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A year ago, Beyonce stopped the world for an umpteenth time with hergroundbreaking headlining Coachella performance.
Now, for its anniversary, weve been blessed with the chance to revisit it inNetflixsHomecoming.
Just dont expect her to repeat this kind of history-making act anytime soon.
She notes, I will never, never push myself that far again.
On the day she gave birth, she says she weighed 218 pounds.
Reconnecting with her body and mind post-partum was grueling.
Im creating my own homecoming, she says of the first rehearsal for Beychella.
There were days that I thought Id never be the same.
My strength and endurance would never be the same.
Six months after giving birth, the grunt work on Beychella began.
Then on top of that camefour more monthsof dance rehearsals.
(The music and those vocal rehearsals, thats the heartbeat of the show, she explains.
But that doesnt mean she was physically or mentally ready.
A lot of the choreography is not technical, its about feeling.
And thats hard when you dont feel like yourself, she says.
I had to rebuild my body from cut muscles.
It took me awhile to feel confident enough to freak it and give it my own personality.
She continues, In the beginning it was so many muscle spasms.
Just, internally, my body was not connected.
My body was not there.
Somehow, throughout all of this, she still had to be a mom.
My mind wanted to be with my children, she explains.
What people dont see is the sacrifice.
I would dance and go off to the trailer and breastfeed the babies.
And the days I could, I would bring the children.
She later half-jokes to her crew, I gotta go home … to my fifty-leven children.
Although Beyonce did not attend college, her connection to HBCUs remains personal.
She explains in the doc that her father was a Fisk alum.
My college was Destinys Child, she says, but her sense of pride in HBCUs never left her.
Thats what I want.
One of her dancers later offers, Homecoming for an HBCU is the Super Bowl.
It literally felt like we were in our own university and struggling together.
Beyonce had a hand in absolutely everything
It goes without saying that only Beyonce controls Beyonce.
For Beychella, she ran the show with military precision and made sure everyone and everything served a purpose.
I respect things that take work.
I respect things that are built from the ground up.
Im super specific about every detail, she says.
Every patch was hand-sewn.
Every tiny detail had an intention.
What do they represent?
It takes a village and I think we all worked to our limit.
He has to record everybodys Hey!
And until I see some of my notes applied, it doesnt make sense for me to make more.
She further clarifies her intention, Its just so everyone out there can feel what were feeling.
And black woman often feel underestimated.
I wanted us to be proud of not only the show, but the process.
Proud of the struggle.
Thankful for the beauty that comes with a painful history and rejoice in the pain.
Rejoice in the imperfections and the wrongs that are so damn right.
I wanted everyone to feel thankful for their curves, their sass, their honesty thankful for their freedom.
When shes done speaking, a man offscreen nervously goes, All right, have a good anniversary.
Its my anniversary, Beyonce claps.
