On the finish of the day, probably the most urgent query surrounding the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference was: The place the hell is Beyoncé?
The reply: Not on the DNC.
To be clear, the thought of the best performer and arguably largest pop star on the planet displaying as much as Chicago’s United Heart and enjoying one track to a sea of political dorks and lawmakers is, for sure, far-fetched. However it didn’t come out of nowhere. All of the clues had been there. Or, at the very least, so many individuals — together with the media reporting on the occasion — thought so.
The rumor began Thursday afternoon, with an insidery put up that promised one thing enormous. “Should you thought the Oprah shock was massive, simply wait,” the since-deleted put up from an nameless X consumer mentioned. Given Oprah’s gravitational pull on tradition at massive, the listing of people that may outshine her is, at most, 10 or so names lengthy.
Beyoncé Knowles is among the only a few individuals on Earth who is greater than Oprah. Whereas there was some obligatory hypothesis about Taylor Swift as effectively, the truth that Harris is utilizing Bey’s track “Freedom” on the marketing campaign path meant that election-watchers and followers alike started speculating that the singer was the key VIP. There have been additionally stories from individuals inside the sector that the conference’s home band was utilizing Beyoncé songs to soundcheck. Later within the night, reporters famous that the rostrum was arrange for somebody particular!
As whispers of the extraordinarily well-known and thrilling visitor who was undoubtedly Beyoncé grew, White Home political director Emmy Ruiz posted an emoji of a bee at round 4:30 pm. Bey calls her followers the Beyhive, and Ruiz’s bee put up threw gasoline on the fireplace. It’s the equal of Gotham Metropolis lighting up the sky with the Bat Sign.
Certainly Bey was coming! (Ruiz later claimed that her 6-year-old had posted the bee.)
Then the seemingly final affirmation got here: TMZ reported that Beyoncé was going to indicate. Whereas your mileage could fluctuate on how TMZ stories deaths and arrests (often by speaking to hospital employees and cops who shouldn’t be leaking that sort of personal info), they’re infrequently mistaken.
Sleuths then began piecing collectively extra of the alleged puzzle. The Chicks, fellow Texans who Beyoncé has collaborated with, had been on the schedule. As was Pink, the singer obsessive about aerial methods and grownup gymnastics who additionally as soon as starred with Beyoncé in a Pepsi industrial. Additionally on the docket was Colin Allred, a Democrat from Bey’s dwelling state working for senate, talking only a few slots earlier than Harris, the primary occasion. Individuals from Texas, former collaborators, ah sure, all of it is sensible in the event you squint exhausting sufficient and play Six Levels of Separation: Beyoncé Version.
Maybe probably the most plausible connection is that supporting Kamala Harris seems like one thing Beyoncé would do. If Harris wins, she could be the primary lady to develop into president and the second particular person of colour in historical past to ever maintain the nation’s highest workplace. That’s a political and historic milestone that aligns itself with Beyoncé’s artwork and her songs concerning the energy and vulnerability of being a Black lady. She has additionally endorsed a number of Democratic candidates within the current previous — beginning with Barack Obama proper via Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden — and performed at President Obama’s Inaugural Ball in 2009 and inauguration in 2013.
Beyoncé’s cultural and political evolution over the previous decade of her profession has made her a legendary determine. Much more particularly, starting with the discharge of Renaissance in 2022, the singer has been fastidiously crafting her work round a core thought: What’s America? And additional, what does it sound like? Who does it belong to?
By tapping into home music in 2022 after which nation on this 12 months’s Cowboy Carter, Bey highlighted two distinctly American improvements and underscored how Black women and men are integral components of these two genres. She’s difficult the concepts of America and reinventing it with every query and with every track. What could possibly be extra symbolic of Beyoncé’s Americana than the nation’s first Black, biracial, lady president? What could possibly be extra on-brand than Beyoncé singing “Freedom,” the Harris-Walz marketing campaign track, and introducing Kamala Harris?
All through the night, NBC and different shops breathlessly speculated on the chance that Beyoncé was simply across the nook, with the Peacock speaking to delegates within the viewers who appeared to verify. Simply because the nation was absolutely Bey-pilled, and because the clock approached 10:30 CT — proper earlier than Kamala Harris was scheduled to just accept the nomination — the rumor was squashed.
Harris received a video introduction, and Beyoncé’s publicist posted on Instagram, “Don’t report rumors.” The Hollywood Reporter additionally received a denial at round 10:15 pm ET. For Beyoncé followers and maybe some unbiased voters, it might’ve been good if the DNC or mentioned publicist squashed the rumors hours earlier as an alternative of dangling a Bey efficiency so shut that we may style it.
It may be useful, at this juncture, to do not forget that the purpose of the DNC is just not, technically, to have a Beyoncé live performance, however fairly to introduce the nation to the girl who needs to be president. And for a quick few hours, it appeared like each would occur! Nonetheless, the X account that reportedly acknowledged this entire mess says it regrets the error, as does TMZ.