During Beyonces performance at last years Coachella, she brought on a company of over 200 marching band members, dancers, and background singers to put on a full two-hour concert. The popular festival is used to seeing flower crowns and hipster coffee shop headliners of the acoustic or EDM persuasion, but Beyonce did not want to give you that. She wanted to flip Coachella on its head and give you the unexpected. She wanted to serve you a show that only Beyonce can put on — and she did. And while she was at it, she decided to make a documentary about it called Homecoming and release a year later to remind you that the festival will never see a performance like this again. Ever.
Officially titled, Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce dropped at midnight on Tuesday and the Beyhive was buzzing with bated breath counting down the seconds until it hit the streaming platform. The release of the documentary written, directed and executive produced by Beyonce did not come without a surprise. She also unleashed a Homecoming live album which put the Beyhive into more of a frenzy.
Watching Homecoming is like watching the Coachella performance from last year all over again, but with an incredible amount of depth. The documentary felt like the end of this gorgeous journey she was taking us on that arguably began with her HBO special Life is But a Dream which was released in 2016. Since then, she has not only grown as a musician but as a mother and wife. All of which has fueled her artistry — and it is certainly reflected in Homecoming.
Homecoming goes beyond what we saw on the stage at Coachella last year. As the first black woman to ever headline Coachella (as Bey says, “Aint that bout a bitch?”), Beyonce wanted to show us that this was more than just a two-hour concert. She wanted to give us an experience that would leave an impact and resonate for decades. Cutting from concert footage to candid personal video (we got to see the twins!) to Blue Ivy taking charge during a dance rehearsal footage to educating audiences about HBCUs to her rendition of Frankie Beverly and Mazes “Before I Let Go”, Homecoming was an experience that celebrated black culture and she generously shared that with all of us. She uplifted the black community and in turn, it united all of us.
The performance paid homage to Americas historically black colleges and universities (aka HBCUs) with dance and music that is very specific to the culture. Woven in and out of the film are profound quotes from HBCU alums Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, activist Marian Wright Edelman, and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois as well as cultural luminaries such as Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Audre Lorde.
Homecoming is the final movement to an opus and it shows us the blood, sweat and tears Beyonce put into her Coachella performance as well as this documentary. They rehearsed for eight months on three soundstages to give us this brilliant piece of work that blended all phases of Bey together — including an appearance from her Destinys Child besties Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams (they gave us a harmoniously on-point performance of “Say My Name” that Im still gushing over).
And just when we thought that her groundbreaking Coachella performance was it, she pulled the rug from under us and said, “Nope, Im giving you a documentary too.” After spending another year editing the film, she decided to time the release a year later — right around the same time Coachella was happening.
When she performed at Coachella she knew exactly what she was doing — she was giving us a package deal. It was a part of her masterplan. She knew damn well that Homecoming was going to be a feature film and that why she made it as epic and precise as she did. The documentary is a testimony to all of her hard work and thoughtfulness as an artist and a savvy businesswoman.
The transition and editing between the “pink” and “yellow performances from Read More – Source
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