Homecoming

Beyonce. Bey. Queen B. Mrs. Carter. The woman is a Goddess.

When I was little, my family listened to rock music. While all my friends were listening to Britney Spears or the boy band of the week, I was off obsessing about Blink-182 and Green Day. However, the one exception was Destiny’s Child. I saw the music video for “Say My Name” and I was instantly in love. Over the years, I bought every record and once Beyonce branched out on her own, I followed. In 2013, I cried while at her concert because it full-on blew my mind. She’s my girl. My queen. I am here for it.

While I was not at Coachella to see her iconic performance in person, I watched the livestream on my Apple TV—all two hours of it. I sat in my bed with all the lights off, trying not to scream, worried about waking my parents—and then Destiny’s Child popped up and I almost lost it. Cameos in the movie as well as on stage included: husband Jay-Z, sister Solange, and of course Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland. We see shots of Blue Ivy visiting mom at rehearsals and adorable inserts of the twins. The massive marching band, drumline, majorette and step dancers, background vocals—I was blown away.

Now, a year later, girl not only drops a documentary on this performance, BUT ALSO a live album to go with it? Dear, God.

This documentary gives an incredible inside look of the struggle and triumph of this iconic performance. Beyonce was supposed to perform at Coachella in 2017, but pulled out when she learned she was pregnant…with twins. She says in the doc that the babies were a complete surprise and that she experienced a very difficult pregnancy, but made the commitment to reclaim her Coachella spot in 2018 as the first black woman to headline the event.

The theme of her show was “Homecoming”—a love letter to the historically black colleges and universities (known as H.B.C.U.s). Beyonce’s voiceover talks about how important the colleges and the marching band performances were to her childhood and her culture. She personally picked every dancer, light, every decision having to do with the construction of the stage. She says in the doc, “Every tiny detail had an intention.”

Another side of Beyonce that we see is how much she struggled with her body after giving birth to her twins. She put herself on an insane diet, basically eliminating every kind of food imaginable. they production went through four months of music rehearsals and four months of dance rehearsals. She moved between three different sound stages, all rehearsing at the same time: musicians, dancers, and her creative team. I’ve come to the conclusion that our Queen is a little bit of a control freak.

And you know what, it was perfection. The production was above and beyond anything you’ve seen at Coachella—anything I’ve seen ever— and that’s exactly what she wanted to give her fans. She weaves almost 40 songs effortlessly together with costume changes for her AND her dancers.  Gave them the show they deserved and to shed light on her culture; displaying images, voiceovers, and dances celebrating black history.

So basically, if you want to see a show that is pretty much the definition of perfection, watch Homecoming. I’m probably going to watch this at least three more times by the end of the year.