vocalist who could sing while in constant, rapid, muscle-and-bone defying movement on a stage for hours. She would get the chance to show that off early with Destiny's Child, and by the time she launched her solo career, her live abilities were otherworldly. So much of the mythology of Beyoncé as being a god-level artist, even before she released two industry-changing albums (2013's Beyonce and 2016's Lemonade), came from her live shows, where her craft shines. So it wasn't surprising that her 2018 Coachella headlining set was nothing short of awe-inspiring, with Beyonce finding yet another way to outdo herself with an entirely new, two-times only concert experience. In the Netflix documentary Homecoming, her diligent, meticulous preparations for such a show as a performer and a creative director offers insight into the type of hard work it takes to be Beyoncé. As the behind-the-scenes footage in the concert film progresses, her role as director comes with the particular challenge of translating the energy of the massive performance, not only to the live audience but to the people either watching the show's livestream or even the just-released concert film. Listening to the live album version of Homecoming, which was dropped as a surprise-release on all streaming platforms the same morning as the documentary, it's clear that Beyoncé and her musicians met the call. From the stirring, opening brass section of "Welcome" to even the collage-like interludes that weave portions of her own discography with nods to everyone from Nina Simone to Soulja Boy, Homecoming: The Live Album is the type of victory lap worthy of a queen. The setlist works so well because, at the time, Beyoncé was untethered to any current projects. Lemonade was a couple years behind her and Everything Is Love, her collaborative album with husband Jay-Z, had not yet been revealed to the public. For a pop star as productive and intentional as she is, a concert that isn't tied to an era is rare. So, the songs from Homecoming feel like a greatest hits collection with a twist: they're carefully combined, remixed and chopped up to fit the college homecoming theme and musical accompaniment of a full marching band. Few low-tempo moments are allowed here: the delicate R&B of hits like "Sorry" and "Me, Myself & I," from two opposite ends of her career, are amped up into lively, horn-heavy blasts of energy while already club-friendly cuts like "Diva" and "Flawless" are turned into pure adrenaline rushes. Even her reverent delivery of black national anthem "Live Every Voice and Sing" — the one "ballad" in the mix — feels like it's sparking fire as it pours through the speakers. Much of the magic that makes the experience of merely listening to Homecoming so vivid is in Beyoncé's voice. Doing some of her most ambitious live choreography for two hours in the desert, the then-36-year-old delivers the best vocal performance of her career. Whether she's rapping her verse from "Top Off," belting "I Care" in tandem with the guitar solo or crafting an angelic harmony with her Destiny's Child groupmates for a medley of their hits, her voice only seems to grow stronger as the show progresses, a feat unto itself.
Of course, the most important aspect of a live album is the fans: screaming, singing along and serving as a consistent interlude between songs. The communal effort of the hundreds of people on stage with Beyoncé only makes the distant wails of her fans sound like they were in on the months of rehearsals too: they ebb and flow appropriately with each changing number, acting as her best backing choir and the necessary tool to help the party on stage make absolute sense. Since nothing with Beyoncé is ever simple, Homecoming: The Live Album has something a little extra: two bonus tracks seamlessly slip in at the end. The first, casually preceded by the final howls of the audience, is "Before I Let Go," a cover of the 1981 Maze and Frankie Beverly classic. The song has been a cookout and kickback staple for nearly four decades and a perfect nod for the singer to make in the context of her own cookout-ready LP. It is followed by "I Been On," which already existed as half of the demo of her 2013 song "Flawless" (though it had not been officially released on streaming services). The Timbaland-assisted flex had her voice distorted to nearly unrecognizable deepness as she reminded people she wasn't just Jay-Z's wife. Six years later, that song feels more dated than her Maze cover; people who need to be reminded that she's a legend in her own right are in the smallest minority now.  |
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