Beyoncé Is Overrated.

Beyoncé Knowles. Unless you've been living under a rock for the last twenty-odd years, you have no doubt heard of the megastar. "Queen Bey" as her fans (the Beyhive) lovingly refer to her, became popular in the mid 1990s as the lead singer of the popular all-female R&B group Destiny's Child. In 2003, the singer went solo with her debut album "Dangerously In Love.' She has reached insurmountable success with her follow up albums: "B'Day" (2006), "I Am....Sasha Fierce" (2008), "4" (2011), "Beyoncé" (2013), and "Lemonade" (2016).
Aside from singing and songwriting, the talented artist has also ventured into acting, making her debut in "Austin Powers in Goldmember" in 2002 as Foxy Cleopatra. Since then, she has gone on to star in "The Pink Panther" and "Dreamgirls" in 2006, the latter of which earned her several nominations, including a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Actress-Musical or Comedy."
​On April 4, 2008, she became Mrs. Carter when she married rapper Jay-Z, who's real name is Shawn Carter. Beyoncé suffered a miscarriage in 2011, but has since given birth to three children: Blue Ivy in 2012, and twins Rumi and Sir in 2017. It was reported during both births that the diva had the entire hospital wing shut down during her stay so that she could deliver her children in privacy.
Her musical career has garnered her a plethora of accolades as well. She currently has 22 Grammy Award wins and has the most nominations of any woman in the history of the awards. She also has 24 wins at the MTV Video Music Awards, this makes her the most awarded artist there as well. Beyoncé has been recognized as the Top Certified Artist in America for the 2000s decade by the Recording Industry Association of America. She has won the Billboard Top Radio Songs Artist of the Decade (2000s) and the Top Female Artist of the 2000s awards in 2009 as well as being honored with the Millenium Award in 2011. In 2014, Mrs. Carter was recognized
as the highest-paid black musician and was included in Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" for the second consecutive year. A complete list of Beyonce's achievement and honors is available on her Wikipedia page.
The superstar is showing no sign of slowing down. On November 1st, 2017 Disney announced that Beyoncé would lend her voice to the role of Nala in the 2019 live-action adaption of "The Lion King."
While I admit that Beyoncé is extremely talented and gorgeous, I feel that she is incredibly overrated. I was a big fan during the majority of her solo career -- though I did feel that she lacked originality in her songwriting and relied too heavily on repetition -- but have since cooled toward her.
I am a huge fan of both Madonna and Mariah Carey, so I have no issue with divas, but in my opinion, going so far as to shut down an entire hospital wing is too far. If she was so concerned with privacy, why not deliver the babies at home under the care of a private doctor, or check in to a private hospital? Did the Material Girl or Mimi shut down hospital wings to give birth to their children? Nope.
Vocally, Beyoncé is very talented, but let's be real. In their prime, Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey could have wiped the floor with Bey vocally -- on a bad day. I feel like there are so many artists out there who are just as talented, that get ignored so "Queen Bey" can win ANOTHER award. I understand that the African American community has been suppressed and under-represented for so long, but there are plenty of African American singers who rival Bey vocally that deserve the recognition, like Jennifer Hudson or Alicia Keyes.
What irks me the most about Beyoncé is how whenever she does anything, her fans act like it's the second coming of the Lord. She performed at an award show in 2017 while pregnant with her twins; fans on Facebook gushed about how amazing she was for doing so. Wait! What? Beyoncé dances and sings for about 4 minutes while pregnant and gets lauded as some kind of superhuman goddess? I'm sorry, but plenty of women in America work while pregnant -- not to promote their album or try to get an award -- but to provide for their families, and they do much harder work. My mother hung rugs at Lowe's while pregnant with my brother. She was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant before she went on maternity leave.
Of course, I also get disgusted by the fact that whenever Beyoncé doesn't win an award she or someone on her team starts alleging racism. I'm sorry, but maybe someone else deserved the award more; race can't be brought into everything.
To be clear, this post isn't my way of shredding Beyoncé, I own all of her albums and like some of her songs. I do, however, think she is extremely overrated and that her die-hard fans need to calm down