Nash conceptualized "Single Ladies" after Beyoncé's secret marriage to hip hop recording artist Jay-Z in April 2008. Beyoncé recorded the song in May 2008 at the Boom Boom Room Studio in Burbank, California, and it was mixed by Jaycen Joshua and Dave Pensado, with assistance from Randy Urbanski and Andrew Wuepper. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" was written by Beyoncé, Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell, and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, and was produced by Nash and Stewart. Media usage has included placement in popular television shows.Ĭhristopher Stewart (right) produced "Single Ladies". Several notable artists have performed cover versions. The song and particularly its music video have been widely parodied and imitated. Beyoncé has performed "Single Ladies" on television and during her concert tours. It won several awards, including the Video of the Year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Ī black-and-white music video accompanied the single's release. Globally, it was 2009's seventh best-selling digital single with 6.1 million copies sold. The song charted among the top ten within the singles category in several other countries. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for four non-consecutive weeks and has been certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Several news media sources named it as one of the best songs of 2008, while some considered it one of the best songs of the decade. "Single Ladies" won three Grammy Awards in 2010, including Song of the Year, among other accolades. Watch Beyonce perform “Run the World” and “Crazy in Love” at Glastonbury below."Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" on YouTube “At one point, I had to stop myself because I got really emotional on ‘Halo,” she said, “My team worked really hard filming for three days and being able to touch all the fans, it was a beautiful moment for me.” Her most emotional moment of the show, she added, was during “Halo.” A video display of smiling faces from Glastobury attendees triggered it. She chose “Sex on Fire” for a simple reason: “I love that song,” she said. Of her choice in covers, Beyonce explained that she had a hard time narrowing it down to only two. “It’s so much love and unity in the audience. “I don’t normally do festivals,” she explained. They all told me to relax and be myself,” she said.īeyonce also credited her husband, who had headlined Glastonbury in 2008, with making her pyramid stage performance possible. “I made sure he approved it and, of course, Jay. Interviewed by the BBC later in the night, Beyonce told the network that she was “very nervous” and had sent Coldplay’s Chris Martin her set list in advance. Very few American artists … would take the time or have the respect for a foreign audience to do that. Great artist, writer,singer, person … Something so generous about the fact that she covered songs that acknowledged Glastonbury’s typical audience. A BBC broadcast of the show also panned over to side-stage where Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z and Gwyneth Paltrowwere seen hanging on to each other.īeyonce closed her set with the primal “Girls (Run the World)” followed by the ballad “Halo,” during which she walked off the stage and down to the crowd.įollowing her performance, fellow pop star George Michael tweeted, “Just watching Beyonce’s performance at Glastonbury. She pulls double duty on Sunday night, with top billing on the network’s BET Awards, where her performance will be beamed via satellite.Ĭlearly taken by the size of the massive crowd, Beyonce, whose new album 4 arrives this Tuesday, remarked, “I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I have never performed in front of 175,00 people.” The crowd erupted in applause in return, but not as loudly as when an image of President Barack Obama appeared during the song “At Last” following a montage of iconic images of the Civil Rights movement. Mid-set, Beyonce prompted the crowd for a shout-out to BET. In one of the show’s sexiest moments, Beyonce, backed up by an all-female band, writhed on her back while singing a medley of Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire” and Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones.” She followed it up atop a white grand piano from where she delivered her latest single, “1 + 1.” Comedian Jenny Yang's Food Education Campaign Asks Goop to Rethink MSG Messaging