/ / On Beyoncé’s Birthday, a ‘Bey Day’ Celebration Fit for a Queen

On Beyoncé’s Birthday, a ‘Bey Day’ Celebration Fit for a Queen


For most Americans, it was merely the Friday before Labor Day weekend, a dull smattering of hours that stands between them and a hard-won three days off.

But for some, it’s Bey Day.

Beyoncé, America’s luminous sphinx of a superstar, turned 34 years old, and her fans’ enthusiasm around the event falls somewhere between birthday celebration and national holiday.

Beyoncé Knowles? The surname seems a bit extraneous and awkward now, like dangling a “Ciccone” after Madonna, or a “Nelson” after Prince. To her fans, many of them denizens of the BeyHive, she is simply referred to as Queen. To them, she is the physical embodiment of female power, mother of music, mother of style — or, in keeping with popular Internet parlance, she’s just “mom.”

Beyoncé uses few words to respond to the adoration. She has not granted a public interview in months (this month’s Vogue cover story is more like a “think piece,” its Pulitzer-winning writer told The Times in August).

She prefers instead to lead her devoted following by aesthetic example on Instagram — over one million people liked a photo of her boating with her daughter — and on her website. Additional information is carefully doled out and rationed, usually transmitted through finely curated tidbits of praise.

To celebrate her birthday, her friends and family created a playlist of songs that reminded them of her. The song “Yellow” by Coldplay reminds her husband, Jay Z, of their vacations. “Part of Your World,” a song from “The Little Mermaid,” is a favorite of her daughter, Blue Ivy. That’s enough information for now. (Oh, and also, she got bangs.)

Some fans also paid tribute by posting photos, videos and GIFs that span Beyoncé’s decade-plus time as a superstar. Here are just a few of the most popular eras of Queen Bey’s reign, plucked from the #BeyDay archives:

Baby Beyoncé

On Instagram and Twitter, fans seized the opportunity to celebrate the blessed birth by sharing a baby photo that Beyoncé had previously posted (with only the word “throwback”) on her website.

In related news, the number of Google searches placed by those wondering if she was pregnant with a second child had topped 17 million.

Casual Beyoncé

 

Last November, with the unexpected release of her music video for “7/11,” the world was ushered into the Kale sweatshirt-wearing, foot-phone-using era of Beyoncé. This view of the Queen, dancing in her underwear with a phalanx of beautiful friends and swinging a selfie stick, inspired many think pieces.

Was this really how she spends Friday nights? Wasn’t this just another closely curated lens into her mysterious world? And, most important, was that Kale sweatshirt for sale?

Presidential Beyoncé

 

In 2013, Beyoncé’s rendition of the national anthem at President Obama’s inauguration stirred debate among those who accused her of lip syncing. She later admitted that the track was prerecorded, and buried the whole issue with a rousing, decidedly (or, mostly) live Super Bowl performance.

The White House didn’t appear to care, either. On Friday, Beyoncé’s good standing with the first couple was cemented by a birthday tweet from Michelle Obama.




 Super-Sexual Beyoncé

It’s a rare star who can avoid becoming overly sexualized by the entertainment industry. Beyoncé’s fans love her because she is able to occupy several realms — wife, mother, sex symbol, inauguration singer — without jeopardizing the power of her womanhood.



 Flawless (and Feminist) Beyoncé



 “Flawless,” a track from her December 2013 album “Beyoncé,” sampled a TED talk titled “We Should All Be Feminists.” While other female celebrities waffled and backtracked on using the term, she turned “feminist” from an F-word into a symbol of sexuality and power during a performance at last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, and in a follow-up video that celebrated the anniversary of the album.

“It’s just a person that believes in equality for men and women. Men and women balance each other out, and we have to get to a point where we are comfortable with appreciating each other.”

National Holiday Beyoncé


In 2014, a college student tweeted that she would not be going to school that day in order to appropriately celebrate the star’s birthday. “Out of respect, I will not be attending class today, The Lords Day,” Ja-Niece Best initially wrote.

It ended up being a joke, but Ms. Best’s gesture has clearly endured as an object of inspiration to students everywhere. (Some professors appear to have acknowledged the struggle by folding Bey Day into the daily curriculum, but others had to suffer.)

And, of course, a petition has been submitted to the White House demanding official observance. Better luck next year.

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