Beyonce Was Basically Amazing At Coachella This Weekend

Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Weekend 1, Indio, USA - 14 Apr 2018

I am an old person and I’ve had a tough couple of months, which is why I went to bed on Saturday night at 8:30 pm and did not stay up to watch Beyonce’s headlining Coachella set on the livestream. “I’m sure the highlights will be on the internet tomorrow,” I thought, as I rubbed rose hip oil onto my face and surrendered to sleep. Conveniently, when I looked at Twitter on Sunday morning, it was just as YouTube’s Coachella Channel was replaying her performance in its entirety. “I have a lot to do today,” I said to myself. “I’ll just watch like ten minutes of this.” Reader, I obviously watched the entire thing, and was therefore running an hour behind for the rest of the day. AND IT WAS WORTH IT. Beyonce basically ALWAYS brings it (there are some performers who phone it on occasion; she is not one of them), so I certainly was expecting it to be good, but this was…beyond. It was historic — Beyonce is the first black woman to headline Coachella — it was joyous, it was moving, it was layered with references and meaning, and it was the best concert experience I’ve seen in I can’t tell you how long, even from my vantage point of standing next to my laptop in my kitchen, eating a hardboiled egg over the sink. On the scale of people whose usual feelings about Bey range from “Ugh, Beyonce” to “OMG BEYONCE!!!!,” I’d say that I personally generally fall around “Oooh! Beyonce!” But this was a full-on OMG BEYONCE!!! experience:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhmQe-BlkYe/?taken-by=beyonce

As I mentioned on Twitter Sunday, I am also dying for a 12-episode documentary series about the logistics of putting the concert together, because, as you can see, it was not just some Stroll Out And Casually Sing A Couple of Songs Then Go Back To The Hotel situation: There was a huge band, and a drumline, and many dancers, and violinists, and Solange, and a Destiny’s Child reunion, and SEVERAL costume changes, and even something that happened to Bey’s manicure which required an (excellent) logistical deep-dive! I need to know how this all happened. I want to see footage of these rehearsals, of casting, of all the creative meetings. And you know there is footage! Beyonce tapes everything that happens to her! Beyonce, please hire a documentary company to make the A Chorus Line of this concert. WE NEED THIS.

Also, the costumes were great, and the best look at them — as usual — comes from Beyonce’s Instagram, as well as Balmain’s (all the looks were custom Balmain). I assume someone is going to be selling Beyonce Alpha Knowles sweatshirts (or at least I hope Beyonce will be wearing her own around town all the time) because it is CUTE:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhlLCtqFnj9/?taken-by=beyonce

I admit to being delighted by the Destiny’s Child reunion:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhlVOzqF0tV/?taken-by=beyonce

I assume the sparkly camo is a reference to their “Survivor” video, which, yes, I totally just watched ALSO in its entirely. (Everyone in it is SO VERY YOUNG.)

I always love seeing the conceptual drawings for these things; It’s interesting to see the way a designer chooses to portray a celebrity to the celebrity herself:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhm7jtTAaSi/?hl=en&taken-by=balmain

I kinda feel like Beyonce is prettier in real life than that drawing of her?

I appreciate that this look is marrying one of the many HBCU visual references in the concert with the classic Beyonce Performance Ensemble (AKA, a leotard):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhlU82Tl1T_/?taken-by=beyonce

This is the same patent leather leotard, but with a giant jacket over it that for one brilliant moment I thought was a GIANT backpack:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhlRgJVlRkC/?taken-by=beyonce

I think it’s more of a cape-coat.

Did you watch? Rihanna did!