Beyoncé Looks Back on 'Falling in Love' With Jay-Z, Praises Daughter Blue Ivy’s Artistry: 'She’s a Natural'
Blue Ivy will soon be heard as part of the voice cast for 'Mufasa: The Lion King.'
In a decidedly timely move, a new Beyoncé interview has been released, which can only mean one thing for pop culture news writers the world over: aggregation time.
This time, the rarity comes in the form of a conversation with Complex alum Frazier Tharpe for GQ, with a focus on the 32-time Grammy winner’s recently launched whisky brand SirDavis. But the whisky, named after her great-grandfather, won’t be the center of this particular act of aggregation. Instead, we’re first zeroing in on some reflective remarks Beyoncé made about the earlier days of her and husband Jay-Z’s stardom-redefining relationship.
When asked about balancing her private life with the demands at the core of being an artist at this level, the "Texas Hold ‘Em" singer noted some key differences between our current “world of access” and the one in which she and Jay first connected.
"Our children can FaceTime and see their friends at any given moment," the Cowboy Carter artist, whose lack of CMA Awards nominations was met with criticism this week, said in the new interview. "My husband and I? We used calling cards and Skype when we were falling in love. I couldn’t afford the international hotel bills, so I literally would get international calling cards to call him."
Image via Bryce Anderson/GQ
To drive home the comparison, Beyoncé also revealed that she recently heard an AI-enabled emulation track that "sounded so much like me it scared me," adding that differentiating between real and fake is "impossible" these days.
Elsewhere, Blue Ivy’s own burgeoning stardom was mentioned, with Beyoncé praising her and Jay’s oldest daughter as having long been an artist in her own right.
"Blue is an artist," she said of the 12-year-old Mufasa: The Lion King voice actor. "She has great taste in music and fashion. She is a fantastic editor, painter, and actress. She has been creating characters since she was three. She’s a natural, but I did not want Blue onstage. Blue wanted it for herself. She took it seriously and she earned it. And most importantly, she had fun! We all watched her grow more and more every night before our eyes."
For the full GQ interview, this is where you need to be.
Last week, Beyoncé commemorated her 43rd birthday with a special message of gratitude to her legions of fans shared alongside an assortment of vacation photos showing her and Jay in full-fledged relaxation mode. Next, at least musically, is the expected trilogy-closing follow-up to Cowboy Carter. Speculation posits that we may be getting a rock-leaning listening experience this time around, though it's surely too early to say for sure.
