When Beyoncé speaks, you stop whatever you're doing and listen. There are no exceptions, and that is especially the case when one of the most iconic musicians to ever breathe gives an interview even rarer than she is.
Harper's Bazaar sat down with Queen Bey ahead of her 40th birthday on Sept. 4:
After more than two decades in the spotlight, @Beyonce has become much more than a pop icon. She’s a cultural force who has routinely defied expectations and transformed the way we understand the power of art to change how we see ourselves and each other. https://t.co/bUg58Y9cIB
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
“I have no interest in searching backwards. The past is the past. I feel many aspects of that younger, less evolved Beyoncé could never f*** with the woman I am today," says @Beyonce for our #BAZAARICONS September cover story. Read it now here: https://t.co/mk8C6C68gS pic.twitter.com/o640luO15t
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
“I’ve fought to protect my sanity and my privacy because the quality of my life depended on it,” says @Beyonce for our #BAZAARICONS September cover story. Read it now here: https://t.co/mk8C6C68gS pic.twitter.com/3vQfG2gkbt
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
“I worked to heal generational trauma and turned my broken heart into art that would help move culture forward and hopefully live far beyond me. My 30s were about digging deeper,” says @Beyonce for our #BAZAARICONS September cover story. Read it now here: https://t.co/mk8C6C68gS pic.twitter.com/jHBZHLufDi
— Harper's Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) August 10, 2021
Within the sprawling cover story, the 28-time Grammy winner assured that new music is coming sooner than later.
"With all the isolation and injustice over the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love, and laugh again," Beyoncé explained. "I feel a renaissance emerging, and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible. I've been in the studio for a year and a half. Sometimes it takes a year for me to personally search through thousands of sounds to find just the right kick or snare."
"One chorus can have up to 200 stacked harmonies," she continued. "Still, there's nothing like the amount of love, passion, and healing that I feel in the recording studio. After 31 years, it feels just as exciting as it did when I was nine years old. Yes, the music is coming!"
The Houston legend's most recent solo studio album, Lemonade, came in 2016. Her last new musical offerings in general came in the form of 2018 visual album Everything Is Love that she did alongside husband Jay-Z and released as THE CARTERS followed by last year's Black Is King, the visual component of her 2019 The Lion King: The Gift album.
Elsewhere in the interview, Beyoncé walked through what each decade of her life has taught her.
As a child, she was "dedicated to dreaming" and "didn't speak very much," which led her to channel everything into singing once she started competing at seven years old. She described her teenage years as "about the grind," as Destiny's Child took off. "I wanted to break all of the stereotypes of the Black superstar," she noted. Once she hit 20, she focused on "building a strong foundation for my career and establishing my legacy," which again demanded she buck against traditional methods and trailblaze.
Beyoncé's 30s were defined by starting her family with Hov—they share nine-year-old daughter Blue Ivy and four-year-old twins Rumi and Sir—and repurposing her fame and fortune by launching BeyGOOD.
"My wish is for my 40s to be fun and full of freedom," she concluded, in part. "I want to feel the same freedom I feel on stage every day of my life. I want to explore aspects of myself I haven't had time to discover and to enjoy my husband and my children. I want to travel without working. I want this next decade to be about celebration, joy, and giving and receiving love. I want to give all the love I have to the people who love me back."
Read the full interview here.
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