No, Beyoncé did not shade Lizzo at her Renaissance World Tour show in Boston on Tuesday night (Aug. 1). At least according to the Knowles matriarch, Tina Knowles. The mother of Beyoncé and Solange Knowles took to Instagram Wednesday (Aug. 2) to shut down speculation that Beyoncé purposely skipped over Lizzo’s name during the performance of “Break My Soul.”
At the Renaissance World Tour, Queen Bey combines the original solo version of her Billboard Hot 100-topping “Break My Soul” with the Madonna-assisted “Queens Remix,” which boasts the lyric “Betty Davis, Solange Knowles Badu, Lizzo, Kelly Rowl’.” At Tuesday night’s show, Beyoncé did not say Lizzo’s name, and instead chanted “Badu” four times. Both Badu and Lizzo’s names appeared on the screen behind the superstar.
Mama Tina pointed out that Bey “also didn’t say her own sister’s name” in a comment on The Jasmine Brand’s Instagram post about the rumored diss, putting to bed any accusations of Beyoncé shading Lizzo. The “sister” Tina refers to appears to be Beyoncé’s former Destiny’s Child group member Kelly Rowland, as the star chanted the name of her biological sister, Grammy-winning multidisciplinary artist Solange, in the Tuesday performance. The proud mama also made sure to tell online speculators that they “should really stop.”
Although Beyoncé does not sing every name in the “Queens Remix” at every tour date, fans latched onto to the apparent omission of Lizzo’s name because, just earlier that day, news broke that the “About Damn Time” singer is being sued by three of her former tour dancers, who claim that they were subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.