Beyoncé IF I WERE A BOY FULL SONG

IT'S TIME B1TCHES!!! OMG! LISTEN TO THAT VOICE!!! SHE'S BACKKKKKKK!!!!!

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Oct 8 2008 2:06 PM EDT

Beyonce Releases Two Tracks From I Am ... , Inspired By Jay-Z And Etta James

B says playing the jazz singer in 'Cadillac Records' pushed her 'to do a lot of things musically that no one else is doing.'

By Jennifer Vineyard

Two new singles by Beyoncé premiered on the radio Wednesday (October 8) in advance of the November 18 release of her upcoming album, I Am ... . One is the dance track "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and the other is a more introspective ballad called "If I Were a Boy" — two songs that represent two different sides of the singer, as she suggested in a letter to fans last week.

The singer recently opened up to Essence magazine about some of the influences on the album, which include hubby Jay-Z and playing Etta James in the movie "Cadillac Records."

B recorded 60 to 70 songs for the album (only 10 made the cut), but 40 of them turned out to be about love, she said. "There's a balance," she told the magazine. Meaning the love is reciprocated? "Yeah," she giggled. "Definitely."

While "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" acts sonically as a sequel to "Get Me Bodied," "If I Were a Boy" is unlike anything Beyoncé has done before. "It's broad," she told Essence. "But I had to try it, because I remember Aretha Franklin said a great singer can sing anything and make it her own."

B also decided to follow the example of Etta James and broaden her horizons. "Etta expressed herself; she was bold," Beyoncé said. "That inspired me to do a lot of things musically that no one else is doing."

Etta also inspired her to do a lot of things in her acting career that she's never done before. To prep for "Cadillac Records," B took a trip to a Brooklyn rehab to visit drug addicts. The work paid off, she said. "This is the first time I felt that naked and vulnerable acting," she told Essence. "After I finished the scene, me, my mom, my acting coach, [my cousin and executive assistant] Angie, we were all just jumping up and down, like, 'Oh my God, that was it!' "

And she stretches beyond playing singers (as she's also done in "Fighting Temptations" and "Dreamgirls") for her first thriller, "Obsessed," in which she brawls with "Heroes" star Ali Larter.

"At first it was choreographed as more of a catfight," B said, "but we were like, 'This is not how a woman would fight if she's protecting her family.' Now it's very intense."

Oct 8 2008 2:25 PM EDT

Beyonce Finally Opens Up About Marriage To Jay-Z

'What Jay and I have is real. It's not about interviews or getting the right photo op,' the singer says.

By Jennifer Vineyard

Beyoncé usually spends a lot of time not talking about Jay-Z. Even magazines that tout some exclusive interview in which she's finally opened up only have a snippet or two, and usually they are about her decision to not talk.

So you would have every reason to be wary when yet another magazine — this time Essence — comes along and claims that the singer has broken her infamous silence. Except in this case, she has.

After several pages about Beyoncé's decision not to speak publicly about her private life — peppered with lots of so-called expert opinion from an associate professor of communications and anthropology, a blogger, an unnamed media insider, the singer's acting coach and even her mother — the magazine finally gets down to business.

(Read what Beyoncé told Essence about her upcoming album and movie roles here.)

Up to this point, Beyoncé led the magazine to believe she wouldn't be really opening up to them either: "Interviewing Beyoncé, who has admitted she dislikes the process, is a little like talking to your mother about sex. There may be a pretense of open communication, but the subtext is clear: Are you seriously going to ask me that? ... For now, Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship exists in that no-man's land where they won't give us anything and we can't get enough."

So at first, Essence settles for the usual discussion about her effort to maintain her privacy, which Beyoncé claims is so she can keep some mystery, stay sane and control her brand — though not necessarily in that order.

"I feel that, especially now, with the Internet and paparazzi and camera phones, it's so difficult to maintain mystery," she told the magazine. "And that's so important. Even in a relationship, I feel like not being that accessible is really important. If you think about Prince or Michael Jackson, or any superstars, you couldn't see them when they got off their planes or when they got out of the pool and didn't comb their hair. It's great that people see we're not perfect. But it's almost impossible to have superstars now, because people will never get enough. And it's not even about my music. It's about all the things that people imagine about me in their minds. But I can't satisfy everyone. I know that Jay and I probably do inspire people. And I appreciate people feeling proud. But this is the only way I've been able to stay sane, so why would I start talking now?

"[Not speaking] controls your brand," she continued. "It controls what you want to put out there and kind of forces people to talk about what you want them to talk about."

But then Beyoncé lets it slip that it was a joint decision with her husband to keep quiet. "We decide everything," she told the magazine. "My word is my word. What Jay and I have is real. It's not about interviews or getting the right photo op. It's real."

But the writer persisted. And normally, this would be just the thing to get Beyoncé to shut down or call off the interview or find some excuse to change the subject. Instead, she groaned. "You're gonna get me in trouble," she complained, and then launched into a slew of details about the couple's private wedding that the public has been craving for her to acknowledge — to the point that some have referred to it as a secret wedding, despite the very public-record nature of these things.

Beyoncé tells the magazine that the wedding was very small and intimate, because she's not a "traditional" woman and having it be "her day" wasn't something she needed. Being a star and walking the red carpet has diminished the need for that over the years. "It's been my day so many days already," she told the magazine.

She didn't want an engagement ring because "people put too much emphasis on that. It's just material, and it's just silly to me," she said.

Instead of just getting wedding rings, the couple also got matching tattoos of the Roman numeral four on their ring fingers, so if they take off the bands for work or to go swimming, a mark of some form is still there. (The number four is special to the couple because her birthday is September 4, his birthday is December 4, and their wedding anniversary is April 4.)

While she wouldn't discuss how Hova proposed, or even if he proposed ("We've been together a long time. We always knew it would happen," is all she would offer), Beyoncé did reveal this: They plan to have kids. Someday. And perhaps as soon as after she puts out this album.

Beyonce's 'If I Were a Boy': What do you think?

Q: Is Beyoncé Knowles ever going to make a musical misstep?

A: Based on "If I Were a Boy," her new track that debuted on Elvis Duran's Z100 show this morning (check out the high-quality version below, or an embedded YouTube version after the jump), I'd say it doesn't look likely. Indeed, the initial release from B's upcoming third solo disc is an exciting departure from her previous lead singles, the Southern-fried funk of "Déjà Vu" (from 2006's B'day) and the (greatest single of all time) jubilant horn-infused "Crazy in Love" (from 2003's Dangerously in Love).

In the past, I've often translated the term "Beyoncé ballad" to mean "album filler," yet "If I Were a Boy" is anything but. The contemplative lyrics find Beyoncé envisioning herself in the role of her do-wrong guy -- I'd put myself first/ And make the rules as I go/ 'Cause I know that she'd be faithful/ Waitin' for me to come home -- and her searing vocal is absolutely up to the challenge. "If I Were a Boy" sounds totally fresh, not like anything else on the radio right now, and should put Ms. Knowles right back in her throne as Queen of Top 40 Radio. (Rihanna, Pink, and Katy Perry, I hope you ladies had fun in B's absence.)

Snap Judgment: Beyoncé's 'If I Were a Boy' and 'Single Ladies'

01:36 PM PT, Oct 8 2008

Beyoncé may be a married lady now, but she's still all caught up in the drama of love's first glances and final door slams. It's refreshing that she's staying in character: When artists such as Mary J. Blige start making music about how happy they are with their chubby hubbies, it may be sincere, but it also serves the function of feeding the tabloids. Beyoncé and her Hova have always kept business and pleasure separate, which imparts dignity to their relationship -- and lets her be an artist first, a personality second.

Beyoncé's emotional reserve also allows for hits that still appeal to her core fan base of independent women. "Irreplaceable" was a masterpiece of that ilk, the finger-wagging summation of mercenary, "Sex and the City"-style post-feminism. That song made Beyoncé pop's Chairwoman of the Board, as worldly wise and merciless about love as Sinatra was in the wee small hours of the morning.

Her new club banger, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," elaborates on "Irreplaceable's" theme of love as sport, if not war; sounding a lot like a Destiny's Child song, it has Beyoncé doing call-and-response with her backup singers over a rump-shaking beat provided by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. More than most female singers, Beyoncé understands the funky art of singing rhythmically, and this is a prime example.

The song's message is a tricky one: girlfriend's just split from her no-good man and is out celebrating with her crew. She's snaring a new man, but her old one is watching, and the song is directed to him.

"If you like it then you should have put a ring on it," goes the singsong hook, and eventually, the lyrics reveal that this is what the singer really wants: for her guy to make like a prince and grab her, delivering her to "a destiny, to infinity and beyond."

That's corny, and Beyoncé's not one for cheap sentiment. No matter what the bridge says, it's that chorus that wins the day, and it is a slap in the face of a man who's already blown it. Prince Charming is left standing there like the second lead in a romantic comedy, while Beyoncé lets her new guy -- and the beat, and those jumping background singers -- sweep her off her feet.

"If I Were a Boy" mines a very different mood, and in doing so, elevates Beyoncé's game even higher. This is her Streisand moment -- a tender, fairly simple ballad that Beyoncé uses to prove she's a great vocal actress.

Co-written by Toby Gad, a longtime ingenue supporter who gave Fergie her Song of the Year with "Big Girls Don't Cry," this tearjerker is circular in structure, its unending cadences suggesting that the problem B's addressing is eternal. This isn't just another breakup song; it's an elegy for female empowerment, Beyoncé's admission that no amount of money, fame or skill can solve the basic inequity between her man's heart and her own.

The lyric starts out with Beyoncé musing about all she'd do if she could be anatomically and hormonally altered: eschew grooming, embrace booze, dog after every lady in sight. Cute, and at this point a smile underlies her delivery. But then she hits her upper register, and the sorry sneaks in: She's dreaming that if she were a boy, if a man could have a woman's sense of empathy, things would be different.

By the second verse, she sounds resigned, ticking off more cruelties that male empowerment allows. "I'd put myself first," she mutters. But she can't -- she returns to the chorus, and her imploring vision of life as (with?) a "better man."

Then the script flips. No more dreaming. Addressing her straying lover directly, she says it's just too late. Her tone is gentle, open: Instead of the snap of "Single Ladies" and "Irreplaceable," there's real sadness as she shuts this door.

The last verse is just slightly stagy, with a sneer sneaking in as she sings, "But you're just a boy." In the end, Beyoncé can't resist arching her eyebrow; she's a survivor, and she won't let her pain completely unmake her.

But that's the final, poignant point of this excellent song. In Beyoncé's world view, an independent woman must sacrifice the princess fantasy she was sold as a child, and keep that steely edge, even when her world is melting around her. The compassion Beyoncé's vocal conveys as "If I Were a Boy" concludes is as much for the man who can't fulfill romance's impossible dream as it is for herself.

Post-feminist independence is usually staged as a comedy -- chick lit, "Sex and the City," "Irreplaceable." Here, Beyoncé turns it into an adult drama, and lets it bleed. It's a powerful and complex view of sexual politics from a singer and songwriter who's truly come into her own.

-- Ann Powers

Photo of Beyoncé performing with Justin Timberlake in September by Jeff Christensen/Associated Press

PS: Let’s not forget that Sony has one person to thank for Alicia, Jennifer and Leona: Clive Davis, who made these women stars on his J Records. If Clive gets to put on his pre-Grammy dinner and show this year, it will likely be his best ever!

Grammy Wars: Alicia Keys Beats Beyonce

Grammy Wars: Alicia Keys Beats Beyonce

Oh, what a good Grammy fight there could have been for Best Song and Record: Alicia Keys’ “Superwoman," undoubtedly a nominee in both categories, almost had some real competition in many categories.

On Wednesday morning, our friends at Z100 in New York unveiled Beyonce’s new single. “If I Were a Boy.” And the news is: It’s Beyonce’s best record ever in her career, a total smash, an unexpected coup. You can hear it at http://z100.elvisduran.com/pages/news/beyonce.

But "Boy" missed the Grammy deadline by eight days, and we can only wonder why. Certainly this single was ready to go on Sept. 30 in some form. It’s just Beyonce singing, very straightforward for once, no nonsense. It shows off her amazing vocal chops and establishes her as a singer.

The song is written and produced by Toby Gad, who accomplished a similar feat with Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” another smart ballad with a terrific melody.

Could the delay be thanks to Alicia and Beyonce being in the same record conglom? Quite possibly. Because of the Sony-BMG merger, both singers are now under the same umbrella, the new Sony Music Entertainment. And they’re not alone. Jennifer Hudson is there, too, with her new self-titled debut album. So, too, is Leona Lewis, who’s had a gigantic hit all year with her single, “Bleeding Love,” also a very likely contender in the same Grammy categories.

Not only that: All three of these women — Alicia, Jennifer, Leona — have albums vying for Best Album and Best R&B album, not to mention Best Female Pop (or R&B) Vocal Performance. And they’re all on Sony. Something’s gotta give. Of course, Keys' album, “As I Am,” is the most likely to make it all the way and could actually win the top honor next February.

All of that leaves Beyonce out in the cold at the Grammys, even though by February, “If I Were a Boy" will have been a huge hit for four months. But that’s the problem when mergers put several singers of the same ilk all together in one place.

Of interest: Take a look at Beyonce’s black-and-white picture on the Z100 page, in which she’s wearing no makeup. Seems like the marketing ploy on this new album is to strip her away from the glamour and glitz of “Dreamgirls.”

Here’s the new video for Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy single”. This video along with “Single Ladies” will be released to all the networks this coming monday. I was joking with someone the other day and pointed out that Beyonce releasing her two singles this week overshadowed every female artist that is promoting a fourth quarter release. Already both Keri Hilson and Brandy have pushed their albums back until after her November 18th album release.

I love Ciara but to say Beyonce ganked “Like A Boy” is silly. Not even close…

- Necole Bitchie