Reasons to Watch Beyoncé Homecoming Documentary
Who isn’t a Beyonce fan? If you are not, you will be after you watch Beyoncé Homecoming Documentary that was just released on Netflix. Admittedly I have been a fan since her Destiny’s Child days and listened along through her solo career. But nothing prepared me for Beyoncé Homecoming Documentary.
In case you were not aware the documentary tracks the road to her 2018 Coachella performance. With her 2018 Coachella performance, she became the first black woman to headline the festival. This seems to be a big deal but for me, yes and no. In my opinion, Coachella is just another concert in the desert with nothing but white acts attended by white girls in short, shorts coopting other cultures. Every year there are hordes of articles highlighting this phenomenon.
- Beyoncé opens up about her pregnancy with the twins. During her pregnancy, she developed toxemia and pre-eclampsia. And one of the twin’s hearts stopped during labor. If you recall, one day she was going to headline Coachella, then had to pull out because she was pregnant and then the Instagram photos of her and the twins. There was nary a peep, that she did not have an easy pregnancy until now.
- The music, the singing, the dancing, and the drumming, all of it. It is all perfectly choreographed and well done as I am sure everyone who has ever seen a Beyonce concert knows. All I know is from the first moment she takes the stage with her dancers, I was up on my feet at 7 am in the morning no less. The documentary was released at midnight April 17 and I know there were Beyhive fans who had watched it already. I loved the music from the show much that I will be buying Homecoming: the Live Album (this dropped on the same day as the documentary) which features recordings from the concert and re-recordings of certain tracks.
- The unapologetically blackness of the documentary and focus on the culture and history of Historically Black Colleges – the steppers, the drumline, the dancers, the Greek letters. I am not even sure the white folks at Coachella even know what an HBCU is or the history and culture of the colleges. They do know NOW and so will anyone watching the documentary My father went to Howard Law School so I know.
- Destiny Child’s Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland making an appearance. If you are not singing “Say My Name, Say My Name” out loud, just give up now. I so would pay for that reunion tour. And both of them looked amazing!!
- The documentary part – there are scenes of the entire rehearsal process, watching Beyonce admit openly she weighed 218 pounds after the twins were born. She admits her very strict diet of eating no meat, fish, sugar or dairy to slowly get back to her fighting onstage weight and then admits”I’m Hungry. This is a far cry from all those actresses who get pregnant and then 3 months later show up pre-baby weight rambling on about their diet and exercise. They would never let anyone see them fat or talk about how hard it is to get the weight off.
- Rehearsal Process – I loved seeing all the rehearsals and rehearsal stages with the dancers and the band. Admittedly, I am a numbers person so I would have loved a voiceover of the numbers – the number of dancers, drumline, musicians, how long it took to find the team, you get the idea. All fun facts. It goes without saying this was a huge endeavor that took months and months of preparation and rehearsal.
- Cameos from Jay-Z and Blue Ivy. Blue Ivy sings “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, oh soooo cute. Not enough of them but I get it, she limits photos of her kids.
- Beyoncé is fully in control of this film. Beyoncé is the Writer, Executive Producer and Director of the documentary. She also chose each dancer, singer, band member. In one of the scenes, she lays down the law that they are nowhere near prepared. She is direct and very much in control with the team and so obviously not listening to anyone else until she gets her vision over the goal line.
- The Beyhive – The reactions of the Beyhive shows how devoted her fans are singing and dancing every song with her. A joy to watch!!
All I can say is that when they ask what is on my bucket list. I will NOW respond “to see Beyoncé in concert” and “to run away from home and join the Beyhive.”
Disclosure: NYC Single Mom was not compensated for this post.
