– whose joint net worth is close to $2bn – after their Oscars party this year at the Chateau Marmont in LA involved crossing a picket line of workers protesting allegedly abhorrent conditions.
“Toeing that [anti-capitalist] line doesn’t always work for someone as famous and rich as Beyoncé,” says Tshepo Mokoena, author of Lives of Musicians: Beyoncé. “What happened with the criticism around that party is quite similar to the [2021]she did with Jay-Z wearing a diamond that may or may not have been a blood diamond. There was an almost immediate backlash to this image of Black excellence, which has become a little bit of a cliche in and of itself.
Shedding old behaviours also chimes with the current post-lockdown climate. “Her choosing to anchor this album as a release through dance music, of throwing your inhibitions away, might be her way of responding [to the pandemic],” says Mokoena. This sense of freedom also applies to her role as curator, with Renaissance bringing new collaborators to her usual cohort of co-writers and co-producers. In addition to Pharrell Williams and The-Dream, there are also alt-pop outliers such as PC Music’s AG Cook and Grimes collaborator BloodPop. She also shines a light on the often unheralded Black female pioneers of dance music such as