By Das Rios
Are we currently experiencing a Beyonce overload? Is she merely soaking up her star power, or are we all witnessing a true innovator in action? The world knows Beyonce as the stand out from Destiny’s Child who took the opportunity to go solo and completely dissolved her competition. Her debut album, Dangerously In Love, topped the Billboard charts in 2003 and featured two consecutive number one singles, “Crazy In Love” and “Baby Boy.” She took home 5 Grammy awards in 2004 including one for best Contemporary R&B album. After reuniting with Destiny’s Child in 2004 for their last album, Destiny Fulfilled, Beyonce fulfilled her own destiny by starring in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls. The film, released in 2007 was a dream come true for Beyonce. Although she didn’t win an Oscar for her role, Beyonce took the opportunity during the promotion of Dreamgirls to promote her second album, B’day.
The album, released September 4, 2006 debuted at number one, selling over 500,000 copies its first week in stores. It spawned two hits for Beyonce, “Déjà Vu” and “Ring the Alarm.” They topped out at 4 and 11 respectively. The album was a bit different from her first. It featured production by Swizz Beatz, Rodney Jerkins, the Neptunes and Rich Harrison. Harrison is the only producer that worked on her debut. It wasn’t until the release of the third irresistible single “Irreplaceable,” (co-written by Ne-Yo), that Beyonce seemed to be wearing her crown again. The single reached the top of the charts and stayed for 10 weeks. It was such a success that Beyonce re-recorded the single in Spanish and it cracked the top twenty on the Latin charts.
Just this past week, Beyonce re-released B’day adding 11 new tracks, one with Latin star Shakira, and four songs completely sung in Spanish. She also released a video anthology with 12 new music videos of tracks off of her latest album. One may say the re-release of the album is Beyonce basking in the momentum of her current status. However, B looks at this as an opportunity to bring to life her latest album by making videos for all of the tracks. Upon watching the videos, one for almost every track on the album, you have to respect Beyonce for doing something different and really being creative. Although the videos are very simple (all paid for by Beyonce), they seem to tell a story or at least give the songs a new life. One of the highlights of the anthology as well as Beyonce’s favorite is “Green Light.” The track, produced by the Neptunes, has a loud funky horn driven beat that really comes alive with the video. Beyonce took direction from Robert Palmer and his “Addicted to Love” video. She along with two back up dancers mimic the moves of the female trio in Palmer’s successful video. The video anthology also includes Beyonce’s sexy duet with Shakira, “Beautiful Liar.” The song is about a man playing two women who happen to be Shakira and Beyonce. The video plays off of the fact that the two look very much alike and shows Beyonce trying her hand at what Shakira is famously known for, belly dancing. Although Beyonce puts forth a good effort, she is no match for Shakira’s natural moves.
What is next for Beyonce? She currently has a world tour in the works and a plethora of videos to release as her next single. Some may be skeptical of Beyonce, but I think we are witnessing an innovator taking control of her destiny
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