Entertainment

Beyoncé Has Some Big News...

by S. Atkinson

All bow down to the Queen of Pop's skill at musical stealth-attacks. After debuting "Formation" with zero warning at the halftime at the Super Bowl, and then giving it away for free download on Tidal, Beyoncé carved out a nice little niche for herself in viral guerilla advertising. She's so word of mouth this year I can't even believe I'm writing about her rather than phoning every single damn one of you up. Which might be why Beyoncé just upped and posted something on Instagram Saturday with no warning about an upcoming world event called Lemonade that's so deliciously mysterious, I speculate we'll all be talking about this endlessly/until it drops next Saturday. But, what is Beyoncé's Lemonade World Premiere event?

The tantalizingly short clip shows Beyoncé bent forward over the grille of a car so all that's visible are her cornrows and the fur coat she's wearing. There's also this eerie, thriller-type reverb in the background. I'd be surprised if this was anything more substantial than the intro sound to the musical masterpiece (because, let's face it, they always are, aren't they?) she'll be revealing. Then, the screen turns black, and the announcement pops up on screen: Lemonade, world premiere event, Saturday, April 23.

Don't just take my word for it — check it out for yourself.

Yes, I'm overexcited and clueless in equal measures. So far this thing seems to be being guarded more closely than a state secret. While THE BEYHIVE, who self-describe as "the largest Beyoncé fan community on the web" know what it is, they're not telling:

Presuming being f*cked up is a good thing, sounds like a wild ride, right? But, if we check out a tweet of theirs from February 20, there's a few juicy clues that might give us an idea of what to expect come April 23:

While this implies that this could be Beyoncé's long awaited sixth album, why would that broadcast on HBO? So you know what guys — by a process of simple deduction — this has to be the album movie THE BEYHIVE have been tweeting about, right?

It makes sense: The clip is sinister and richly cinematic and 2016 Beyoncé's all about making her audience expect the unexpected. What's more out there than releasing your album movie first?

But wait. That's not everything. Those cornrows, the fur, the coat. What does it remind you of? Damn straight: Those hypnotizing visuals from the "Formation" video when Beyoncé hung out outside the window of a moving car. You guys, I bet you anything that the album movie is based on the characters Beyoncé plays in the "Formation" music video.

Obviously, all this is pure speculation, but I can't quite believe that it would be an unintentional coincidence that Beyonce rocks cornrows and fur in one music video and then pretty much the same look in her promo video for Lemonade and that there would be zero connection. Still, it's just over an hour since Beyoncé published her Instagram video and she's already got exactly what she wanted: I can't stop thinking about Lemonade. Beyoncé, you beautiful, guerilla advertising genius, let me come and apprentice with you.

Images: Beyoncé/YouTube; Giphy