For
most Americans, it’s merely the Friday before Labor Day weekend, a dull
smattering of hours that stands between them and a hard-won three days
off.
But for some, it’s Bey Day.
Beyoncé,
America’s luminous sphinx of a superstar, turned 34 years old, and her
fans’ enthusiasm around the event falls somewhere between birthday
celebration and national holiday.
Beyoncé
Knowles? The surname seems a bit extraneous and awkward now, like
dangling a “Ciccone” after Madonna, or a “Nelson” after Prince. To her
fans, many of them denizens of the BeyHive, she is simply referred to as
Queen. To them, she is the physical embodiment of female power, mother
of music, mother of style — or, in keeping with popular Internet
parlance, she’s just “mom.”
Beyoncé uses few words to respond to the adoration. She has not granted a
public interview in months (this month’s Vogue cover story is more like
a “think piece,” its Pulitzer-winning writer told The Times in August).
She prefers instead to lead her devoted following by aesthetic example
on Instagram — over one million people liked a photo of her boating
with her daughter — and on her website. Additional information is
carefully doled out and rationed, usually transmitted through finely
curated tidbits of praise.
To celebrate her birthday, her friends and family created a playlist of songs
that reminded them of her. The song “Yellow” by Coldplay reminds her
husband, Jay Z, of their vacations. “Part of Your World,” a song from
“The Little Mermaid,” is a favorite of her daughter, Blue Ivy. That’s
enough information for now. (Oh, and also, she got bangs.)
Some
fans also paid tribute by posting photos, videos and GIFs that span
Beyoncé’s decade-plus time as a superstar. Here are just a few of the
most popular eras of Queen Bey’s reign, plucked from the #BeyDay
archives:
Baby Beyoncé
On Instagram and Twitter, fans seized the opportunity to celebrate the blessed birth by sharing a baby photo that Beyoncé had previously posted (with only the word “throwback”) on her website.
Post a Comment