Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Outside of the game, the story of the Super Bowl was Beyoncé. People went into the game fearing that Taylor Swift would steal the spotlight, but instead, at least for Black people, the cultural story of game day was all about Beyoncé.
Queen Bey brilliantly flipped a Verizon ad into a Beyoncé ad. The ad showcased Beyoncé’s aesthetic fluidity — it showed that she could inhabit any environment she wanted, from suburban lemonade stand owner to futuristic robot to Barbie (excuse me, BarBey) to astronaut to faux presidential candidate — she’s declaring her candidacy for the “Beyoncé of the United States.”
The ad was saying Verizon is unbreakable, but the message I got was Beyoncé is unbreakable. Beyoncé is indefatigable. She cannot be stopped. The question was can Verizon keep up with her? And just when I thought, OK, great ad, she tagged it with the announcement of new music. She ended the ad — which simulated a stress test of Verizon’s network — by saying “OK, they ready. Drop the new music.” Like, the ad was a test of Verizon making sure they were up to Beyoncé’s standard. It’s not Beyoncé proving how much she loves Verizon, it’s Verizon proving that they can keep up with Beyoncé.
Moments after the commercial ended, she dropped two new songs on streaming apps and announced that her next album, “Act II,” arrives on March 29. The timing was exquisite. If the game was not so good, I would have spiraled off into a Beyoncé rabbit hole.
That hole could be deep because we know “Renaissance” was about house and disco, sounds that were a big part of her childhood. In her concert film, “Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé,” she talked about how her beloved Uncle Johnny brought that music into her…
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