Beyoncé
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Nobody does a stadium show like Beyoncé. Back in 2016, when she was touring Lemonade, she took with her a 60-foot “monolith” to project mountainous videos at her audience – it was so big that some venues had to reduce the size of the audience in order to fit the stage. This time around, for her second On The Run tour with Jay-Z, the dynamic stage feels lighter – but it provides a number of “oh shit!” moments (not only when the couple end their show by dropping a new album, as they did on Saturday June 16 in London).

The stage is mainly constructed of two catwalks, which Bey and Jay use to perform independently of one another; at the end of the show, a giant bridge connects the two, floating over the audience as it does so. More impressive than this is the backdrop of the stage, which is dominated by two giant video screens (each of which, designer Ric Lipson tells me, is the size of “a London street”). At various points in the show, these screens split open, to reveal a four-storey structure, on which figures dance, play instruments, and sometimes create a silhouetted tableau. It’s reminiscent of the thrum of vibrant energy that Bey brought with her to this year’s Coachella performances, where she chose to perform in front of college-style bleachers packed with 120 dancers and instrumentalists, rather than the screens that usually dominate massive arena pop shows.

The show was brought to life by Stufish, a London-based entertainment architectural firm who also worked on the stage that was used for Beychella (as well as having a storied history producing shows for Lady Gaga, Queen, and U2). Dazed spoke to Stufish architect Ric Lipson about how the stage design reflected Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s narrative of forgiveness and reconciliation, why Beyoncé altered the design to accommodate a huge band, and how the show may change as it keeps travelling.

Since November, Chris Grant and JaQuel Knight have been up to their elbows in marching bands, musicians and dancers — dozens of men and women from an array of traditions.

Beyoncé may have been front and center at her spectacular Coachella performances last month. But two of her secret weapons were Mr. Grant and Mr. Knight, the show’s main choreographers.

From the start Beyoncé was clear about what she wanted. “She said, ‘Let’s do a homecoming,’” Mr. Knight said. “Boom. A nice, clear concept that we were all able to snap into and execute.”

In the nearly two-hour performance, references to homecoming at historically black colleges and universities (H.B.C.U.s) — complete with a marching band and a glittering majorette solo — lived alongside dance styles ranging from flexing, a form born on the streets of Brooklyn, to stepping, a percussive form popular in fraternities and sororities.

Beginning in December, Mr. Grant and Mr. Knight worked with Beyoncé’s music team and started their preliminary dance preparations. By January, they started skeleton-crew rehearsals. “We worked with 12 dancers for a month just to start to further develop the ideas that we laid down in December,” Mr. Knight said. “We started to build choreography.”

Two more items have been added to Beyonce's Coachella Pop-Up Store. Shop now!

Michelle Williams knows how to keep a secret. “We’re the secret queens,” the singer tells Billboard in the wake of performing two consecutive weekends at Coachella with headliner Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland. The trio, who rose to commercial acclaim in the late ‘90s and early aughts as Destiny’s Child, had been keeping the surprise under wraps since February, when Bey reached out to her former band members and asked them to join her for a medley of their mega-hits including “Say My Name,” “Lose My Breath” and “Soldier.”

“It’s just like old girlfriends coming together,” explains the 37-year-old, who last reunited as Destiny’s Child at the 2015 Stellar Awards where they performed her upbeat gospel single “Say Yes.” “It’s something that when the three of us come together, we all know we feel safe within each other. Like I got your back. We’re good. I really love that about us.”

Since Destiny’s Child went on hiatus in the wake of their last album, 2004’s Destiny Fulfilled, Williams hasn’t slowed. She’s put out four solo full-lengths including her final release, 2014’s Journey to Freedom (which won’t be her last); starred on stage as leads in Chicago and Aida; launched her own furniture and candle line Believe by Michelle; and, more recently, got engaged to pastor Chad Johnson just prior to her Coachella performance. Still teeming with excitement from the pair of shows, Williams explains how it all came together.

There were rumors before Coachella that a Destiny’s Child reunion might happen. How did the conversations begin for this? Did Beyoncé call you and just say, “It’s time?”

Beyonce.com was updated with photos from the rehearsals for Beyonce's second performance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Beyoncé returned to Coachella last night for the second weekend—and her second performance as headliner. The performance wasn't streamed this time, and despite an initial announcement, SiriusXM radio's live stream didn't include her set.

Visually the show was refreshed, with Beyoncé and her 100 dancers and band members washed in shades of magenta and virtually every ensemble the singer wore was swapped out for a new look.

The set-list, however, remained untouched and she was again joined by husband Jay-Z, former Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams as well as her sister Solange Knowles. There was an extra surprise, as the singer was also joined by J. Balvin for a quick run of "Mi Gente."

Beyoncé's Coachella merchandise collection was expanded with two new items, which are now available on the Coachella Pop-Up Store website.

The Shop Beyoncé Coachella Collection is available now for a limited time: popup.beyonce.com

Confirmed: Beychella’s second weekend won’t feature the exact same iconic set we saw before. Backup dancer Jo’Artis Mijo Ratti told Variety that the team is “switching up a couple things, so there could still be a wow factor.” The bad news: Beyoncé’s second Coachella set this weekend won’t stream on YouTube, nor are there plans to re-air it. However, members of the Beyhive can live-stream the audio for Weekend 2 on SiriusXM’s Coachella Radio.

As arguably one of the best live shows of recent times, Beyoncé's Coachella performance broke a major viewing record on YouTube during its live stream on Saturday, April 14. According to a press release, this year's Coachella was reportedly the festival's biggest to date, bringing over 41 million live views from fans in 232 countries over the weekend. Beyoncé's Saturday stage show alone garnered 458K simultaneous viewers around the world, making her awe-inspiring presentation the most viewed Coachella performance of all time, as well as the most viewed live music festival ever on YouTube.

Amidst the performance, Beyoncé became the first black woman to ever headline Coachella in its nearly 20-year history, and she absolutely made it a point to use the platform to showcase all of the beauty of her roots throughout the entire history-making night. Making mention of the monumental moment, Beyoncé spoke to the audience, saying, “Thank you Coachella for allowing me to be the first black woman to headline."

Beyoncé's mom, Tina Knowles Lawson, knew her daughter would perform a headlining set for the ages at Coachella, but she was unsure as to how the performance would be received.

Now, she's admitting that she "stands corrected," as a revealing conversation with the pop star showed her how important it was for her to stick to her vision.

Lawson shared part of an intimate conversation between her and Beyoncé about the historic Coachella set, which drew inspiration from the marching bands, step teams and dance crews of HBCU, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities. "I told Beyoncé that i was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and Black college culture because it was something that they might not get," she writes.

"Her brave response to me made me feel a bit selfish and ashamed. She said 'I have worked very hard to get to the point where I have a true voice and at this point in my life and my career I have a responsibility to do whats best for the world and not what is most popular.'"

She went on to point out that Bey's mission was to unite the audience at Coachella and encourage understanding, even if they weren't familiar with HBCU: "She said that her hope is that after the show young people would research this culture and see how cool it is, and young people black and white would listen to 'LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING' and see how amazing the words are for us all and bridge the gap."

"She also hopes that it will encourage young kids to enroll in our amazing Historically Black Colleges and Universities," Lawson continued. "I stand corrected ❤️"

It all started when stylist Marni Senofonte approached Olivier Rousteing after his Fall 2018 runway show for Balmain and explained to him that she was trying to find the right designer to create custom looks for Beyoncé’s upcoming Coachella performances. “Marni told me that the shows were all about survivors and that B was looking for something in a military style,” Rousteing says. “Our silhouettes and our sort of Mad Max, futuristic take on military looks for Fall were a perfect fit.” But, of course, Queen Bey was not about to wear something that was going to be mass-produced, so Rousting went to work with Senofonte and the rest of Beyoncé’s team to create two custom Balmain stage wardrobes, one for each of her performances tonight and next Saturday night. Rousteing also dressed the 200-some dancers on stage, as well as Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, who reunited with Beyoncé for a Destiny’s Child throwback moment. Rousteing only had a few weeks to pull it all together, spending sleepless nights and long days creating the Egyptian-inspired gold-and-black cape with intricate embellishments; as well as a hologram-fabric black jacket and bodysuit; a collegiate-style embellished yellow hoodie with “BAE” written on the front; a camouflage and mesh minidress; and a top decorated with a 2018 Beyoncé crest that shows a bee, a raised fist, a panther, and an Egyptian goddess. “By the end it felt like Marni and I were in a relationship,” the designer said with a laugh. “We went to bed texting and emailing one another and woke up doing the same.”

Beyonce.com was updated with tons of behind the scenes photos from the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Beyonce performed during 2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival Weekend 1 at the Empire Polo Field on April 14, 2018 in Indio, California. The singer prepared many surprises for her fans, including a Destiny’s Child reunion, as well as cameos from JAY-Z and Solange. Queen B also unveiled new merch at the festival. Watch the full performance and check out the setlist below.

Beyoncé posted a message for her fans who are attending Coachella on her Facebook page!

Buzz that Beyoncé will reunite with Destiny’s Child at Coachella has come and gone — but a music insider tells Page Six, “It’s on!”

“Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child are reuniting,” claims the source. “It was teased, rumored, squashed, so nothing much else was said . . . But it’s happening.”

Beyoncé’s scheduled to perform solo on Saturday.

The insider said the added surprise is “to make up for the fact she was unable to perform last year,” when pregnant.

“The girls really wanted it and felt they owed it to the fans.”

Coachella organizers have confirmed details of the festival's first weekend live stream program, with Beyoncé's set among the highlights. The festival takes place between April 13-15 (and again April 20-22) with Bey due to make her live return on the Saturday night.

Other artists whose sets will be streamed live from Coachella include The Weeknd, St. Vincent, Tyler, the Creator, Migos, Kamasi Washington, Brockhampton, Kamaiyah, Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius, Haim, Alvvays, and more. The streams will be available on Coachella's YouTube page.

In the most recent Rolling Stone cover story, former White Stripes frontman Jack White revealed the existence of an unreleased version of Beyonce’s “Daddy Lessons.”

White spoke openly of his collaborations with Beyonce, saying the two were supposed to take to Saturday Night Live to perform "Don't Hurt Yourself" -- the searing cut from Lemonade that explicitly referred to Jay-Z’s infidelity, laced with White's cryptic guitar keys -- though the plan never came to fruition.

He also revealed another unreleased collab with Queen Bey, saying the singer had requested an (even more) country-inspired version of “Daddy Lessons,” citing blues musician Seasick Steve as the alternate arrangement’s inspiration. White was impressed by the request, but his version of the song remained unused on Lemonade.

Beyoncé is going vegan (again!) to get performance ready for Coachella 2018.

The singer, who is taking to the Coachella stage in April, announced on Facebook Friday that she is returning to her 22 Days Nutrition plan in preparation.

“We have 44 days until Coachella!! Vegan Time!! Click the link to join me!! Mealplanner.22daysnutrition.com” Beyoncé captioned a photo of her fancy avocado toast as part of the plant-based food challenge which she co-founded in 2015.

Queen Bey also shared the first sneak peeks inside her Coachella rehearsals.

Ted Owen & Co released another video from the Beyoncé 1992 video collection they're auctioning off. The auction ends on March 13. Read more here.

The lineup for the 2018 Coachella Music and Arts Festival has been announced, and headlining the festival will be a trio of superstars: Canadian R&B singer the Weeknd, pop diva Beyoncé and Detroit rapper Eminem.

Now in its 19th year as a festival, the Goldenvoice–promoted event marks the symbolic opening of the annual festival season. This year‘s installment, which will take place over two weekends from April 13-22, marks the first time a rock act hasn’t headlined.

Also featured will be rapper Tyler, the Creator, experimental pop guitarist St. Vincent, the breakout R&B singer SZA, sibling trio Haim and the wildly popular New York rapper Cardi B.

Veterans taking the stage will include former Talking Heads singer David Byrne, British beat band Jamiroquai, prog-metal band A Perfect Circle and disco-funk producer Nile Rodgers and Chic.

The shift away from rock and booming EDM has most benefited rap, which will be represented through artists including “Rock Star” rapper Post Malone, respected Long Beach artist Vince Staples, the Atlanta trio Migos, ascendent collective Brockhampton and upstart Princess Nokia.

Still, there will be guitars, and they’ll be carried in by members of bands including the War on Drugs, Alt-J, Priests, Fidlar, Fleet Foxes, Cherry Glazerr and the Regrettes.

Remaining tickets go on sale Jan. 5 at noon PST on the Coachella site. General admission passes are $429, while VIP wristbands cost $999. Prices include all taxes and shipping fees.

Check out the full lineup below.