Every great singer has one great conspiracy theory hovering over them: Elvis is still alive, Dolly Parton has no ribs and Marc Bolan once did that thing with a ... [that’s enough – ed].
But Beyoncé has loads.
The latest comes from her former “Dadager”, Matthew Knowles, who said in a radio interview that Beyoncé is “the exact same age” as Pink. Which would make her a few years older than she claims to be (36, and not 34). Controversial if true, but more likely a 63-year-old man misremembering the facts.
But that hasn’t stopped the global Beyoncé conspiracy industry from cranking into gear, adding it to the daft rumours that surrounded her pregnancy (she had a secret surrogate! Her baby bump was a cheap cloth prosthetic that tragically folded in on itself!); her sister is her daughter!; and her membership of the Illuminati (look at the unwavering evidence: she’s sacrificed in the Crazy In Love video! She did the illuminati symbol during the Super Bowl!).
Beyoncé is catnip for messageboard-lurking conspiracy theorists because, in the age of the accessible celebrity, she is so guarded about what ends up in the public domain.
On the surface, she appears to be fairly forthcoming about what she lets people know. A cursory look at her Instagram, a scan of the lyrics on the album Beyoncé, or a viewing of her documentary Life Is But A Dream, suggest a level of transparency. But on closer inspection, she very rarely lets anything personal slip.
Early this year she made the cover of Vogue’s September issue, without actually doing the requisite accompanying interview. More recently she was on the cover of Flaunt magazine where, sans interview, she deigned to give them a handwritten word association instead (example: “Overpopulated – my hair closet”). A New York Times piece from May summed up her frosty relationship with the media thus: “Beyoncé, a representative explained, has not answered any direct questions for more than a year.” Which makes her interview with the free, smallscale British magazine Beat this week all the more impressive a coup. (She revealed that she has “extra tomato sauce and jalapeños” on her pizza.)
The full story of her persona control may lie in the room that GQ writer Amy Wallace uncovered during her 2013 cover story. This archive room featured, according to Wallace, “every existing photograph of her ... every interview she’s ever done, every video of every show she’s ever performed; every diary entry she’s ever recorded, every fingernail of every Destiny’s Child member ever ...” OK, that last bit was a lie, but you get the idea.
As her surprise winter album drop of 2013 proved, Beyoncé, who has been famous for more than half her life, doesn’t need to play by the media’s or anyone’s rules. Not so great for editors, but brilliant fodder for the armchair soldiers devoted to uncovering the New World Order, lyric by lyric.
