The set has been described as an 'education in black expression [...and] musical history' by Doreen St. Félix in The New Yorker. Beyoncé's appeal over the years has attracted a rabid, almost religious, fanbase that spans age, class and location. But this show represented something different, as it was more in tune with her roots than what a mostly white audience at the music festival in California could begin to understand.
Homecoming captures many of these moments – the 100 dancers; the images of Malcom X, Nina Simone and Fela Kuti; the unavoidably dazzling homage to the HBCU (historically black colleges and universities), experienced through the bumblebee colours of yellow and black; and the sounds of a full marching band puncturing the silence.
If Beychella (as the concert was being dubbed even before it happened, itself a bigger event than the festival as a whole) captured an urgent moment of cultural history being made, it seems fitting, almost necessary, to spread the message far and wide – as a form of both education and entertainment simultaneously, to ripple through the white noise of washed-out, recycled art.
Relive the salient moments and unseen inspirations of the most-watched live-streamed performance of all time, when Homecoming comes to Netflix worldwide on 17 April.
What | Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, Netflix |
When |
17 Apr 19 – 17 Apr 20, ON NETFLIX NOW |
Price | £ N/A |
Website | Click here to watch on Netflix |