Beyonce’s third album I AM…SASHA FIERCE was released by Columbia Records and Music World Entertainment in two discs I AM and SASHA FIERCE on November 12, 2008, and was recorded between the timeline of December 2007 – August 2008.
The double album reflects the contrast in the persona of Beyonce as an artist. On one hand, I Am is this slow, midtempo pop and R&B ballad and on the other hand, we have Sasha Fierce which as the name explains in itself the nature of having more of an up-tempo beat with a blend of electropop.
Appreciation soon followed the album’s release and it went on to be ranked number 1 on Entertainment Weekly. Singles from the album “If I were a boy” and “Single Ladies” got the most attention from promoting Single ladies at power 105.1 radio station to performing If I were a boy at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, the album and its singles were taking on the music world.
Am… Sasha Fierce was delivered in the United States on November 18, 2008, and beforehand in Japan on November 12, in Australia and Germany on November 14, and in France and the United Kingdom on November 17; exclusive version of the collection was delivered all the while with the standard release.
Beyonce later performed the singles from the iconic album at The Oprah Winfrey Show, Saturday Night Live, 2008 American Music Awards, BET’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and the first live performance of “HALO” was at the 40th NAACP Image Awards.
The queen of R&B and POP Diva came with an alter ego named Sasha Fierce, her most fearless, empowering face. Rolling Stone comments that “Though some of the slow songs have thoroughly memorable tunes, the lyrics are full of bland self-affirmation and saggy lines like “You’re everything I thought you never were.” But the “Sasha” disc boasts Beyoncé’s most adventurous music yet”.
But then The Washington Post’s Headline reads as “Finally Free of Sasha Fierce, Beyonce is a ‘Grown Woman’. Dated December 28, 2013. The article states that Beyonce as of 2010 has shed off her alter ego “Sasha Fierce”. Even though acknowledging the fact that the mask allowed her to be fearless and experimentative as an artist, there was no need for her to do the same in hiding, with a mask on.
“Beyoncé didn’t have to be Sasha Fierce”. The article further suggests that she was tired of the binaries of gender and sexuality and the only way to break out from them was to give up this façade because of which “I Am … Sasha Fierce” turned out to be her weakest album.
To eviscerate the failure of this album she came up with her brand new album “BEYONCE” which was a fourteen-track set with seventeen short movies: a video for every soundtrack got released on December 13, 2013, by Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. Through this album, Beyonce celebrated black womanhood. “It’s an exploration of gender and power and an unwavering look at the black female sexual agency.”
BEYONCE became her medium of demonstrating artistic freedom and dominance and condemned the “sex-negative culture”. There was a cultural shift in the realm of hip hop which was so haughty on the male gaze and male desires were now embracing women’s sexual kinks and desires as well. ‘
BEYONCE album debuted as number one on the US Billboard 200 making it a five times consecutive number one album on the charts and a part of it was also promoted on the Mrs.Carter Show World. Beyoncé was globally trending as the tenth-best-selling album of the 2013 era.
The album sways a little from the traditional course by adopting an unconventional song structure. “The dream-like state created on “Haunted” is ushered in with a stream of consciousness rap entitled “Ghost” which transitions from “smoky ethereality to off-kilter club beat”,”
A pre-recorded piece of a single named “Partition” was played during the 2014 BET Awards on June 29 2014 and then she later performed a sixteen-minute-long medley of the singles from the album on the 24th of August at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards. Along with many singles, the last one to be released was “Flawless” featuring, Nicki Minaj on August 12, 2014.
Addressing the album’s sexual content specifically, Beyoncé said: “I don’t at all have any shame about being sexual and I’m not embarrassed about it and I don’t feel like I have to protect that side of me.”
This bold album became the voice of black feminists as it was shaking down all the stereotypes surrounding female sexuality by busting the misogynoir and negligible hostilities that mark our day-to-day routines.
Written By: Aakanksha Dassi
Editor and Team Lead: Ashutosh Sharma
To read more visit https://unvoicedmedia.in/
References for the article:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonc%C3%A9
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am…_Sasha_Fierce#Release_and_promotion
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/12/28/finally-free-of-sasha-fierce-beyonce-is-a-grown-woman/
- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/i-am-sasha-fierce-255343/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyonc%C3%A9_(album)
About The Author(s)
Chemistry major with self-proclaimed good taste in Books and Music.
