Beyoncé’s 100 Greatest Pop Star Moments: Staff List

In 2009 thriller Obsessed, Beyoncé commands the screen with unrelenting intensity as her character Sharon confronts her husband Derek (Idris Elba), who she suspects of cheating — answering his pleas as to what he should do with a firm, “Well, first I suggest you pack your toothbrush, and then I want you to get your socks, your shaving kit, your prophylactics if you think you need ’em, and get your ass out of my house.” In one unforgettable quote, she channels the fury, betrayal and heartbreak of a woman scorned, showcasing her ability to bring raw emotion and strength to her role.

One of the most memorable images of the Beyoncé visual album featured Beyoncé stepping into the dining room and laying waste to an ornately set kitchen table. Within hours, it had become a visual metaphor (and meme) for what she had done to all of 2013 pop music.

Before her “Ring the Alarm” performance at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé’s candid remark, “You can’t put blue lights on a black girls!,” revealed her intense commitment for top-notch productions and meticulous attention to every detail. Her frustration with the lighting crew put forth her drive for perfection and her desire to control every aspect of her presentation. Since then, she has  seamlessly incorporated blue lighting into her performances and visuals, turning the color Blue (*wink*) into a powerful tool for her storytelling.

From a Kanye West remix to an acoustic version featuring Ed Sheeran, “Drunk in Love” has lived many lives since its 2013 release. But none of those hold a candle to the arrangement of the Grammy-winning song Queen Bey performed during her much buzzed-about 2023 performance at Dubai’s Atlantis The Royal. This version of the song really comes alive in the outro, with Bey’s jaw-dropping series of belts and riffs perfectly coinciding with an elaborate firework display and a levitating platform. Bey’s vocals were so riveting that the performance sparked a trend across TikTok and Instagram Reels; users gave the vocal sequence their best go, but, of course, no one hit it quite like Bey.

One thing about Beyoncé is she’s going to sit pretty courtside at basketball games. Some of those games have created funny moments and some controversial. Remember when, during Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, Beyoncé gave a memorable side-eye to Nicole Curran, wife of Warriors owner Joe Lacob? As Curran leaned over to speak with Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s disapproving glance quickly went viral, sparking countless memes and a whirlwind of online commentary. Despite the uproar, both Beyoncé and Curran later addressed the situation, with Beyoncé’s publicist urging fans to avoid spreading negativity.

When the short-lived Atlantic City hotel and casino Revel made its grand opening in 2012, it called on the Queen — who had given birth to Blue Ivy Carter just months before — to commemorate the occasion with her live return. Of course, she was more up for the task, with a dazzling 4-era set made all the more impressive by the work she had to do to get there: “Y’all don’t know how hard I had to work,” she testified from the stage. “I had to lose 60 pounds. They had me on the treadmill. Eating lettuce!”

When Beyoncé surprise-dropped “Formation” back in 2016, there were plenty of instantly quotable lines. But only one line — “When he f—k me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster!” — directly resulted in economic gains for a chain restaurant. According to a spokesperson for the restaurant, sales were up 33%, the brand was mentioned on Twitter (now X) 42,000 in a single hour and Red Lobster trended on the platform for the first time ever. The power of Yoncé! 

A “100 Greatest Moments” list could be made specifically about the Renaissance World Tour – and this one would probably make the top 10. During Bey’s record-smashing trek, two artists she shouted-out in the “Queens Remix” of her Hot 100-topping “Break My Soul” made headlines: Erykah Badu and Lizzo. The former shared a pic of Bey in costume on tour with the shady caption, “I guess I’m everybody stylist,” while the latter was sued for sexual harassment and creating a toxic work environment. For unspecified reasons — perhaps, fans theorized, to avoid mentioning Lizzo’s name and/or to issue a warning to Badu to stand down — Bey chanted “Badu Badu Badu Badu,” during a RWT performance of the “Queens Remix,” in the kind of hilarious off-the-cuff in-song live performance moments that we love her for.  

Originally released for her seventh wedding anniversary in 2015, non-album love song “Die With You” holds a special place in the hearts of Bey fans — especially after she released a video version of it two years later as a TIDAL exclusive, with home movies of her and hubby Jay-Z, including rarely seen wedding footage of the happy couple.

Icons only: On the red carpet at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards, Beyoncé caught up with fellow pop&B hitmaker Aaliyah to talk about the upcoming show, a super-fun moment between the two legends in the making. The thing Baby Girl was most looking forward to on the night? D’Angelo’s performance, of course. (“Girl, I’m with ya, ’cause you know he fine,” Bey testifies, before throwing the broadcast back to Sisqo.)

It was the most disturbing pop culture mystery of 2018: Who bit Beyoncé?! Tiffany Haddish spilled the tea in a GQ profile without naming the alleged attacker, while a subsequent internet investigation produced an A-list suspect list including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sara Foster, Jennifer Aniston and Taraji P. Henson. But ultimately, Sanaa Lathan was named the No. 1 culprit (although she publicly denied it).  

Beyoncé was among a 19-strong army of superstars —including Babyface, Tony Bennett and Ariana Grande — recruited for the 2015 Grammy salute: “Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life.” With Ed Sheeran and Gary Clark Jr. in tow, Beyonce lit up the stage with a bar-raising performance, featuring a handpicked medley of Wonder-ful songs: “Fingertips,” “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” and “Higher Ground.”

During Beyoncé’s 2009-10 I Am… World Tour, she recorded an intimate performance in Las Vegas that she later released as I Am… Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas. Amid renditions of over 30 songs from both her solo and Destiny’s Child catalogs, Bey recounted her origin story a solo artist. “After playing the songs for my record label, they told me I didn’t have one hit on my album,” she said before naming the album’s iconic run of hit singles. “…I guess they were kinda right, I had five.” That’s right, there was once a time when even Beyoncé couldn’t get a label to believe in here! 

Beyoncé actually performed a trio of best original song nominees at the 2005 Academy Awards, including “Learn to Be Lonely” from Phantom of the Opera and “Believe” from The Polar Express (alongside Josh Groban). But her most impressive performance was of “Vois Sur Ton Chemin (Look to Your Path)” from The Chorus, delivered immaculately en français alongside the American Boychoir. Bey would eventually be nominated in the category for her own song in 2023, with “Be Alive” from King Richard.

It’d been around for nearly 15 years, but the lyric blew up into an Internet meme and quick clapback in 2023 after Bey sang it while pointing at an unfortunate non-diva attendee at a London stop on her Renaissance Tour. That viral moment birthed another, too, as TikTok user Zuhalia’s parody of the situation has clocked over 57 million views on the platform.

In a viral moment from the 2001 Brit Awards, Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child were caught off guard by a thick-accented British interviewer asking some questions she found hard to decipher. With a look of confusion, Beyoncé responded, “I don’t understand, I’m from Texas!” Her southern charm and wit turned the candid exchange into an iconic moment, highlighting her natural ability to navigate any situation with ease. This early interview became a defining part in the world’s view of Beyoncé’s magnetic personality and trademark authenticity from the very beginning of her career.

Beyoncé got into the athleisure game in 2016 when she co-launched Ivy Park, meant to “push the boundaries of athletic wear and to support and inspire women who understand that beauty is more than your physical appearance.” In 2020, it formed a partnership with iconic footwear brand Adidas, with the first couple Ivy Park x Adidas drops selling out in minutes — though the brands split in 2023.

Nearly a year after its original release, did the Beyoncé era need one more iconic video? Probably not, but it got one anyway in “7/11,” a deliriously energetic, charmingly lo-fi clip that featured indelible images of Beyoncé red-solo-cupping it with her girls, bursting out of a Christmas present, and… using her bare foot as a touch-tone phone? Sure.

After a series of expert transitions across the first handful of Renaissance tracks, the best is yet to come: as the clock winds down on BEAM’s final “Energy” refrain, Big Freedia’s towering voice enters. Already familiar with “Break My Soul” as the album’s lead single, we know what’s coming as his breathless “Yah Yah Yah” chant grows amid the mix. As track six, at the end of an all-time run of album cuts, “Soul” is now a better sing-along and a more hype dancefloor filler than it appeared as a stand-alone single, stronger because of a masterclass of tension and release leading up to its explosive intro.

The entire world was going “Crazy” by the time Beyoncé made her first solo appearance at the BET Awards in June 2003, with a high-octane, high-heeled performance of her breakout smash that ensured you wouldn’t be forgetting her name anytime soon. Just in case, though: A ten-foot tall BEYONCÉ sign in big block letters trumpeted her household-name status, accent and all.

Years before Beyoncé went on to dedicate her 2022 album Renaissance to her Uncle Johnny and the LGBTQ community as a whole, the pop superstar made her support for the community clear when accepting the Vanguard Award at the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards. In thanking the community for their unwavering support throughout her career, Bey made sure to deliver a needed message to everyone listening: “We are here to promote love for every human being, and change starts with supporting the people closest to you,” she said. “So let’s tell them they are loved, let’s remind them they are beautiful, and parents, let’s love our kids in their truest form.”

It was a who’s who of female pop, rock, country and R&B greats, assembled for one song to benefit the Stand Up to Cancer charity: Mary J. Blige, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Rihanna, Fergie and a dozen more. But even among that All-Star team of hitmakers, it was of course Bey who was called on to set the bar on “Just Stand Up!” by providing the leadoff vocals: “The heart is stronger than you think/ Like it can go through anything…”

As excitement for “Beyonce’s country album” reached its heights, the singer used the official Cowboy Carter announcement to reset the conversation. Noting her aim to “bend and blend genres together,” the album’s mix of country, Americana, folk, pop, R&B and hip-hop didn’t fit neatly in a box. Try to define it, and there’s only one descriptor that works: “This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album.”

Couldn’t catch every — or maybe any — date of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, and worried you were gonna miss some iconic new Bey looks? You could just check out her Instagram, where she would post the dozens and dozens of outfits and designers she was cycling through on stage show after show, garnering enough attention on each one that VIBE eventually took the time to rank all 148 of ’em.

Having already taken a rare, if not unprecedented, step to announce The Formation Tour after crashing the Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé’s 2016 trek had another historic dimension: The upgrade to stadium-only shows was a first for a female artist, proving that Bey’s demand rivaled that of her male peers.

Beyoncé has been impersonated a staggering 13 times on Saturday Night Live over the course of 20 years, beginning with Maya Rudolph as the mouthpiece sidekick of Fred Armisen’s soft-spoken Purple One on The Prince Show, complete with a wailing theme song from Maya’s Queen Bey. Rudolph’s always-hysterical impression of the pop royal as a perfectly poised superwoman who’s prone to break into song at any moment might have peaked with a pair of Hot Ones skits that left Bey atypically flustered (and sweaty) in 2021 and 2024. 

Nothing solidifies a star as an icon quite like an Olympics appearance, and Beyoncé made sure hers was unforgettable. To introduce Team USA at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, Queen Bey essentially filmed a patriotic music video featuring the country’s buzziest athletes as “Ya Ya,” her Grammy-nominated Americana banger from her Cowboy Carter LP, played in the background. America may not have an official monarchy in place, but Beyoncé will always be the queen. 

The 2005 World Music Awards tribute to Destiny’s Child showcased the profound impact the group had on artists like Rihanna, Teairra Mari, and Amerie, who together performed the group’s 2004 hit “Lose My Breath” — with Rihanna, in particular, having often cited Destiny’s Child as a major influence. Beyoncé has undoubtedly been a role model to these rising stars, setting a standard of success that would shape their own careers. Meanwhile, Usher and Babyface — both legends in their own right — added their own touch with their joint performance, serenading the trio with their own “Cater 2 U’ before mixing in part of their own respective slow-jam classics, “Nice & Slow” and “Soon As I Get Home.”

To know just how iconic the “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” video and choreography were in 2008, look no further than this sketch, which saw musical guest Beyoncé playing herself alongside a trio of oddball dancers in leotards and kitten heels: Andy Samberg, Bobby Moynihan and a surprise guest appearance from SNL MVP Justin Timberlake. Why these three dudes are dancing with Beyoncé is beside the point; the best part of the visual is how hard all three men are trying (and sometimes succeeding) to nail the viral choreo.

In Dreamgirls (2006), the “Turn the wigs around” scene is a standout moment where Beyoncé’s character, Deena Jones, shows herself as someone trying to step into their own power. Before the group hits the stage, Deena tells the other members to adjust their hair, saying, “It’s sophisticated looking,” as she pushes them to refine their image. It’s a funny, yet telling moment that marks Deena’s shift from being a passive group member to someone beginning to assert herself, and it was even referenced by Megan Thee Stallion on her 2024 hit “Wanna Be.”

2009 remains a watershed year for indie rock, as Animal Collective, Phoenix, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and gained cultural clout while maintaining their peerless critical cache. So, in the early stages of a more open-minded, genre-fluid poptimist era – and years before Bey’s own collaborations with the likes of James Blake, Caroline Polachek and Father John Misty – the genre hit an eye-opening new peak of exposure when Bey (and Jay) accompanied cool lil sis Solange to Grizzly Bear’s free Brooklyn show on Aug. 31 of that year.

After re-recording her 2007 hit “Get Me Bodied” for Michelle Obama’s 2011 “Let’s Move!” campaign against childhood obesity, Queen Bey took it another step further. She already shot a new music video inside of a school for the song, but May 3, 2011, Bey surprised students at Harlem’s P.S. 161 middle school, performing the song with them and posing for pictures. Bey’s been mixing pop and politics long before Kamala was brat! 

Beyoncé made history in 2011 as the first woman to headline the Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage, a major milestone in both her career and the (traditionally rock-based) festival’s history. Her performance was widely praised for its energy and power, cementing her place as one of the most versatile and dynamic artists of her generation. The significance of this moment extends beyond just Beyoncé’s achievement, as it broke a long-standing gender barrier in a traditionally male-dominated space, setting a new precedent for women in the music industry.; since then, several other women have headlined Glastonbury, including Adele (2016), Taylor Swift (2015) and Billie Eilish (2022).

…She didn’t, did she? In a Verizon spot during the Super Bowl, Beyoncé’s attempt to break the internet ended with a quick, “OK, they ready, drop the new music.” Moments later, the dual drop of “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” confirmed that Bey used the country’s largest audience to kick off her country era. More than a decade after her first surprise release, she once again proved a master of marketing.

Beyoncé’s Etta James doesn’t even show up until about halfway through the 2009 Chess Records biopic Cadillac Records — but her visceral, fully embodied performance quickly makes you forget whatever movie you thought you were watching before her arrival. Best of all is when she leans all the way into the swaying hurt of “All I Could Do Was Cry” in a transfixing studio recording scene, turning Adrien Brody’s Leonard Chess into dust in the process.

When asked about the inspiration behind Destiny’s Child’s 2001 smash hit “Survivor” (and their accompanying LP of the same name), Beyoncé answered directly about the song’s inspirations: Yes, it came from all those irritating jokes about the group’s reality TV-like membership turnover of late. “I was like, ‘Ah, that’s cute, but you know what? I’m going to use that negative thing and turn it into a positive thing and try to write a great song out of it.” Check and check: “Survivor” won a Grammy and helped its parent album sell 663,000 copies in its first week.

In 2003, Beyoncé recorded a remix of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” titled “Sexy Lil Thug,” which sampled the original Hot 100-topper’s instrumental and melody while adding her own verses. The track was included on her 2005 mixtape, Speak My Mind, but due to permission issues, it was never properly released as a single. Despite this, the remix gained significant radio play and even peaked at No. 67 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. We’re still begging for the official release of this iconic track.

Donald Glover’s Emmy-nominated satirical thriller series from last year examined how one megafan went to extreme (read: murderous) lengths to defend her favorite pop star, who’s hailed as “The Queen Bee” (ring a bell?). With an all-star cast including Chloe Bailey, Billie Eilish and Paris Jackson, Swarm drew inspiration from buzzy internet rumors, like about Sanaa Lathan allegedly biting Beyoncé at Jay-Z’s party, or the debunked claim about woman named Marissa Jackson committing suicide “because she realized that a certain pop star was being cheated on by her husband,” the show’s co-creator Janine Nabers said during a Q&A following its SXSW premiere.

2013 – also known as The Great Beyhydration – was a challenging year for the Hive. One of the most frustrating moments came by way of yet another classic Beyoncé-led Pepsi ad. For this particular commercial, Bey recreated her iconic past looks (“Bootylicious” Bey! “Crazy in Love” Bey! “Single Ladies” Bey!) as she rehearsed a dance routine for an Afrobeats-infused track called “Grown Woman.” The catch? That song was not made available for streaming or purchase. In fact, fans didn’t get to consume “Grown Woman” as an audio-only track until 2023, when Beyoncé finally uploaded the song to streaming in celebration of the ten-year anniversary of her self-titled album. 

In a clear case of “if you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready,” Anthony Cosby Hyphen Knowles, her self-declared “husband,” replied to Bey’s demanding, “What’s my name?” with a hearty “say my name, say my naaaaaaame.” Not only did Cosby’s clip make it to Beyonce’s official YouTube channel, but good luck resisting the temptation to bust it out the next time you sing along to the Destiny’s Child classic.

Back in 2016, Lip Sync Battle was a really big deal. So, when Channing Tatum somehow got Beyoncé to make a surprise appearance during his rendition of “Run the World (Girls)” for the first episode of the show’s second season, his victory was inevitable. Just a few weeks before she would shut down the Super Bowl with “Formation,” Beyoncé was effortlessly executing the original music video choreography from “Run the World,” with a knowing wink in her eye. 

Even in her early years, Beyoncé’s vocal chops lived up to the legends. Take Destiny’s Child’s “Emotion” performance with Celine Dion, on the diva’s A New Day Has Come special, which finds Bey turning in a particularly passionate delivery — complete with new ad-libs for the occasion. As all four singers share smiles and nods, you can tell they know the full tune is a treat for everyone involved.

Courtesy of Jay-Z, a cell phone video of Beyoncé practicing “1+1” for an American Idol appearance gave a rare unfiltered glimpse into Queen Bey’s rehearsal process. The singer’s full-throated, all-in version of her 4 ballad not only shows off those insane pipes, but highlights the commitment that goes into every performance — even the ones we don’t see.

In 2001 interview, Toazted asked Destiny’s Child would animal they would be if they weren’t already humans. Beyoncé replied: “I know what I’d be – a whale. I love whales. I’ve loved whales since I was a little girl.” From the trio’s generally greened-out disposition to Bey’s bluntness, the interview has become a beloved piece of Yoncé Lore, with a sizable amount of fans who still believe that the Queen may have had a pull or two from a joint before sitting for the interview. In a 2020 Elle Canada Q&A, Beyoncé clarified: “I still love whales, and I love being in the ocean. And that video was after a 16-hour press day. Not marijuana!!” 

When Sports Illustrated chose to have a music theme for the 2007 edition of its famed annual Swimsuit Issue, it was hardly shocking who they chose to be the the first non-model cover star in the issue’s history. Best of all for Bey, she got to appear in a swimsuit designed by her recently launched House of Dereon fashion line, co-founded with her designer mother Tina Knowles.

Some of the most impactful awards show performances are also the simplest. Taking to the stage at the 2016 BET Awards with a team of backup dancers and a large pool of ankle-high water, Beyoncé delivered an all-time great number with her anthem of liberation, “Freedom.” What made it even more impactful was the surprise appearance of her collaborator and rap legend Kendrick Lamar, as the pair closed out the defiant number with a (literal) roar. 

If the .gif didn’t already exist as a file format, it would have had to be invented for Beyoncé’s surprise appearance — as a model for mama Tina’s House of Dereon line — on The Today Show in 2010. Sneaking up behind host Hoda Kotb as she strutted onto the stage, Bey made Hoda shriek like Lucille Bluth getting fooled by Gene Parmesan, and even had her throwing her cue cards in the air, making for an all-time moment in meme history. (Not like most of us wouldn’t have reacted the same way.)

Hope you had that TIDAL subscription locked and loaded for May 2015, when the much-anticipated video for the Beyoncé & NickI Minaj team-up “Feeling Myself” dropped. If not, you might have missed Bey popping champagne in the swimming pool and eating burgers and french fries on the moon bounce with Nicki Minaj, generally looking like the baddest chick on the planet — or one of the two baddest, anyway.

Back in 2003, Jay and Bey were already privately dating – but they were still playing coy in front of the cameras. Those circumstances are part of the reason we got the iconic “Got the baddest chick in the game wearing my chain” line from Jay-Z’s 2003 track “Public Service Announcement.” The line appears in the first verse of the song, which, in turn, is included as an interlude in Jay’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” music video. In that video, Beyoncé makes an obfuscated cameo wearing a Roc-A-Fella chain. Those lovebirds love a cryptic moment, don’t they! 

Queens supporting queens. In October 2023, Beyoncé showed up for her friend and fellow pop all-timer Taylor Swift at the Los Angeles premiere of her Eras Tour film, with Swift writing at the time: “She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale.” The next month, Swift returned the favor by attending the London premiere of Bey’s Reanissance film, writing after: “Got invited to London by The Queen.” Seeing this sweet show of friendship between two women who both occupy a singular spot in the pop-culture stratosphere was thrilling for music fans, and yet another classic moment for both artists.

Beyoncé has been a strong supporter of Kamala Harris throughout her presidential campaign, allowing her 2016 anthem “Freedom” from Lemonade to be used as the campaign’s rallying cry for empowerment and justice. Harris first used the song publicly during her campaign launch in Delaware, with Beyoncé granting permission for its use, further solidifying her backing of Harris’ vision. At a rally in Houston, Beyoncé delivered an emotional speech, urging the crowd to imagine a future where young girls grow up with no ceilings and no limitations. She called for unity and action, stressing that “it’s time for America to sing a new song,” and encouraged everyone to add their voices to the movement for change.

In November 2012, Beyoncé joined Instagram under the name “Baddie Bey,” inspired by the OMG Girlz, an Atlanta-based teen pop group who called her one of their “all-time idols” in an interview. In a handwritten note posted to Instagram, she wrote, “Hey Beautiful Young Ladies, thank you so much for the sweet things y’all said. You named my Instagram!!FYI!!” Beyoncé also expressed pride in their accomplishments and shared her hope to connect with them in the future. Within weeks of joining, @BaddieBey amassed over one million followers, solidifying her cultural influence and her ability to inspire rising talent.

No, you never actually saw Beyoncé, P!nk and Britney Spears on TV as gladiators, squaring off for the cruel emperor Enrique Iglesias, before being united by the power of Pepsi (and Queen’s “We Will Rock You”) to fight together — the commercial didn’t air during the Super Bowl, as many of us mistakenly remember, and was generally deemed unfit for the stateside dial. But today it’s still remembered as an iconic piece of ’00s pop culture — far more so than 99% of the commercials you DID see during Super Bowls 34 through 43 — which should tell you everything you know about the enduring iconicity of its star trio.

GQ‘s 2013 pick for Sexiest Woman of the Millennium — hey, we just did a greatest-of-the-century list 25 years in, we can’t really judge — proved that motherhood wasn’t going to slow her down any in that respect, as she stunned on the magazine’s cover in a midriff-and-then-some-baring crop top. Like the cover, the story was revealing, but not too revealing: It teased that her upcoming fifth album, ultimately sneak-released in December as her earth-shaking self-titled set, was “due out as early as April.”

Carmen was Beyoncé’s acting debut, where she effortlessly stepped into the role of Carmen Brown, a fierce, aspiring actress caught up in a whirlwind romance with a police sergeant, played by Mekhi Phifer. This reimagining of the classic Bizet opera blended hip-hop and R&B and divided critics, but the film has since become a cult favorite, especially for those who saw it as Queen Bey proving she was more than just a chart-topping singer. From the second she steps onto the screen in that fire-red dress, it was the beginning of her journey into multi-dimensional stardom: showing early on that she was ready to take on whatever stage — big or small — came her way.

The instantly hot lyric from her 2016 Lemonade single “Formation” not only served as an homage to B’s Southern roots and Black American culture, but became a spicy slogan on countless homemade merch items, from tees to keychains to, naturally, bags. Even then-presidential candidate Hilary Clinton claimed in an interview with The Breakfast Club that she always carries hot sauce with her.

After opting to lip-sync her national anthem performance at President Obama’s 2013 inauguration because she didn’t have enough time to rehearse with the live band, Bey silenced any doubters of her vocal abilities by beginning the NFL press conference ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show with a live, a cappella, note-perfect rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” “Any questions?” she asked with a cheeky laugh after.

Black Is King truly celebrated African culture, with Beyoncé bringing the music to life through stunning visuals and cinematic storytelling. The album’s vibrant, intricate visuals feature elaborate costumes, rich symbolism, and scenes shot in Africa, showcasing the continent’s beauty, history, and strength. Beyoncé’s dedication to representing African culture authentically is woven throughout every aspect of the project, from the music to the visual imagery. In Black Is King, she created a powerful love letter to Africa, bringing its heritage and influence to even bigger forefront on a global stage.

A new Beyoncé album always comes with a couple new suggested additions to Merriam-Webster’s, and 2013’s self-titled was of course no exception. The set’s lead single “Drunk in Love” coined “surfbort” with her mid-song repetition of the word (as in, “Then I fill the tub up half way and I ride it with my…”), inspiring numerous debates to its meaning (and spelling) and an official merch drop or two as well.

Blue Ivy performing alongside Beyoncé on the Renaissance World Tour marked a powerful moment in both their careers, symbolizing a passing of the torch to the next generation of talent. At just 11 years old, Blue Ivy showcased her natural stage presence and choreography skills, impressing audiences worldwide. This moment also highlighted Beyoncé’s growth as a mother and artist, allowing her daughter to be a part of the global celebration of empowerment and artistry. Blue Ivy’s inclusion in the tour not only captivated fans but also reinforced the deep bond between mother and daughter, both on and off the stage.

In what may be her most adorably chaotic interview to date, Beyoncé rose to celebrity interviewer Allison Hammond’s challenge — which, in this case, was a competitive Connect Four match. There’s almost too many funny moments to point out here, whether it was Beyoncé insisting that one of Hammond’s moves was “not meant to be” or the pop star graciously insisting that her opponent let her win. Regardless of who won the game, viewers everywhere clearly won with this hilarious interview.

Beyoncé started off the 2020s by proving she could still hang with the kids on the remix to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage.” The instant-classic collab found the two Houston natives going back and forth with incredible chemistry — with Bey’s entrance referencing TikTok and claiming “If you don’t jump to put jeans on, then you don’t feel my pain,” particularly lighting up the internet — and propelled the song to No. 1 on the Hot 100.

In 2014, the Carters enjoyed a private tour of the Louvre on a Tuesday (which is the only day its closed), and Beyoncé imitated the Mona Lisa’s perplexing smirk as she and Jay-Z posed in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s world-famous painting. Four years later, music’s royal couple assumed the position again, this time, in complementary muted magenta and seafoam suits for the “Apes–t” video – and it might’ve been more mesmerizing than the actual artwork inside the museum. It’s no surprise it got nominated for video of the year at the 2018 VMAs and best music video at the 2019 Grammys.

Snoop may have technically used the word first, but Bey made it part of pop culture history by writing Destiny’s Child’s 2001 chart-topper of the same name about her response to then-recent criticisms of her body type. By 2004, it was also part of the official English language, having been officially added to Oxford along with the definition “Esp. of a woman, often with reference to the buttocks: sexually attractive, shapely, sexy.”

At the 2005 BET Awards, Destiny’s Child turned heads with their sultry performance of “Cater 2 U” and “Say My Name,” but Beyoncé’s lap dance for Terrence Howard became the undeniable highlight. While Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams brought their charm to Nelly and Magic Johnson, Beyoncé’s magnetic presence left Howard completely mesmerized. Her powerful vocal riff at the end of the performance stole the show, leaving the audience in awe of her talent and stage presence. The moment solidified Destiny’s Child’s performance as one of the most talked-about in BET Awards history.

The most resonating part of the Renaissance Tour didn’t even make a sound. What began as number of eagle-eyed fans noticing a pause and silence after a lyric in “Energy” soon ballooned into a stadium-wide mute challenge, in which the whole crowd paused in silence after the “look around, everybody on mute” lyric. As it became the night’s most-anticipated moment and cities competed for the most complete hush, the interactive moment showed that Queen Bey could make entire stadiums to shut up at her command.

True pros have gotta be ready for anything, and when at a 2013 Montreal tour date, Beyoncé got a little too close to one of her on-stage fans — the wind-blowing kind, not the sinigng-along kind — she was forced to keep belting out signature ballad “Halo” while security tried to extricate her hair from the machine. Did she still manage to pull it off? Who do you think it is you’re reading about here?

Pop stars are full of dichotomies: across the 2000s, Queen Bey made hit songs and blockbuster movies; she was Beyoncé and Sasha Fierce. Next, she’d show her art and her pop as Lady Gaga’s sidekick in the camp extravaganza for “Telephone,” proving that no song, line of dialogue or choreography was too silly or too outré for her star power.

The most infamous review headline of Beyoncé’s career once read as needlessly shady to Bey, now it reads as needlessly shady to Ashanti. Either way, it’s become a part of her solo legacy, and perennial shorthand for how stupidly easy it is to end up looking like a damn fool as a music writer.

Not like “Crazy in Love” needed the additional footprint, but just in case the instantly timeless song wasn’t enough for you, the video spawned about a half-dozen signature Beyoncé looks as well — and at least one classic dance move, with her and her girls doing a rapid-fire booty pop during the “uh-oh, uh-oh” post-chorus breakdown section that quickly swept through the culture. Like many things Bey, often imitated, rarely equaled.

Beyonce is talented, charismatic and savvy, but she is also powerful: She is not meant to be anybody’s opening act or intermission. After she finished her Super Bowl XLVII halftime performance – drawing more viewers than the game itself and setting a then-record for the most tweeted moment in history – she sent a message, via Benjamin Franklin’s electricity, that her word would be the last. The power went out in New Orleans’ Superdome, putting the game on mute (as it were) and letting Beyonce’s lasting impression linger as the internet lit up with the announcement of the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour.

There are some interviews that don’t quite grab your attention — and then there are interviews like Tyra Banks’ legendary sit-down with Beyoncé, where you cannot bring yourself to look away. Throughout this pun-fueled, deeply strange Q&A, Banks used Beyonce’s name to introduce a series of off-topic questions that the “Diva” singer actively cringed at (While there are lots to go through, Banks asking if Beyoncé would dye her hair as she got older with the preface “Grey-oncé” stands out as particularly bad). There’s a reason many fans joke that this appearance as the reason Beyoncé stopped doing interviews. 

“Flawless” was the rare track on the surprise self-titled album that fans had actually heard (part of) before, with its first half having been released earlier in the year as “Bow Down.” But Beyoncé made sure that fans still got their money’s worth on the song’s new second half with a section that allowed them to proclaim the many ways in which they were without blemish, and best of all, to say that it was all 100% natural: “I woke up like this.” Easier to believe for Bey than for most of the rest of us, of course, but…

When a then on-the-rise Queen Bey paid homage to Queen Mother Tina Turner at the Grammy Awards in 2008, it was a compelling generational moment that captured all the admiration and respect each had for the other. Their metallic-garbed, side-by-side rendition of Turner’s 1970 hit “Proud Mary” — complete with plenty of hip-shaking and hair-tossing — portrayed a live mirror image of what Turner’s impactful influence had begat. 

“Of course some s–t goes down when there’s a billion dollars on an elevator.” Indeed, some s–t went down when Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Solange took the lift after a 2014 Met Gala after-party, with Bey’s sis attack her husband in a silent security video that got leaked to TMZ — and maybe set the course for two or three classic albums over the next few years from the Knowles-Carter in the process, of course including Bey’s all-timer Lemonade.

On July 14, 2017, Beyoncé took to Instagram to unveil a photo of her and Jay-Z’s newly born twins, Rumi and Sir, for the first time, cradling them in an extremely artistic pose and captioning the photo “Sir Carter and Rumi 1 month today. 🙏🏽❤️👨🏽👩🏽👧🏽👶🏾👶🏾” The photo quickly broke the then-record for the most likes on an Instagram post — also held by Beyoncé, of course, with her post originally sharing news of the pregnancy.

While the first two singles off Beyoncé’s sophomore album B’Day failed to replicate the Hot 100-topping success of her first two Dangerously in Love hits, she had an ace in the hole with third single “Irreplaceable,” a perfect dismissal ballad co-helmed by Ne-Yo and Stargate that became her third solo No. 1. The song’s hooks were immediate and ceaseless, beginning with the biggest of all: Bey directing her soon-to-be-ex “to the left, to the left,” along with a little pointing dance that no doubt soon became the bane of all unworthy ’00s BFs’ existence.

At just 22 years old, Beyoncé logged one of her most indelible career moments when she teamed up with Prince to open the 2004 Grammy Awards. Already riding high with the success of her debut solo album Dangerously in Love (which later won her five Grammys), she and the Purple One delivered an alluring performance thanks to a tantalizing medley of Purple Rain tracks and her own “Crazy in Love” — prompting Prince to comment: “Don’t hate us ’cause we’re fabulous.”

During the Renaissance World Tour, Beyoncé had a humorous moment fans who had been eagerly anticipating her visual accompaniment to the 2022 album. She explained that instead of relying on traditional visuals, the energy from the audience during her live performances was what truly brought her music to life: “YOU are the visual, baby.” In a 2024 GQ interview, she elaborated that in a world full of visuals, she wanted her music to stand on its own, giving space for listeners to focus on the music itself. OK, fair enough, but — Beyoncé, please just release one video, okay?

Beyoncé kicked off Kobe and Gianni Bryant’s emotional, star-studded celebration of life ceremony at L.A.’s Staples Center in February 2020 with a moving performance of “XO” from her 2013 self-titled album, which she said was “one of his favorite songs,” and “Halo” from 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce. While wearing a golden yellow suit and a purple manicure that spelled out “Kobe” and “Gigi” in honor of the Lakers legend and his daughter, B brought us all light during a terribly dark moment, and encouraged those in attendance to sing with her “so loud they hear your love.” 

Beyoncé is often cited as a consummate professional in the music business — but when people don’t meet her standards, she lets them know. In one of the Beyhive’s favorite moments to share, an infamous 2010 YouTube video shows Bey performing “Diva” live and calling out for her tech team to hit the “lights.” When they missed the cue, Beyoncé — still dancing, mind you — declared into that microphone that “somebody’s getting fired, hey, hey!” Even a decade and a half later, whenever anything goes wrong at one of Bey’s live shows, fans immediately pull up this clip and declare that yes, indeed, someone’s job loss is imminent.

After serenading the First Couple during their inaugural ball four years earlier, Beyoncé graduated to the main event for round two. Though she later confirmed that she lip synced along to a pre-recorded rendition during the performance — due to sub-optimal weather conditions and lack of a proper sound check — her soaring National Anthem still stands as an all-time Beyoncé moment, and she put any doubts to bed that she could do it live with her Super Bowl press conference the month after anyway.

Lemonade starts pretty weighty, with the heart-rending “Pray That You Catch Me” and a whole lot of underwater imagery. But if you worried Bey wasn’t going to take some time to make heartbreak and betrayal fun on her magnum opus, all you needed to wait for was the second track: the reggae-tinged, Yeah Yeah Yeahs-and-Soulja-Boy-interpolating “Hold Up.” The song was great and the video was even better — featuring the immediately iconic image of Bey in a yellow (lemonade-colored?) Roberto Cavalli dress strutting down the streets with a baseball bat, a wicked smile and bad intentions on her mind.

During a 2010 interview on The View, Whoopi Goldberg casually explained to Beyoncé, “You are Beyoncé,” to which Beyoncé simply replied with a sincere, “Thank you.” It was a moment that perfectly encapsulates her unshakable confidence — no need for fanfare, just a gracious acknowledgment of being, well, Beyoncé. The response is as cool as it is fitting, as no one else could pull it off with the same effortless poise. Honestly, shouldn’t we all be thanking her for just existing? Thank you, Beyonce.

By the time of the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé had established herself as the most ambitious performer in the show’s history, constantly topping herself with her incredible feats of artistry and athleticism. And in her final VMAs performance to date, she leveled up once again, with a 16-minute Lemonade medley of such dazzling staging, conceptual thoughtfulness and absurd raw power that Billboard ranked it as the greatest performance in award-show history the next year.

It was a long road from “Bow Down” to “Flawless” to “Flawless Remix,” but the internet-freezing response to the latter — another out-of-nowhere drop, another moment where everyone remembers where they were when it happened — showed that interest in the song was nowhere near exhausted. Of course, it helps to have everyone hanging on your every rumor-stoking word, as Bey certainly did in 2014, but it helps even more to have a top-flight guest verse from the Queen of Rap, Nicki Minaj: “Like MJ doctor, they killing me/ Propofol, I know they hope I fall/ But tell ’em winning is my motherfuckin’ protocol/ ‘Cause I score before I ever throw the ball.”

If you were came to Lemonade hoping for hot goss, you were fully fed by the end of fourth track “Sorry.” The quotable kiss-off (and other-things-off) track was basically designed for virality, generating a catchphrase a minute with quotables like “Tell ’em, boy, bye” and “Stop interrupting my grinding!” — but of course, Bey saved the best for last with the mic-dropper “He better call Becky with the good hair.” The identity of her romantic adversary remains a hotly debated mystery, but “Becky With the Good Hair” lives on in pop culture as pop&B’s answer to “Jolene,” with even Dolly herself noting the similarities.

In 2016, Bey added to an already star-studded 50^th Country Music Association Awards with a surprise performance of “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks. The rendition’s additional twang was a wink to those who didn’t consider the song sufficiently country, and despite a standing ovation, some viewers soured on Beyoncé’s appearance given perceived political leanings. Its legacy, however, may have only emerged this year: The superstar revealed her Cowboy Carter album was “born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t.” She’s never explicitly confirmed the link, but it’s hard to believe it doesn’t trace back to that night in Nashville.

As much as anyone could end the 2009 VMAs on a positive note — after Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s best female video acceptance speech left her and the rest of the nation shellshocked — Bey and Taylor managed to, as the former used the occasion of her show-closing video of the year win for “Single Ladies” to invite Taylor back on stage to properly have her moment. It was the final defining pop culture moment from an evening full of them, and began a friendship between the two pop all-timers that continues to this day.

Beyoncé’s performance of “At Last” at President Obama’s 2009 inaugural ball was a moment filled with emotion and history. As she sang while Barack and Michelle Obama shared their first dance as President and First Lady, her voice carried the hope and pride of a nation celebrating a new chapter. Reflecting on the experience, Beyoncé tearfully called it “the most important day of my life,” saying, “I’m just so lucky to be a part of this history.” She admitted she was overwhelmed by the moment, adding, “He [Obama] makes me want to be smarter, he makes me want to get more involved.” Set against the backdrop of America’s first Black presidency, the performance was more than just music — it was a reflection of the cultural shift and collective hope that defined the moment, making it one of the most memorable performances of her career.

In 2003, in the midst of her proper solo debut‘s intro — horns blaring, drums slamming, Jay-Z hyping — Beyoncé came swaggering towards us in a white tank-top and jean shorts to ask us a simple question: “You ready?” We might’ve thought we knew the answer, but two decades later, it’s pretty clear we had no clue.

It might not have been the world-stopping moment that her previous release was — for one, we at least had some amount of notice it was coming this time — but still, the 2016 debut of Lemonade on HBO was an event on the level of a Game of Thrones premiere, one that had folks staying home on a Saturday night to be able to soak up every detail from Bey’s impossibly anticipated new project. They didn’t go to bed disappointed, as Lemonade proved to be her most complete and coherent visual album statement to date — and with a much more satisfying ending than Thrones, to boot.

Sorry, Sir Georg Solti superfans: Your guy had an awesome, decades-spanning run as the most awarded artist in Grammy history. But his reign was of course ended by the Queen in 2023, when she won her 32nd Grammy (best dance/electronic album for Renaissance), passing his 31 and moving into sole-possession of the all-time mark. Fans will never be totally satisfied with Beyoncé’s recognition as long as the album of the year trophy continues to elude her — she’s 0 for 4 in the category currently, though she has a fifth nomination upcoming at the 2025 awards for Cowboy Carter — but until she picks up that marquee win, having the most Ws of any artist ever is still a pretty incredible consolation prize.

Towards the end of her jaw-dropping, 16-minute Vanguard Video Award medley performance at the 2014 VMAs, Beyoncé stopped singing and ceded the stage to a sampled clip from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2013 TEDx Talk “We Should All Be Feminists.” As Adichie’s voice touted the inherent oppression of gender roles and misogyny in modern society, block letters behind Beyoncé and her dancers spelled out exactly what she was saying, before settling on the word “FEMINIST.” Without uttering a word, Beyoncé gave her rapt audience a brief-but-necessary education on what being a feminist actually is — belief in the “social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”

After a 2015 that was mostly quiet on the release front, Beyoncé came back to life in rip-roaring fashion with the release of the “Formation” video, a spellbinding and sumptuous clip full of eye-catching imagery and countless deep cultural references, which the New York Times‘ Jenna Wortham argued was “about the entirety of the black experience in America in 2016.” The song was pretty incredible too, and sounded especially great once Beyoncé brought it to the Super Bowl just a day later — pissing off some conservatives but electrifying nearly everyone else, and certainly stealing the show from headliners Coldplay.

Befitting her historic turn as Coachella’s first-ever Black woman headliner, Beyoncé transformed the California desert into her own HBCU for two weekends, with a full marching band, J-setting, a step show and a line of “Bugaboo” pledges to boot. A year later, Beyoncé dropped the official Netflix Homecoming film, which included the set with additional documentary footage. In a career packed with top-tier performances, this globally beloved set – including a Destiny’s Child reunion and guest spots from Solange and Jay-Z – reigns supreme as a comprehensive career review .

When Beyoncé concluded her “Love on Top” performance at the 2011 VMAs with her pregnancy reveal, the world stopped – and that was before she would gloat about her ability to do so post-surprise drop! From her almost sanctified ascent through the song’s seemingly endless modulations to her frazzled blonde tresses and New Edition-nodding purple pantsuit, the imagery of this performance is seared into an entire generation’s worth of minds. Even if the whole thing was scripted – the mic drop, unbuttoning of blazer, rubbing of the belly and the hilarious cuts to Kanye and Gaga in Jo Calderone drag – there’s simply too much joy on Beyoncé’s face to even give a shred of credence to that brand of cynicism.

Of course, at the time, Beyoncé was carrying her eldest child, Blue Ivy Carter, a Grammy-winning singer, voice actress and dancer who also boasts several BET, Soul Train and NAACP Image Awards and a key role in Disney’s forthcoming Mufasa film. Carter is also the youngest person to ever appear on the Billboard charts, thanks to her coos on her father’s “Glory,” which he dropped two days after her birth to celebrate her arrival.

With barely a budget and a backdrop, Beyoncé brought one of the most iconic music videos ever to life. As she later explained, the storyline-heavy “If I Were a Boy” sapped almost all the money for the co-lead I Am … Sasha Fierce singles, forcing a simpler treatment for “Single Ladies” of the singer, two background dancers and a plain white background. What isn’t simple: that choreography. Everyone’s tried it. Everyone’s failed. The Fosse-inspired continuous movement, edited to appear as a single take, became a viral phenomenon, catapulting Bey to a 2009 VMA for Video of the Year, and it recently became her second video to cross 1 billion views on YouTube. No budget? No problem. Sometimes less is more.

Beyoncé’s self-titled album, released without warning on December 13, 2013, revolutionized the music industry with its surprise iTunes drop, selling 617,000 copies in the U.S. in just three days. Debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, it made Beyoncé the first woman to have her first five studio albums top the chart while achieving one of her highest first-week sales totals. Reestablishing her as both a leading pop superstar and a leading albums artist, Beyoncé’s impact was transformative, helping revive interest in the possibilities of the ailing album format, and driving the global music industry to adopt Friday as the standard release day for new albums — indeed changing the game with that digital drop.