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Twenty-four hours ago, Beyoncé released her Netflix documentary, Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé and a 40-track live album. Both celebrated black power and liberation and were pulled from the singer’s 2018 history-making Coachella set where she became the first black woman to ever headline.
Michelle Obama was also one of those trailblazing firsts and in an essay penned for TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Beyoncé praised Obama’s grace in the White House and what this quality meant for black Americans. The duo met at President Obama’s first Inauguration in 2009 where Beyoncé described Mrs Obama as “warm”.
“Loving Michelle Obama wasn’t much of a choice,” begins Beyoncé. “It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we weren’t exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful.”
“The way she looked, walked and spoke, in that warm but authoritative tone, we saw our mothers and sisters,” she continued. “She was strong and ambitious and spoke her mind without sacrificing honesty or empathy. That takes a lot of courage and discipline. She would’ve been impactful simply by being in the White House, the first African-American First Lady. But she also used her position of power to improve the world around her… She empowers all of us to interrogate our fears and surpass greatness.”
Beyoncé finished her piece by looking forward and referencing Obama’s impact on her children’s lives. “I am so grateful that my daughters and my son live in a world where Michelle Obama shines as a beacon of hope who inspires all of us to do better and to be better.”
You can watch Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé now on Netflix. A year in-the-making, if she wasn’t a performer, Beyoncé would most certainly be welcome on any marketing strategy team.
Listen to her live album, Homecoming, here.
