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Fans Think Beyoncé Referenced Donald Glover's "Swarm" During Her Concert
Yesterday (May 10), Beyoncé delivered a stellar opening night performance of her “Renaissance World Tour” in Stockholm, Sweden. Attendees began to flood social media with livestreams and clips from the show, and the BeyHive quickly got to work on outfit analysis, song break-downs, and more.
As additional footage from the concert started to spread last night, one moment in particular started gaining a lot of traction. When Queen Bey was about to perform her fan-favorite hit “AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM,” she stepped out in a custom black and yellow Mugler bodysuit. “Swarm on these hands, n**ga!” she shouted into the mic.
MY STOMACHSJFJSSpic.twitter.com/wBIFRTXI9s
— ♤ (@haworthes) May 10, 2023
Many fans think this is a reference to the recent “Swarm” Amazon Prime Video series, a Donald Glover and Janine Nabers-backed show inspired by today’s stan culture. Since its debut back in March, viewers picked up on several references to Beyoncé, like “The Running Scared II Tour,” which alluded to her 2014 “On The Run Tour” with JAY-Z.
The show stars Dominique Fishback, who is best known for her role as Deborah in Judas and the Black Messiah. The show also featured cameos from Rickey Thompson, Paris Jackson, Rory Culkin, Kiersey Clemons, Byron Bowers, Damson Idris, and more.
Since the concert clip has made its rounds, many fans have said the “Crazy In Love” artist probably made the comment in a lighthearted way, as she likely gave her blessing to Glover for “Swarm.”
“Donald Glover is literally friends with Beyoncé and JAY-Z. They’ve collaborated multiple times in the past. She would’ve green-lighted the idea for the show. So I doubt it’s shade,” one user wrote on Twitter.
At the end of July 2022, the legendary singer officially returned with RENAISSANCE, a 16-song body of work with additional assists from Beam, Grace Jones, Tems, Honey Dijon, Mike Dean, and more. The LP scored that year’s largest first-week sales total for an album by a female artist, as well as the second-largest first-week sales total for any 2022 album.