Music

Let’s All Bask In The Glory Of Beyonce’s Grammys Performance

"It's important to me to show images to my children that reflect their beauty."

by Meg Watson  13 February 2017

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The 59th annual Grammy Awards are currently underway in the US and I’m sorry, I’m not going to give you any more context than that before sharing this sweet and precious gift:

The literal angel was introduced to the stage by her mum, Tina Knowles, and delivered a medley of ‘Love Drought’ and ‘Sandcastles’ along with astonishing visuals and stagecraft. The performance was, unsurprisingly, centred upon the theme of motherhood after the announcement of Beyonce’s pregnancy with twins. Both Tina and Blue Ivy appeared as projections alongside the singer whose belly was on show, and the whole thing was strung together by the words of British-Somali poet Warsan Shire which also feature on Lemonade.

Beyonce already took out the Grammy Award for Best Music Video before the telecast even began, and she also won the category for Best Urban Contemporary album straight after her performance. In her acceptance speech she spoke to the purpose of Lemonade and made a broader point about the need for diversity in all spheres and celebration of all cultures.

“We all experience pain and loss, and often we become inaudible,” she said. “My intention with the film and album was to create a body of work that would give a voice to our pain, our struggles, our darkness and our history; to confront images that make us uncomfortable. It’s important to me to show images to my children that reflect their beauty — so they can grow up in a world where they look in the mirror, first to their own families, as well as the news, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the White House and the Grammys, and see themselves.

“[I want them to] have no doubt that they’re beautiful, intelligent and capable. This is something I want for every child of every race and I feel it’s vital that we look to the past and recognise our tendencies to repeat our mistakes.”

It’s all going over pretty well.

Beyonce is up for a few more big awards today including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. Follow along on our liveblog here.