Beyonce Answers Questions About New Album In Fan Q&A

What was the hardest thing to keep the secret about your new album? Beyonce: Well, it was many things! Oh my god, it was so hard and I still every single day, I have gotten on my knees and thanked God that this happened. Well, it was a lot of craziness, we went through. One of the things, I had a earbud in the videos and basically the song would be playing for me and the director, so for instance, “XO” we’re walking through Coney Island and everyone’s screaming and you know those earbuds, they have a lot of static and you can barely hear and I’m trying to lip sync to the lyrics, I can barely hear anything and I know I look completely out of my mind…and people are like “HI! BEYONCE,” so no one knew why I was just speaking, while they were talking to me, but we went through a lot of things to keep it secret and to keep the surprise because there’s something missing, it’s such a joy and it’s something I was able to experience growing up and I really really wanted to surprise people and for them to really just hear the art and it not be about the hype and promotion and we actually did it and it just says so much about my team. You know, I started my own company, and my father taught me so so much, so much! And when I decided to manage myself, it was important that I didn’t go to some big management company. I felt like I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire and show other women when you get to this point in your career, you don’t have to go sign with someone else and share your money, and your success, you can do it yourself. So I found a team of underdogs, a team of women, a team of people that no one believed in, and we worked together and we stayed up all night and we were progressive and we did not follow the rules and we said, “Why can’t we do it?” and I don’t think people believed you know? I said to so many people, “I have an idea to do a visual album,” and everyone was like “Ok.” And we did it! And not only did we do it, it’s my company and I’m very proud of that.

Where were you right when you released your surprise album? Beyonce: I just got off the stage. It was 11:30PM once I took off and I had a glass of wine and my cousin Angie was like, “Girl, you alright?” Because I was talking to myself, because I was terrified, I was so scared and I already envisioned like the worst things that could happen, I’m like, “People are going to hate it, why didn’t I say anything?” I mean it’s just things that we all go through, it’s just human, and I was just really nervous because this was a huge risk and when I landed, I saw it actually live on iTunes and you know you’re just waiting for the first comment and the next morning…(Crowd exploded in appease and cheers)

Who is Yonce? Is she like Sasha? Is she an altar-ego? Beyonce: Well, Dream actually came up with Yonce. We were in the studio and Justin Timberlake started beating on buckets, so when you hear the beat, that’s literary a bucket and it was really organic, it reminded me of being in middle school during lunch breaks when you just start free styling and so we kept the production. We went back and forth and I was very adamant about keeping it organic because that whole feeling is what’s so beautiful about it and Dream started [singing], “Yonce all on his mouth like liquor” and I’m like what does that mean? But I love it. I think Yonce is Beyonce. Mrs. Carter is Yonce. Sasha Fierce is Yonce and I’m finally at a place where, as I said earlier, I don’t have to kind of separate the two anymore. We’re all one. It’s all pieces of me and just different elements of a personality of a woman because we are complicated.