Beyoncé is one of the greatest vocalists of all time. For those that don’t know this, you don’t just naturally have the ability to sing. Yes, you can be born with a beautiful tone, but to actually be a great singer you HAVE to train so your talents are optimised and so your voice isn’t slowly ruined through strain (Adele 👀 Rihanna 👀).

Beyoncé is an insanely talented mezzo soprano due to her years of operatic vocal training.

I highly recommend watching her performances where she uses “bel canto” styles - 1+1 is probably the most notable example. Her head voice in these performances is so rich, there is no strain there whatsoever. I’d also say that her head voice is the only time her basic tone doesn’t get in the way of the sound of her performance.

She’s also incredibly versatile in learning and mastering other vocal styles such as R&B; runs, Arabic influenced Runs (Baby Boy especially), growling. I’ll just point out that “Why Don’t You Love Me”, “The Beautiful Ones” and her Stevie Wonder Tribute are my favourite performances to showcase her growls.

Besides being an incredible vocalist. Beyoncé is also extremely talented in the following categories:

Performance.

Due to vocal training and breathing training. Beyoncé executes full on visual performances and choreographed performances without compromising her vocals.

An excellent example of this is her 2017 Grammys performance. Pregnant with twins, her breathing was severely compromised. This adds extra pressure to your diaphragm making it physically more difficult to control your breathing while singing. And even though you can hear the fact that she is breathier while singing Love Drought and Sandcastles, she maintain perfect breathing patterns and her vocals were not compromised.

Alongside consistently showcasing amazing vocals during her performances. Beyoncé also manages to reinvent her performances, and truly manages to redefine performing.

Her Tidal 2016 performance and her Grammy 2017 performance brought along the concept of introducing holograms that are actively part of the storytelling and choreography. This is something that truly was new to the mainstream award show performances. The effort put into creating the holograms, making them performance perfect, making sure you get the correct placement down so not to fuck up the concept. It’s an insane amount of work to get holograms to work into a performance as actively as they were.

Her 2016 VMAs Lemonade performance brought the art of styled and controlled cinematography to the mainstream awards show. I recommend for everyone to watch “Don’t Hurt Yourself” from the 2016 VMAs because I cannot describe how much of a difference controlled cinematography makes to the performance.

Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour is credited for redefining what is possible for stadium tours. Her Monolith was a personal favourite of mine. It is also recognised as one of the 20 greatest tours of all time, and she is competing with tours that had and average of 234 shows, the FWT has 49 shows.

Albums/Bodies of Work

Beyoncé has also had an active role in bringing the importance of albums back to the music industry. I’d actually call her a catalyst in the return of albums. She is vocally against the culture music became - the quick release of a single only for them to burn out on a files weeks before the release of the next.

Her Self-Titled album fucked up the industry. She is one of the few artists ever who could release an album with no promotion, no middle man, and still have an incredibly successful era. The concept of a visual album brought back story telling over an entire album. It challenged the idea that only singles deserved videos. It required a hell of a lot of work to shoot 17 videos.

It is a visual masterpiece, with beautiful production and I cannot be happier with the success.

LEMONADE fucking kicked Self-Titled down a few pegs.

From the get go, LEMONADE was in everyone’s face. From the drop of FORMATION, to the controversial Super Bowl Performance that had you haters pissing your pants, to the greatly anticipated release of the hour long movie. LEMONADE was everywhere, and with very little promotion from Beyoncé herself. Haters and Fans alike spread the hype of this era.

LEMONADE is a visual album, but with a continuous political story line. Deeply embedded into the culture and history of black women in America, giving voice and visuals to share pain and growth.

LEMONADE brought an era where are forms collide. Vocals, production, visuals, spoken word, cinematography in performances, holograms. It is consistently a gorgeous era.

Beyoncé is not overrated. She is the example of what an artist should strive to be. She has taken ownership of her own company, releasing bodies of work that reflect her truth. Spanning into multiple genres of music and forms of art. She is an unstoppable force within the music industry and as a music lover, I am beyond excited to witness her making history.

Is Beyoncé overrated?