Beyoncé Keeps Breaking the Internet

We’re sure you’ve heard talk of Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Her new album released over the weekend is certainly making everyone think of things far more bitter than the classic sweet, lemony drink.

There’s a lot of (lemon) juice about the theme of infidelity that runs through her album as suggestions that Jay-Z was unfaithful to her with Rachel Ray are circulating. The celebrity chef Rachel Ray has been caught up in it all, but she’s innocent, everyone. It’s actually a bit of a shame; it could have given way to some great food-related puns.

The album is only available for streaming on Tidal, which is a pretty clever move considering she co-owns the music service along with other artists, including Jay-Z. The HBO video special she released along with the album is everywhere, though, and, as can be expected of any Beyoncé video, is worth the watch.

It’s not the first time Queen Bey and her antics have broken the internet, though – not even the first time this year. She’s managed to find herself at the centre of attention more than five times already.

The Baby Bump

On the other side of the Jay-Z and Beyoncé coin, it seems like there’s a new pregnancy rumour for the couple every few weeks. After Beyoncé shared that Jay-Z was ready for a ‘basketball-team’ sized family and hid a non-existent baby-bump in July last year, we took the pregnancy rumours in January this year with a pinch of salt. To everyone’s (un-)surprise, she announced in February that she was in fact not pregnant. At the Super Bowl, no less.

The Channing Tatum Lip Sync Battle

In January, Channing Tatum and Beyoncé met each other for the first time on stage during a lip sync battle of Bey’s Run the World. After Tatum sent her direct messages in an attempt to convince her to join him, she apparently only agreed to the performance the night before. A singing, dancing Beyoncé singing + a Channing Tatum dressed as Beyoncé = 20 million views online. That’s just maths.

The Formation Single Drop

Then in February, she released her new single Formation and accompanying music video without a whisper of warning. The music video is live on her YouTube page and has been described many times on Twitter using the only word that really suits it – ‘slay’. It was released just before her performance at the Super Bowl, letting us know her publicists definitely know what they’re doing.

The Super Bowl

With the third largest audience in television history (a whopping 111.9 million viewers) watching, Beyoncé performed her new single, following a mash-up of songs honouring past Super Bowl performances. The “Uptown Funk” and “Single Ladies” battle then followed, which featured Beyoncé’s near-fall. No one could plan a bigger internet overload if they tried.

The Tea Party

Amongst moments of chaos in the Carter-Knowles family, we can also just enjoy watching her play happy family with her sister, Solange, and daughter, Blue Ivy. The internet almost fell over itself for pictures of their exclusive Easter-themed tea party in March. It was indeed an endearing moment of quiet before the Lemonade storm that was to come in April. Can’t we all just settle down, everyone, and have some tea?