The Homecoming drops were also a brilliant feat of marketing, one that team Beyoncé has apparently been preparing for meticulously for a year: Outside of its original livestreams, Beychella has been all but un-viewable, as bootleg versions are scrubbed from the internet soon after they appear.

The documentary intersperses clips of the performance with intimate backstage footage and interviews with the star. She describes how the show was pinned to the idea of homecoming at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s), something that the Houston native grew up watching.

The performance featured the superstar’s extensive discography as interpreted by an HBCU marching band, as well as a phalanx of sounds from traditional black music. A rendition of the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the black national anthem, was particularly poignant: At one point, the documentary cuts to Beyoncé’s eldest daughter, 7-year-old Blue Ivy, singing it in a sweet but also deeply impressive a capella.

In the film, Beyoncé describes how she began prepping for the event just months after giving birth to twins, a harrowing pregnancy that involved an emergency C-section. “I had to rebuild my body from cut muscles,” she says. “There were days that I thought, you know, I’d never be the same.” Beyoncé also addresses the emotional challenge of rehearsing hours a day while balancing motherhood, with all three children often on set, and taking breastfeeding breaks in her trailer between rehearsals.

In spite of that, she describes an incredible attention to detail, having “personally selected each dancer, every light, the material on the steps, the height of the pyramid, the shape of the pyramid. Every patch was hand sewn. Every tiny detail had an intention.”

Coachella is underway again in Indio, California with headliners Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, and Ariana Grande. But without downplaying the talent of this and past years’ performers, Homecoming arrives as a testament to Beyoncé’s power and importance—as an artist, empire, and cultural symbol. She is in a different league from any pop star or music festival today.

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