Some of Beyonce's closest team members and confidants spoke to ELLE.com about the secretive making of Beyonce and revealed the inside story on how she pulled it off. More inside....
We've all been consumed by the social media takeover of Miss 3rd Ward, aka Beyonce Knowles. And now, some of Beyonce's team have spoke to ELLE.com about their experience with working on the secret Beyonce visual album and how they pulled it off. Because there MUST have been some serious strategy to not only keep almost everything from the public, but to go #1 in over 100 countries.
Here are the highlights:
Producer Hit-Boy ("Flawless", "XO") on finding out about Beyonce's release:
“My DJ came upstairs into my studio and told me Beyoncé just dropped her album. I was just as surprised as everybody else!”
“I was just wondering ‘Is this gonna pay off?’ I knew it was Beyoncé... when the time is right, it was gonna happen. But I worked really hard. It was great for music. You’re giving people a whole package where they couldn’t judge it before. It was amazing for all of us.”
Stylist Ty Hunter charged with overseeing the 17 music videos & on keeping the disc's production a secret:
“Well, people knew things were going on. But the thing is, we’re such a tight-knit family.” (People on set signed non-disclosure agreements) “When you finally see the final project, you’re just like ‘I can’t believe we survived it. We were able to pull this off which is unheard of. It’s just a celebration for the whole team. This is history that has been made!””
Ty on picking out looks for "Grown Woman":
“I’d have it sent and pray that the pieces and the packages would be received by different hotels in other countries" He added that he felt “blessed” to have five premier stylists—B. Akerlund, Lysa Cooper, Marni Senofonte, Karen Langley, and Raquel Smith—assisting him.
Model Shaun Ross, (“Pretty Hurts”), on being secretive:
“You had to put your phone away. Beyoncé has always been this person who is super-secretive with the things that she does, as far as with her camp and her family. They’re also very secretive and very intuitive with her vision and keeping things under wraps.”
Director Jonas Akerlund (“Haunted” “Superpower”) on learning about the project in May 2012:
“We listened to some of these songs already back then. And then we started to talk about different ideas. (They shot some of the videos in September). “So actually at the very end of it [Beyoncé’s team] were all waiting for my videos to be finished". He says he turned in his vidoes 24-hours before the project was released!
“The fact that she managed to do 17 videos and the music and have it all ready, it’s just proof that everybody that works for her truly believes in what she does. Everybody that works for Beyoncé really loves her.”
Read the full story here.
