Beyoncé’s historic Coachella performance may be the best of all time

INDIO, CA. – Before she put in one of the most consequential live performances of the year (and — I feel pretty safe making this claim — of the 21st century), Beyoncé posted a brief message to her Facebook page:

I am so excited to see the BeyHive tonight at Coachella. We have been working hard and have a special show planned for you so please be safe and stay hydrated. We need your energy! There will be an hour intermission before my performance, so mark your spot, charge your phones, grab your drinks. Can’t wait to see y’all at 11:05pm!

In hindsight, this wasn’t a mild tease, it was a warning shot. By the time the 36-year-old artist finished her expansive, near-two-hour headlining set Saturday night — one that featured a full marching band and drumline, a Destiny’s Child reunion, cameos by husband Jay-Z (on “Déjà Vu”) and sister Solange (dancing along to “Get Me Bodied”), a tribute to Fela Kuti and Nina Simone, and Beyoncé herself floating high above the crowd on top of a lift while singing “Drunk in Love” — it felt like the music space-time continuum had permanently shifted.

This wasn’t a festival gig as much as a Broadway-scale production with a 70-plus-person backing band — one that displayed the pop domination of Bey while exploring the full breadth of the Black diaspora. During the set, Bey sang a cover of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” included snippets of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” speech, and featured brief horn-heavy cuts of C-Murder’s “Down For My N’s” and Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up.” Beyoncé was playing singer, soror, band director, antagonizer, dancer, and slayer of men all at once. This was a pop star 20 years into her career, at the top of her game, producing the type of concert-meets-history lesson-meets-social media explosion viewers will be talking about for years to come.

And Beyoncé returned the favor, running and singing and dancing for two hours straight with minimal breaks. Bey’s stamina knows no bounds. “Thank you for allowing me to be the first Black woman to headline Coachella,” she said at the end of the evening, to deafening applause. “I just want to say thank you, guys. I am so happy you are here… We worked real hard and I loved seeing all of your faces.”

“God, thank you,” one fan shouted back at her. It was probably not hyperbole.

UPDATE: A previous version of this story misstated the title of C-Murder’s song. The post has been updated with the correct title