This is why it’s pointless to speculate on what Beyoncé is doing. Because when we find out what she’s been doing, it always comes out of nowhere and on no one’s bingo card.
There have been no visuals. Not for act i, RENAISSANCE, and not for act ii, COWBOY CARTER. We are still in act ii, though, and instead of music videos, what we’re getting is a whole halftime show on Christmas Day, in Houston, her hometown, where Beysus was born with a country soul.
Those are modified lyrics to “American Requiem”, the first track off COWBOY CARTER. She’s changed the last line from “or do you fear me” to “can we stand”, which is still a lyric in the song, it just shows up in the original version in a different place. I wonder if that’s a clue to what we might be getting in the performance but then again, decoding Beyoncé is a pointless endeavour because easter egging is not a game our Queen has ever wanted to play.
What we do know is that this will be the first live performance of songs from COWBOY CARTER. On Christmas Day and on Netflix. According to Netflix’s press release for the event, she’ll be joined by some special guests. Willie Nelson? Dolly Parton? Shaboozey? Post Malone? Miley Cyrus?
Is this the first time we’re going to hear “II Most Wanted” live?!
And even though I just said that it’s futile to predict what the Queen has planned, LOL, I think we’ll see Linda Martell, just like on the album before “YA YA”. Perhaps over and above any track that Beyoncé has released, “YA YA” is the one that was meant to be performed live. She’s going to blow the roof off NRG Stadium when – if – that song comes on.
As for Netflix? Well it’s a Christmas gift for them too, since they’re kicking off their new deal with the NFL as they move into live sporting events. Given the technical issues they had this past Friday with the Mike Tyson and Jake Paul fight, they better get that sh-t together before they have to deal with not only the sting of the BeyHive but Beyoncé herself.
Beyoncé’s COWBOY CARTER Christmas is likely part two of three-project deal with Netflix that was made in 2019, when Homecoming was released on the platform. The deal is reportedly worth $60 million and it’s another example of how patient Beyoncé is and the kind of patience she expects in her partners. She made Netflix wait five years for the next installment and look at the value she’s getting out of it.
If it’s $60 million for three, it breaks down to $20 million per. For the first $20 million, Beyoncé gave them a whole ass concert documentary. For the next $20 million though? She’s performing a halftime set that will run, at most, 15 minutes. That’s not to say that she won’t be working hard and that it won’t be genius, since genius is her baseline, but it’s about the cost per minute for that genius.
For Homecoming, at 137 minutes, it works out to around $145K per minute. For COWBOY CARTER Christmas, if it times out around 15 minutes, it’s $1.3 million per minute, a nearly 9x increase in value. This is Beyoncé math!
