Beyonce released an album titled “Renaissance” in July of 2022. It was made during the pandemic, the album’s purpose being self-expression and liberation. It was her first studio album since her last album, Lemonade, released in 2016. When this album was released, fans quickly started to realize what references and influence this album has. This album pays homage to the ballroom culture, a safe space for Black Queer/Trans people back in the 1970s. The ballroom culture is a community of love within queer groups. Because of the discrimination and violence that queer/trans people face daily, it’s important to have a safe space where people can be themselves freely and meet people with the same struggles. In some songs, she features transgender artists who make songs specifically for the ballroom scene like Honey Dijon and Ts Madison. In her album tour, she also brought along Queer ballroom icons like Honey Balenciaga, and Darius Hickman to dance and bring a joyous and captivating energy to their dances. This acknowledgement of these queer artists and dancers creates a space for them to use their voice and Beyonce can show her support to the community.
Beyonce has an emotional tie to one of her songs on Renaissance titled “Heated” where at the end of the song she sings “Uncle Johnny made my dress, that cheap spandex she looks a mess!”. After the album was released, many people wondered who “Uncle Johnny” was. In 2019, Beyonce received a GLAAD Vanguard Award and dedicated it to him. She explained that her uncle, who died of HIV, was a huge part of her childhood, in the documentary movie, she explained growing up with him being a designer. She revealed that in her early years of being in the girl group Destiny’s Child, they couldn’t afford luxury brands, so her uncle hand-sewed most of their costumes, with love. Ms. Tina Knowles, Beyonce’s mother stated how her own mother showed Johnny how to hand sew and tailor clothing and said “If you can make someone look good, they’ll love you” and she thinks that was her mother’s way of telling Johnny to be himself and he has a talent.
Another thing we notice in this movie is Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy. She began doing the choreography with her mother on stage, and continued all throughout the tour—as an eleven year old. We see Beyonce witnessing her daughter having talent, but also being nervous as her mom. She states “I said, if you show your commitment, you can do one show, and when I saw her behind me on the stage, I almost fainted. I thought, why did I even say yes?” We see Blue Ivy’s response to the negative comments, and she was so mature about it. She was fearless, and decided to keep dancing at every show, knowing she’d only improve. As the shows went on, the crowds held up blue balloons for her, and showed their support.
This album had backlash in the beginning, because although Beyonce featured these queer artists in her songs, she didn’t credit them in the title, and people were very upset about it. You’d have to go to Genius Lyric Analysis to find out where certain samples came from. People were upset because this meant those queer artists were not being financially compensated. In her tour, she tries to fix this by having those sample artists come on the tour with her, do their ad-libs live, and have their own performance time. This shows Beyonce truly listens to her fans.
This documentary felt like a concert to watch. It was 2 hours and 48 minutes, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think it shows what’s behind the scenes of a tour very well, like how much Beyonce is the director of every management group, she works with her lights crew for every show to help them. There isn’t a department where she’s not active. It shows her work ethic and how she’s willing to lose sleep just to get things done so her fans see a good performance. I would definitely recommend watching this film.