Beyoncé has had an amazing month in March so far as her and husband, Jay-Z, both received Vanguard awards during the 30th Annual GLAAD AWARDS for their contributions to the LGBTQ community. The month of April is about to get just as exciting as Netflix just announced that Beyoncé’s headlining performance for Coachella 2018 is going to premiere with full behind the scenes and bonus clips.
Beyoncé’s headlining performance for Coachella 2018 was due to her inability to perform during her pregnancy in 2017. Of course, her comeback did not disappoint. Her performance was filled with odes to African American Greek life. The performance is considered historical as Beyoncé is the first African American woman to have ever headline the festival. In terms of women, she’s only the second ever woman to headline the festival aside from Lady Gaga. As the performance had special guests performances from Solange, Jay-Z and Destiny’s Child, there were also many representations of African American influenced music such as Kingston Dancehall, New Orleans trumpets and horns and Brooklyn rap culture. Most importantly, Beyoncé started the performance with “Lift Every Voice and Sing” a song considered to be the black national anthem.
The HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) theme was strongly represented as bejeweled hoddies representing Greek letters filled the stage. Marching bands, dancers and step routines played an integral part of the entire performance. Beyoncé has funded an HBCU scholarship for the past few years and announced that she was expanding the scholarship funds after her performance.
The performance was something to witness, but also something to remember for forever. The New York Times Magazine wrote that Beyoncé’s performance was “…rich with history, potentially political and visually grand.” We can’t wait to see the full performance and the effort put behind the momentous moment.