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Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, popularly known as Beyoncé, is a pop icon and one of the most influential celebrities in the world. Queen Bey, as she is fondly called, has defied the odds and carved out a successful music career with distinctive singing and awe-inspiring live performances.
Like many other celebrities, who are always in the public eye, the 43-year-old has had controversial moments. It can be said that her icon status also stems from her ability to maintain grace during intense media speculations.
From the P. Diddy allegations to the Formation video saga and the 2009 VMAs incident, this article explores the Single Ladies hitmaker’s most controversial moments.
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Rumored affiliations with P. Diddy, the Formation video saga, and 5 other Beyoncé controversial moments
1) Rumored affiliations with P. Diddy 2024
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Following P. Diddy’s arrest in September 2024, and intense media scrutiny on his associates in the entertainment industry, Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z have become entangled in controversy.
In a leaked audio, which has been circulating since October 2024, a voice alleged to be Beyoncé’s admits to attending P. Diddy’s infamous freak-off parties.
The alleged recording and images of her with the music executive have led netizens and fans to swarm her social media accounts, accusing her of being privy to P. Diddy’s alleged sex trafficking ring.
It is pertinent to note that none of the allegations against the Single Ladies hitmaker are based on facts.
2) The Cowboy Carter album snub for the Country Music Association Awards nominations 2024
Beyonce dropped her debut country album, Cowboy Carter, on March 29, 2024, which topped the Billboard 200 for two weeks and reigned number one on the Top Country Albums chart for a month.
The lead track, Texas Hold ‘Em, made the Texas-born singer the first black woman to reach the number one spot on the Hot Country Songs chart.
Despite the records broken by the singer’s album, it was surprisingly not nominated in any category for the upcoming Country Music Association Awards.
Bey was snubbed despite nominations given to other crossover artists like Post Malone and Shaboozey. Speculations are rife that the Country Music Awards’ nomination snub might be racially motivated, as Beyoncé’s Daddy Lessons was also famously snubbed in 2016.
3) The Lemonade album 2016
The infamous elevator incident in 2014 birthed speculations about Jay-Z cheating on his wife. While the rumors were never directly addressed by the couple, the body of work released by them some years after led fans and media to conclude on the rapper’s infidelity.
The controversial Lemonade album, released in 2016, featured tracks like Hold Up, where Beyoncé seemingly expressed how she felt about the issues in her marriage.
The song’s chorus reads:
"Hold up, they don’t love you like I love you/ Slow down, they don’t love you like I love you/ Can’t you see there’s no other man above you?/ What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you,"
Jay-Z responded to the Lemonade album with the 4:44 track in 2017, seemingly taking full responsibility for his actions with the lyrics:
“You did what with who?/ "What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate?"/ You risked that for Blue?”
4) The Super Bowl performance in 2016
Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance is regarded as one of the most controversial in history. The singer performed her Formation track using visuals, imagery, and choreography that some considered political activism, and others classified as anti-police.
For the performance, the singer and her dancers sported berets, Afros, and all-black attire, which many attributed to the style of the Black Panther party founded by Huey P. Newton over fifty years ago.
During their routine, Beyoncé and her dancers formed an X on stage, attributed to black activist Malcolm X. After the iconic performance, the Drunk in Love crooner and her performers raised fists to the sky, an ode to the black power salutes of the 60s and 70s.
Republican Congressman Peter King spoke against the performance on Facebook in February 2016 saying:
"Her pro-Black Panther and anti-cop video 'Formation' and her Super Bowl appearance is just one more example of how acceptable it has become to be anti-police."
5) The Formation video saga in 2016
Beyoncé became the subject of heated discussions with the release of the Formation video on February 6, 2016. The opening sequence of the video shows the singer crouching on top of a New Orleans police car.
The vehicle is gradually submerged into a flooded area as the video progresses. The last sequence features a young boy in a hoodie dancing in front of police wearing riot gear, who mirrors his actions as he holds up his hands.
The scene then cuts to graffiti on a wall which reads, “Stop shooting us.” The video was released just a day before her controversial Super Bowl halftime performance.
Conservatives and politicians claimed that the singer was propagating anti-police and anti-American messages while police unions across the US urged a boycott of the Formation world tour.
6) The elevator incident in 2014
The elevator incident involving Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Solange Knowles caused a major stir and sparked rumors of Jay-Z’s infidelity in his marriage to Bey.
After the Met Gala on May 5, 2014, the trio stepped into the elevator cab at the New York Standard Highline Hotel. In video footage obtained by TMZ and circulated on May 12, 2014, Solange can be seen hitting and kicking Jay-Z while her sister tries to intervene.
Although the video has no audio, fans and media chalked the video up to infidelity. An official statement was released by the parties on May 15, 2014, a part of which read:
"There has been a great deal of speculation about what triggered the unfortunate incident. But the most important thing is that our family has worked through it."
7) The Kanye West-Taylor Swift saga at the VMAs in 2009
The Video Music Awards incident involving Kanye West, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift is one of the most controversial moments in pop culture history.
On September 13, the incident occurred as Taylor Swift was accepting the award for Best Female Video for her single, You Belong With Me, which was nominated alongside Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) music video.
As Taylor Swift received the award from Shakira, she thanked the voters and the industry for recognizing her work as a country artist. Mid-speech, Kanye West interrupted her and said:
“I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
Beyoncé and Swift have remained on friendly terms since the incident and posed together during the premiere of the former's Renaissance film premiere in December 2023.
Despite Beyoncé's controversial moments, it remains that the pop star has had a successful career with an impressive discography and several awards.
