5 lists highlighting the best of Beyoncé, ahead of Minneapolis stadium show

She returns to the University of Minnesota football stadium in Minneapolis on Thursday.

July 18, 2023 at 11:21AM
Beyonce (Andrew Harnik, Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

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.

3. Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, 2009. The only dancing is by Barack and Michelle Obama, proving that Beyoncé can deliver the goods with just her voice. With her sultry bluesy treatment of "At Last," she wraps the slow-dancing Obamas with a stately warmth on this historic occasion. And Bey puts the cherry on top with an emphatic, jubilant coo at the end.

4. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" finale, 2011. Delivering "Run the World (Girls)" in a bespoke tuxedo, dishing out diplomas to students in a performance that's short on production and long on attitude, Beyoncé oozes determination and pride. So does front-row fan-girl Oprah.

5. Grammy Awards, 2014. In a starkly understated presentation, Beyoncé stages "Drunk in Love" as a riveting solo chair dance, enveloped with stage fog and strobe lights before Jay-Z shows up and shows out in a tux for his verse and a little cuddly surfboarding. The Grammys have never experienced such a romantic, classy and sexy opening.

Awards

1. Grammy Awards. When it comes to music's most prestigious prize, Queen Bey rules. She has collected 32 Grammys (including three for Destiny's Child), the most of anyone. Her 88 nominations tie her with husband Jay-Z for the most nods.

2. BET Awards. She's the all-time leader, with 35 trophies (counting a pair for Destiny's Child) from Black Entertainment Television Awards.

3. MTV Video Music Awards. Her overcrowded trophy room boasts a record 29 "Moon Person" statues, including two for Destiny's Child.

4. NAACP Image Awards. Once again, Beyoncé is at the top, with 25 solo trophies plus five more for Destiny's Child.

5. Soul Train Music Awards. No surprise. Since Don Cornelius began doling them out in 1987, Bey has garnered an unrivaled 23 solo Soul Train honors as well as Destiny's Child's booty of four.

Surprise collaborations

1. "Telephone" remix with Lady Gaga, 2009. Who you gonna call when it didn't work out with Britney Spears? Bey, of course, for an extended rap and some harmonizing. Gaga later returned the favor on Beyoncé's extended remix of "Video Phone."

2. "Daddy Lessons" remix with Dixie Chicks, 2016. With Beyoncé getting a little twangy talking about the toughness her father instilled in her, she enlists her fellow Texans to add banjo, fiddle and harmonies on this hoedown. And the trio (now called the Chicks) joined Bey to make a cross-cultural statement by performing it on the 2016 Country Music Association Awards.

3. "Beautiful Liar" with Shakira, 2007. They are look-alikes in the video but their divergent voices, set against a minimalist rhythm track with a little Middle Eastern exotica, complement each other as they bemoan the same cheatin' guy.

4. "Ego" remix with Kanye West, 2008. He starts out by low-key rapping about how he has a big ego (and he goes ha-ha-ha). It feels humorously ironic. Then Beyoncé takes over, sounding more forceful, asserting "some call it arrogant, I call it confident." We call this inflating and deflating an ego trip.

5. "Savage" remix with Megan Thee Stallion, 2020. Queen Bey adds some class, sass and ratchet to her fellow Houstonian, driving this remix to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Grammys for best rap song and rap performance.

Bey Inc.

You'd need an IRS audit to explain all of Beyoncé's endorsement deals and business investments. Here are five:

1. Parkwood Entertainment LLC is a record label, film, video and management company founded in 2008. Clients include Chloe x Halle and, of course, Beyoncé. Among the film credits are "Cadillac Records" (2008), "Obsessed" (2009) and "Black Is King" (2020), all featuring Beyoncé, who produced the projects. In 2016, Parkwood launched Ivy Park, a streetwear fashion line that ended its deal with Adidas this year after $93 million worth of sales in 2021 but only $40 million last year.

2. Beyoncé signed a $50 million endorsement deal with Pepsi in 2012. It's a hybrid situation in which she appears in Pepsi ads and the beverage brand funds some of her creative projects.

3. Beyoncé is a celebrity spokesperson for L'Oréal. She also has appeared in ad campaigns for American Express, Samsung, Ford Motor Co. and DirecTV, among others.

4. Beyoncé inked a $60 million contract in 2019 to provide content to Netflix, starting with her performance at Coachella in 2018.

5. Through her BeyGood Foundation, a charity formed in 2013, Beyoncé will donate $2 million of the proceeds from the current Renaissance World Tour to students and entrepreneurs. There will be Renaissance scholarships at 10 colleges and universities. BeyGood's Black Parade Route program will host luncheons for Black small-business owners and provide monetary grants.

Beyoncé
When: 8 p.m. Thu.
Where: Huntington Bank Stadium, 2009 University Av. SE., Mpls.
Tickets: $50-$1,900, ticketmaster.com

about the writer

about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

See More

More from Variety

card image

Sin City attempts to lure new visitors with multisensory, interactive attractions, from life-size computer games to flying like a bird.