BEYONCE more traditional, adult contemporary ballads like "Halo," and the second half featuring radio and club hits like "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)." While this split is noticeable on record, her live performances manage to unite these selfstylized "contradictions" through her presentation of herself as an all-around female badass. Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones has said that Beyoncé has "a monopoly on a sort of dignified anger … she really owns this 'wronged woman who is not in any way pathetic' thing." And indeed, after an opening pyrotechnic sequence that illuminated two silhouettes facing each other, Beyoncé stood in center stage, backlit, hands on hips, all legs and hair and attitude. She put the mic to her lips and sang the chorus to "Love on Top" a cappella. Then the music kicked in, and immediately established two important points. The first is that backing tracks were certainly being used, in addition to the full band, because that was Jay-Z's voice out there and he was nowhere to be seen. The second point was that Jay-Z was nowhere to be seen. If there was ever a time for a man to walk on stage and give a shout-out to his wife, this was it, and it wasn't happening. It wasn't because Beyoncé was unwilling to share the stage—at one point she brought her guitar player out front for a solo, and Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams came out to do "Independent Women Part I" and parts of "Single Ladies." But all of those women were just that: women. From the band, to the legions of dancers, to the singers themselves, everyone on stage that night was female. During the closing number, "Halo," the silhouetted faces that framed the stage grew hair. Thanks to a fabric element that emerged from each side, the faces now had long, flowing hair, transforming their previously gender-neutral appearance into a decidedly female-centric one. Lots has been written about whether or not Beyoncé is a "feminist," but wherever you lie in that debate it seems hard to ignore that this attitude and imagery, at the center of the most masculinist sporting event in the world, was and is a statement. In a note to her fellow performers after the show, including Hudson, Roland and Williams, Beyoncé opened with an appropriate degree of capital letters and exclamation points: "What a proud day for AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN!!!!" Indeed, but also a proud day for all of us—women and men— who witnessed it.
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Craig Eley is a graduate student at The University of Iowa, currently residing in Austin, TX Feb. 20-Mar. 6 2013 | Little Village
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