Ring the Alarm! New Beyoncé is on the way!
We can’t say that the pop icon wasn’t there for us during quarantine — after all, the visual album Black is King was one of the most stunning pandemic drops, and ended up helping her become the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. So yes, she always keeps us fed, but as fans, we can’t help always wanting more!
Related: Beyoncé’s Mom BLASTS Disney For Racism Over Black Is King
Well, the wait may soon be over, as the singer told Harper’s Bazaar that she had been spending time in the studio. But the interview was a gift in and of itself from the notoriously tight-lipped star, who has kept her press to a minimum in recent years. In honor of her upcoming 40th birthday, the wide-ranging sit-down reflected on her career and legacy, as well as her goals for the future. She shared for the September issue:
“I want to feel the same freedom I feel on stage every day of my life.”
Speaking about being part of some “overdue shifts” in the industry and her desire to continue to “dismantle systemic imbalances,” she later added:
“I have paid my dues and followed every rule for decades, so now I can break the rules that need to be broken. My wish for the future is to continue to do everything everyone thinks I can’t do.”
And while Bey is clearly proud of her unparalleled career, right now, she’s all about moving forward:
“I’ve spent so many years trying to better myself and improve whatever I’ve done that I’m at a point where I no longer need to compete with myself. I have no interest in searching backwards. The past is the past. I feel many aspects of that younger, less evolved Beyoncé could never f**k with the woman I am today. Haaa!”
LOLz! We mean — few of us could f**k with Beyoncé at ANY age!
Keep scrolling for more highlights from the interview, including hints about her new music and some potential ventures beyond the pop world:
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New music
Let’s get this out of the way first… yes, Queen Bey did tease new music, and it sounds like she’s ready to deliver us the best vibes possible. She told the outlet:
“With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again. I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I’ve been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare. One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies. Still, there’s nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!”
Why she’s so private
Asked about navigating fame in this day and age, the Lemonade artist observed that “we live in a world with few boundaries and a lot of access.” As to why she’s kept things so close to the vest in recent years, she explained:
“I’m grateful I have the ability to choose what I want to share. One day I decided I wanted to be like Sade and Prince. I wanted the focus to be on my music, because if my art isn’t strong enough or meaningful enough to keep people interested and inspired, then I’m in the wrong business. My music, my films, my art, my message — that should be enough.”
She also spoke about drawing a hard line between her personal and professional life, so much so that her loved ones “often forget the side of me that is the beast in stilettos until they are watching me perform.” She mused:
“In this business, so much of your life does not belong to you unless you fight for it. I’ve fought to protect my sanity and my privacy because the quality of my life depended on it. A lot of who I am is reserved for the people I love and trust. Those who don’t know me and have never met me might interpret that as being closed off. Trust, the reason those folks don’t see certain things about me is because my Virgo ass does not want them to see it….It’s not because it doesn’t exist!”
Beyoncé, an introvert!?
The Texas native’s premium on privacy may just stretch all the way back to her childhood. Surprisingly (at least, for someone who’s slayed on the world’s biggest stages), she labeled herself as an “introvert” at a young age, admitting:
“No one in my school knew that I could sing because I barely spoke.”
She also described herself as a dreamer, saying:
“I spent a lot of time in my head building my imagination. I am now grateful for those shy years of silence. Being shy taught me empathy and gave me the ability to connect and relate to people. I’m no longer shy, but I’m not sure I would dream as big as I dream today if it were not for those awkward years in my head.”
Becoming the best
Less surprising is the fact that JAY-Z’s wife was EXTREMELY focused on her career goals from a very young age. She recalled being in “dance and singing competitions at age seven,” beginning voice lessons with an opera singer at nine, and having “at least 50 or 60 songs” recorded by ten. She was put on vocal rest from her first vocal injury at 13, right after getting her first record deal, and became afraid that she had “developed nodules and destroyed my voice and that my career could be over.” (Luckily for all of us, that wasn’t the case.)
Noting that she had to “dance and sing twice as hard” as the only Black girl in many of her competitions, she elaborated on her drive to succeed:
“If something wasn’t helping me reach my goal, I decided to invest no time in it. I didn’t feel like I had time to ‘kiki’ or hang out. I sacrificed a lot of things and ran from any possible distraction. I felt as a young Black woman that I couldn’t mess up. I felt the pressure from the outside and their eyes watching for me to trip or fail. I couldn’t let my family down after all the sacrifices they made for me and the girls. That meant I was the most careful, professional teenager and I grew up fast. I wanted to break all of the stereotypes of the Black superstar, whether falling victim to drugs or alcohol or the absurd misconception that Black women were angry. I knew I was given this amazing opportunity and felt like I had one shot. I refused to mess it up, but I had to give up a lot.”
Bey in black & white
After working so hard and sacrificing so much to build her career, it’s no surprise that it later “pissed [her] off” when agencies tried to “dictate what [her] fans wanted” with unfair and inaccurate surveys. In one case, she was told audiences didn’t respond to her in black and white — and Beyoncé got a bit vengeful:
“It triggered me when I was told, ‘These studies show…’ I was so exhausted and annoyed with these formulaic corporate companies that I based my whole next project off of black and white photography, including the videos for ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘If I Were a Boy’ and all of the artwork by Peter Lindbergh for I Am…Sasha Fierce, which ended up being my biggest commercial success to date. I try to keep the human feeling and spirit and emotion in my decision-making.”
Another lesson in NEVER doubting the Queen. And because she’s a boss, she went on to cut out the middlemen and create her OWN companies to support her art.
Related: JAY-Z Talks Fatherhood, Offers Pretty Great Advice About ‘Supporting’ Your Kids!
How she practices self care
We know a lot about the momma of three’s work ethic, so it’s all the more fascinating to hear how one of the most successful artists in the world practices self care. She reflected:
“My 30s were about starting my family and my life becoming more than my career. I worked to heal generational trauma and turned my broken heart into art that would help move culture forward and hopefully live far beyond me.”
She also divulged:
“I think like many women, I have felt the pressure of being the backbone of my family and my company and didn’t realize how much that takes a toll on my mental and physical well-being. I have not always made myself a priority. I’ve personally struggled with insomnia from touring for more than half of my life. Years of wear and tear on my muscles from dancing in heels. The stress on my hair and skin, from sprays and dyes to the heat of a curling iron and wearing heavy makeup while sweating on stage. I’ve picked up many secrets and techniques over the years to look my best for every show. But I know that to give the best of me, I have to take care of myself and listen to my body.”
The Grammy winner continued:
“In the past, I spent too much time on diets, with the misconception that self-care meant exercising and being overly conscious of my body. My health, the way I feel when I wake up in the morning, my peace of mind, the number of times I smile, what I’m feeding my mind and my body—those are the things that I’ve been focusing on. Mental health is self-care too. I’m learning to break the cycle of poor health and neglect, focusing my energy on my body and taking note of the subtle signs that it gives me. Your body tells you everything you need to know, but I’ve had to learn to listen. It’s a process to change habits and look past the bag of chips and the chaos everywhere!”
She revealed that she spent quarantine “creating positive rituals drawing from past generations and putting my own spin on things,” which took on a unique form:
“I found healing properties in honey that benefit me and my children. And now I’m building a hemp and a honey farm. I’ve even got hives on my roof! … One of my most satisfying moments as a mom is when I found Blue one day soaking in the bath with her eyes closed, using blends I created and taking time for herself to decompress and be at peace. I have so much to share…and there’s more to come soon!”
OMG! Are we talking a Beyoncé skin care line? We would DEFINITELY be into that. Clearly the future is full of more unexpected possibilities ahead!
In the meantime, get ready to drop your jaw over these GLAMOROUS photos from Bey’s September covers and spread:
Beyoncé is our September 2021 cover star!
https://t.co/gU8FpavjSC
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
“I have no interest in searching backwards. The past is the past. I feel many aspects of that younger, less evolved Beyoncé could never f*** with the woman I am today," says @Beyonce for our #BAZAARICONS September cover story. Read it now here: https://t.co/mk8C6C68gS pic.twitter.com/o640luO15t
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
“I’ve fought to protect my sanity and my privacy because the quality of my life depended on it,” says @Beyonce for our #BAZAARICONS September cover story. Read it now here: https://t.co/mk8C6C68gS pic.twitter.com/3vQfG2gkbt
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
[Image via WENN/Avalon]
The post Beyoncé Says New 'Music Is Coming' In Jaw-Dropping September Issue Of <i>Harper’s Bazaar</i> appeared first on Perez Hilton.
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