Work, work, work: Beyoncé’s labour of liberation
Leading a creative revolution whose ripples were seen from Kanye to Donald Glover to Little Simz, Beyoncé consigned the idea of performers ‘sticking to the music’ to history
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By now, it’s a cliche. “You have as many hours in a day as Beyoncé,” the saying goes. You can find its words slapped on mugs, T-shirts and Instagram quotes or murmured into the bathroom mirror as a bleary-eyed morning affirmation. The backlash (largely led by white women) to this tongue-in-cheek attempt at self-motivation has already pointed out its blind spots around class. Of course, you, regular human with looming mounds of debt and bills, can’t “maximise” your time like a pop star with entire creative and personal teams to eliminate her drudgery. That’s obvious.
But the sentiment – that Beyoncé would, at one point, have been a nobody just like you, with as much time to work with – still holds true. Like her or not, she leveraged a childhood work ethic into a career that spreads beyond her role as a performer. Yes, Beyoncé is a singer. Yes, she often co-writes. In addition, she is also an all-round entertainment mogul, directing documentaries and music visuals, executive-producing film soundtracks and commanding a wider, ephemeral level of cultural influence – not to mention moving into fashion.