Beyoncé‘s 2018 Coachella performance was incredible for several reasons. First and foremost, she’s Beyoncé; it’s a blessing any and every time she graces us with her presence. Her set was more than just entertaining, though. Throughout the performance, Beyoncé paid tribute to black culture, specifically historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
She started her commentary right at the beginning when a loud voiceover dubbed the show “Beyoncé Homecoming 2018.” It played into the HBCU theme of Bey’s set, while also nodding to the fact she’s the first black woman to ever headline Coachella. This overarching concept was accompanied by drum lines, choirs, and step squads in between Beyoncé’s outfit changes—all hallmarks of HBCUs. She also channeled Wakanda, the fictional nation in Black Panther, during the show, which augmented its black empowerment theme. Thousands of people, specifically black women, left Beyoncé’s Coachella set feeling inspired and more represented than ever before. Beyoncé followed this up by announcing she’s giving $100,000 in scholarship money to four HBCUs:
But Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncé’s mother, was originally concerned about how the performance would be perceived. The famous matriarch revealed on Instagram this week she thought Coachella’s “predominately white” audience wouldn’t understand her daughter’s messaging. Beyoncé, however, wasn’t fazed by that.
“I told Beyonce 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 wrote on Instagram, next to a photo of a quote about the Coachella performance. “[Beyoncé’s] brave response to [my concerns] 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 what’s best for the world and not what is most popular.”
Knowles-Lawson added that Beyoncé said she hoped 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.” (“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a hymn Beyoncé performed during Coachella that is often referred to as the “black national anthem.”)
“I stand corrected,” Knowles-Lawson wrote at the end of her post. Not only was Beyoncé’s Coachella performance understood: It was embraced.
See Knowles-Lawson’s post for yourself, below:
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