As a family, how do we feel about this picture of Beyoncé?
Is she looking over her shoulder for Julius? “See, this is why I don’t leave the house. Julius please bring the car.”
Or is she looking over her shoulder thoroughly enjoying herself and trying to make eye contact with other onlookers? “In the grand tradition of Ginger Rogers having to do everything Fred Astaire was doing backwards but in heels, Solange did way worse than that to Jay in an evening gown. This is light work.”
Regardless, we can all agree that awards shows do not deserve Beyoncé, but we are blessed by her willingness to create art for them anyway.
Up until 2008, the Emmy’s had a category for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. The category frequently featured hosts for awards shows (Billy Crystal basically got a nomination every time he hosted the Oscars), but musicians made a strong showing as well. Five of the last eight awards went to singers for their television concert specials: Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Tony Bennet, Sting, and Elaine Stritch. Every once in awhile, a singular performance of one song on an awards show telecast would win, such as Whitney Houston’s performance of “Saving All My Love For You” at the 1986 Grammy Awards.
I threw that little bit of history there to say that Beyoncé would have absolutely won an Emmy for this performance. Hell, she should have won an Oscar for this performance alone, but the Academy has been in love with James Bond tunes recently (Sam Smith and Adele both won the Original Song Academy Award for their respective Bond tunes), so I wasn’t surprised Billie Eilish won. And I generally like the young ma’am, but the fact that she could whisper over the same Bond Strings we’ve heard for decades and win over Beyoncé is wild. The background vocals in “Be Alive” alone dragged Miss Billie by her eyelashes. Listen to “No Time to Die” please.
And this is why Beyoncé does not care about awards. I’ll just say it: Beyoncé is too Black for awards shows. Taylor Swift has three Album of the Year awards. Beyoncé has none. Billie Eilish has two Record of the Year awards, plus Song of the Year, and an Album of the Year award. Beyoncé managed to nab Song of the Year…………..for “Single Ladies,” back before they could still claim her as Pop-yoncé.
So I’m just blessed that she’s making meaningful art to be revisited for generations. There has never been a better Oscars performance and nobody is on her level.
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