In case you weren’t aware, there’s a Beyoncé concert tonight (you can watch it here, if you missed it). The Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers are the opening act, but everybody’s here for #Bey, who just dropped her powerful activist anthem “Formation” last night.
“Formation” is undeniably political: it celebrates black beauty, tackles Katrina and police brutality, and references Martin Luther King. Of course, Beyoncé is no stranger to political statements – she and husband Jay Z donated $1.5m to #BlackLivesMatter last week – but this may be her most politically direct and hard-hitting musical work to date.
Only Beyoncé could drop such a deeply political song, and then perform that song the very next day at the Super Bowl. Only Beyoncé could do it with a team of all-black backup dancers dressed as Black Panthers, herself wearing a throwback Michael Jackson outfit. Beyoncé is here to celebrate blackness, and doesn’t care whether you like it or not.
It’s Beyoncé’s world. The rest of us just live in it.