BEYONCE

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This was a year of change and tumult, but if anything has remained consistent through it all, it's been Beyoncé's greatness.

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Women Lead the Emmys Noms: Beyonce, "Fleabag," and "Russian Doll" Sweep the List

This year's Emmys nominations favored female-created shows.

Fleabag: An Unusual Masterpiece

This year's Emmys nominations list has made headlines because many of the selected shows are actually really high-quality television.

It's noteworthy for another reason: Women (whether female actors, writers, creators, or otherwise) are at the forefront of the majority of the shows under consideration.

Leading the pack is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and creator of not one but two Emmy nominated shows: Killing Eve and Fleabag. Another show in talks for a win is Russian Doll, the breakout Netflix hit created by and starring Natasha Lyonne. Naturally, Beyoncé also scored six nominations for her Netflix Homecoming special.

Image via The Ringer

Not only do all these shows have female creators: they also star women above the age of 30. Amidst a Hollywood crowd that notoriously snubs this demographic, or writes them into restrictive roles, it's refreshing to see women so well-represented in the nominations list (which could perhaps use more diversity in general).

Don't worry, though: Men were still represented in this year's nominations. Craig Mazin's disaster drama Chernobyl scored 19 nominations, and Game of Thrones scored an incredible 32, despite terrible reviews of its last season. On the other hand, Julia Roberts was snubbed for her role in Veep, while Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and (thankfully) The Big Bang Theory received almost no recognition.

Whatever happens, this means that more people will be prompted to bask in the glory of Russian Doll, Fleabag, and Homecoming, and that's a blessing for everyone.

Here's the full list of nominees, via CNN:

Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie

Mahershala Ali, "True Detective"

Benicio del Toro, "Escape at Dannemora"

Hugh Grant, "A Very English Scandal"

Jared Harris, "Chernobyl"

Jharrel Jerome, "When They See Us"

Sam Rockwell, "Fosse/Verdon"

Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie

Amy Adams, "Sharp Objects"

Patricia Arquette, "Escape at Dannemora"

Aunjanue Ellis, "When They See Us"

Joey King, "The Act"

Niecy Nash, "When They See Us"

Michelle Williams, "Fosse/Verdon"

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

Anthony Anderson, "Black-ish"

Don Cheadle, "Black Monday,"

Ted Danson, "The Good Place"

Michael Douglas, "The Kominksy Method"

Bill Hader, "Barry"

Eugene Levy, "Schitt's Creek"

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

Christina Applegate, "Dead to Me"

Rachel Brosnahan, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

Julia-Louis Dreyfus, "Veep"

Natasha Lyonne, "Russian Doll"

Catherine O'Hara, "Schitt's Creek"

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, "Fleabag"

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

Jason Bateman, "Ozark"

Sterling K. Brown, "This is Us"

Kit Harrington, "Game of Thrones"

Bob Odenkirk, "Better Call Saul"

Billy Porter, "Pose"

Milo Ventimiglia, "This Is Us"

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

Emilia Clarke, "Game of Thrones"

Jodie Comer, "Killing Eve"

Viola Davis, "How to Get Away With Murder"

Laura Linney, "Ozark"

Mandy Moore, "This Is Us"

Sandra Oh, "Killing Eve"

Robin Wright, "House of Cards"

Outstanding reality/competition series

"The Amazing Race"

"American Ninja Warrior"

"Nailed It"

"RuPaul's Drag Race"

"Top Chef"

"The Voice"

Outstanding variety talk series

"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah"

"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"

"Jimmy Kimmel Live"

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver"

"The Late Late Show with James Corden"

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

Outstanding limited series

"Chernobyl"

"Escape at Dannemora"

"Fosse/Verdon"

'Sharp Objects"

"When They See Us"

Outstanding comedy series

"Veep"

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"

"Barry"

"The Good Place"

"Fleabag"

"Russian Doll"

"Schitt's Creek"

Outstanding drama series

"Better Call Saul"

"Bodyguard"

"Game of Thrones"

"Killing Eve"

"Ozark"

"Pose"

"Succession"

"This Is Us"

Walt Disney Pictures/Kobal/Shutterstock

Beyoncé has never been one to stick to tradition or to announce when she's about to drop something, so it's really no surprise that she just released a 40-track live album called Homecoming in conjunction with her new Netflix documentary.

Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

The album, which dropped at 10 AM on Wednesday morning, is a collection of the singer's greatest hits, ranging from "Single Ladies" to Destiny's Child's "Say My Name." It also includes rarities such as two covers of the hymn often called the Black national anthem—"Lift Every Voice and Sing"—first sung a cappella by an emotional Beyoncé as a lead-in to "Formation," and later by Bey and Jay-Z's daughter, Blue Ivy.

Blue, who recorded the track in the audience at one of her mom's rehearsals, has obviously inherited some of her parents' love of the spotlight; at the end of the song she exclaims, "I wanna do that again because it feels good!"

B7 also features Jay-Z and J Balvin and concludes with a new studio track—a cover of the song "Before I Let Go" by Frankie Beverly and Maze, originally released in 1981 and first covered by Destiny's Child in 1997.

As if the album alone wasn't enough of a gift, it's available on all streaming platforms. On it, you can hear Beyoncé's vocals—silky and flawless as ever—layered over complicated new brass-heavy arrangements and the distant screams of the infatuated crowd. Supercharged with electric energy, it's a straight shot of the empowerment and magnetism that has gained Beyoncé her well-deserved status as an inimitable icon of our times.

June's Diary performs "Lift Every Voice and Sing" live at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimorewww.youtube.com

The album comes as a surprise companion piece to Beyoncé's Netflix documentary, which debuted last night at Howard University and Houston's Southern Texas University—appropriate venues, as her Coachella performance featured a massive marching band and sets inspired by the aesthetics of historically black colleges. It follows her 2018 performance from conceptualization to fruition and features interviews and intimate behind-the-scenes footage.

The critically lauded set marked the first time in the festival's 11-year history that an African American woman headlined it, and 2018 will forever be marked in history as the year of Beychella. But then again, every year is Bey's year—she's been steadily creating extraordinary multimedia works of art for the past decade, with each event—from the Super Bowl to Lemonade—further fortifying her legacy as music's eternal queen, one surprise release at a time.


Eden Arielle Gordon is a writer and musician from New York City. Follow her on Twitter @edenarielmusic.


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