Destiny fulfilled

SHE has bestrode pop culture like a colossus for well over a decade, but it’s still possible to pinpoint the exact moment that Beyoncé Knowles’ pop-culture-dominating superstardom reached its zenith.

Was it when her combined album sales reached 75 million globally? Or when she became pally with, sang for, and was even publicly impersonated by President Barack Obama?

Or maybe when everyone from Justin Timberlake to the Jonas Brothers donned a black leotard to ape the iconic Single Ladies video? Or when her name became rhyming slang for ‘fiancee’?

All fine guesses, but no. The moment Beyoncé truly conquered the world was when this writer’s sixty-something mother expressed a desire to see her in concert, even if Mother Cashin did call the Bootylicious one “Bouncy”.

The fact is there are few people left on the planet who are not aware of this particular 29-year-old. Now, she’s coming back to Ireland next weekend for the Oxegen festival, fresh from her Glastonbury triumph and having completed a run of sell-out shows at the O2 Dublin in 2009.

Beyoncé is most definitely a sports stadium-filling act — and has been since she was a teenager in her Destiny’s Child days — and will fit right in when she headlines at Punchestown next Sunday.

That’s because her fan-base comprises a wide and often unlikely mix. It’s not just little girls, tweens and gays who worship her. Hipsters, straight men, yummy mummies, hardcore musos, squares who still call albums ‘tapes’: everyone seems to have a soft spot for Beyoncé. Her marriage to rap supremo Jay-Z further burnishes her credentials outside the pop realm.

Certainly anyone who has seen her live shows will come away impressed, if not fully converted, as many cynical critics were during her last tour. One had to admit that Beyoncé’s concerts had “raised the bar for what can be done in an arena show” (as well as what can be earned; she reportedly banked a whopping €62m for the world jaunt).

Hers are giant, kinetic performances, characterised by wind-machine-blasted power ballads, extravagant dance numbers, feral outbreaks of hand-clapping and leg-kicking, as well as enough hair-tossing to fuel a small generator.

Put simply, there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the pop world who can touch Beyoncé at the moment. Lady Gaga, with whom Beyoncé collaborated on the single Telephone, puts on a spectacular show, but there’s long been a suspicion that she’s too gimmicky. Since the release of Gaga’s latest album Born This Way, that ambivalence has found expression as a fully-fledged backlash.

Who else? There’s Kylie, who brings the wow factor for sure, but doesn’t have the voice or the same live dynamism. That leaves Christina Aguilera, who long since passed the point of putting effort into her live performances, and the lip-synching ghost of the body double of the artist formerly known as Britney Spears.

Of all the contenders to the throne, only Rihanna and Pink — consistently a fantastic concert performer — could hope to put up a serious challenge.

Beyoncé’s own influences and musical forebears are varied. She’s made no secret of her admiration for, and adoration of the queen of rock and roll, Tina Turner (the two appeared together for a joint performance of Proud Mary at the Grammys in 2008).

The singer is also a pupil of her idol Michael Jackson’s school of elaborately-choreographed performance, while her style also has shades of his sister Janet, along with Mary J Blige and Prince.

Vocally, Beyoncé has claimed Whitney Houston — pre-drug addiction — as a major inspiration, and she can certainly belt the numbers out, even if her voice isn’t as clear-cut and potentially glass-shattering as Houston’s, or Mariah Carey’s or Celine Dion’s.

In terms of the overall package, Beyoncé would like to think of herself as a 21st century Diana Ross, seeing as she’s aiming for the all-round entertainer tag, which includes acting. She was certainly not-awful in Dreamgirls and Cadillac Records, and just last month she was invited to join the Academy to vote in the Oscars (though we assume not on the basis of her performance in her most recent screen outing, Obsessed).

Somewhat appropriately, her next movie star vehicle will be another re-make of showbiz fable A Star is Born, to be directed by, of all people, Clint Eastwood.

The reason for Beyoncé’s appearance at Oxegen, and at Glastonbury last week, is that she has a new album to sell. Entitled 4, it’s her first album in three years, and by all accounts her label bosses are anxious about its reception.

Columbia Records execs are reportedly nervous that there are not enough obvious hit songs on the record, and that it might even flop. Certainly the response to the first single, Run The World (Girls), has been decidedly cool and reviews of the album itself have been mixed.

There are even rumours of a Destiny’s Child reunion tour to inject some extra mojo into Beyoncé’s comeback.

Whether she needs that boost remains debatable, however. Last autumn, Forbes magazine voted Beyoncé the 9th most powerful woman on the planet, in a list that was topped by the world’s two most influential black women, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey.

If in doubt, try to catch her unleashing that formidable live energy on stage in Punchestown next weekend, and see that, when it comes to pop, Beyoncé still very much runs the world.