The Bey Hive will be swarming to Huntington Bank Stadium on Thursday to see Beyoncé in concert. In honor of Queen Bey's return to the University of Minnesota campus, we've come up with five lists that we call the Bey Five, discussing everything in her solo career from her best videos to all those awards she's collected.
Best videos
1. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," 2008. Striking in its iconic simplicity, this Bob Fosse-inspired black-and-white clip is just Beyoncé and two other women in black leotards and high heels in a white room, hip-shaking, hair-tossing and hand-waving.
2. "Run the World (Girls)," 2011. It's Wakanda meets Rhythm Nation in the Mojave Desert and, of course, Beyoncé is in full command.
3. "7/11," 2014. The song refers to a dice game, not a convenience store as Bey and her dancers offer a casual in-the-hotel glimpse of exercising, rehearsing and even opening Christmas presents. Sure, it's choreographed, but it feels informal. This is Beyoncé at her nuttiest — and that's a good thing.
4. "Formation," 2016. Scenes from New Orleans juxtapose high society and impoverished country living, Givenchy and ghetto, riot-helmeted police and a fire-and-brimstone preacher. Things are complicated in the Big Easy.
5. "Partition," 2014. Explicit and intimate, this noirish clip is bejeweled, be-leathered and titillating with a back-of-the-limo tryst (hence the title), some pole-dancing and a hookup with her man, Jay-Z, at the end.
Best TV performances
1. Super Bowl halftime, 2013. The dramatic lighting, that fierce look in her eyes, the all-woman band, her shake-a-tailfeather dancing during "Crazy in Love," Destiny's Child exploding onto the stage for a reunion on "Bootylicious," "Independent Women Part 1" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," and Bey capping it off solo in the glow of "Halo." Wow!
2. BET Awards, 2016. Beyoncé declares "Freedom" with vibrant choreographed splashing with her dancers in a shallow pool tinged with fiery lighting. Kendrick Lamar arrives later for his verse and an unforgettable pas de deux splash in his work boots with the barefoot Beyoncé.