Undoubtedly, the biggest highlight of this year's Coachella was Beyoncé's incredible performances featuring cameos from Jay Z and sister Solange, as well as a mini-reunion with her Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and the newly engaged Michelle Williams. Recently, Williams spoke to the Los Angeles Times about what it was like to rehearse for the performance and how important it was for Beyoncé to continue to put black culture front and center.
"I walked into rehearsal for the first time and saw this big old pyramid and that it was gonna be filled to the brim with humans," Williams said of the practice leading up to the show, adding that she told Beyoncé to just "go out there and have fun" and was initially taken aback by the scale of the production. "I said, 'What in the bejesus is this?' But she can never do anything that we would think is normal. And this is what's fun for her."
Beyoncé's work ethic has always been apparent in her shows, and #Beychella was no different. "Everybody was pushing each other to do and be their very, very best. When Beyoncé does something, it's because she knows that if she can do it, everybody else on the stage can do it," Williams explained. "They saw that she's not some glamorous girl on private jets with assistants flocking her side, who just walks in and magically dances so great onstage. She is involved."
Williams added that the performance being such a proud display of African-American culture was "a long time coming" and proves music is one of the best unifiers. "I just love what she was able to do," she said. "I told her, 'You have definitely had a hand in shifting the culture.'"
Williams also noted how happy she was to take the stage with her former group once again, the first time since Beyoncé's 2013 Superbowl performance. "When people see us together they still lose their minds! People are asking, 'When y'all gonna tour? When y'all gonna put out new music?' It's been 14 years since we've had an album together, and people are still asking."
They might not have new music in the works, but the members are more united off the stage with Williams recently moving to Los Angeles, where Beyoncé and Kelly are already residents. "Kelly is a four-minute drive from me; I think Bey is 17 minutes exactly. So we can get together any time, whenever we want to," she said. "We haven't lived in the same city since we left Houston in the early 2000s."
Read the full interview here.
