THE innate sense of humor of Filipinos and the character limit of Twitter are a match made in social-media heaven, a pairing that, for the most part, serves as one of the few bright spots in the increasingly toxic online space with its serving of quick and hot bite-sized bits of pure comedy.
The funniest ones reach viral status, and this past weekend, a post by a certain @thereimond took the cake. The Twitter user uploaded a screenshot of his Facebook post that read: “Beychella unclogged my pores and cleared my acne.”
One commenter, whose name was crossed out of the photo, replied: “Seryoso?” Another asked: “Hm is that?”
If it weren’t for my social-media “lurking,” which I discussed in this corner last week, and for my friends tweeting about the same thing, I might’ve also mistaken the unfamiliar word as some miracle beauty cream, and would’ve had no chance in guessing that it was actually a portmanteau of “Beyoncé” and “Coachella.”
It turned out that the tweet was much like those that flooded my timeline and many else’s about the show-owning performance of the American pop superstar—“The Queen B,” as some would put it—as the first black female headliner of one of the world’s grandest annual music festival, streamed live and free on Coachella’s YouTube channel.
I dug deeper at the hashtag and saw that some likened the experience of witnessing the two-hour performance of Beyoncé to going to church. Some claimed she is the best ever (fans of Michael Jackson, not surprisingly, had something to say about this). The New York Times described it as a “gobsmacking marvel of choreography and musical direction.” The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, called the show as the storied music festival’s “most radical, and maybe the best” one ever.
The proud claims, as it turned out upon a closer look (a.k.a. turning in to the party that I missed live), were actually well-deserved high praise. But where I tip my hat to wasn’t at any particular bit she did: not at any of the crooning or the dancing with or without her husband Jay-Z or sister Solange, not at the fact that she managed to change nail polish along with every wardrobe switch, and not even at the surprise Destiny’s Child reunion.
What got my adoration the most was the fact that for two hours, Beyoncé was able to remind everyone who really owns the throne.
And this is where a sports fandom analogy comes in handy. You see, us sports fans don’t follow the games just because we want to see a ball shot through the net or clubbed to the hole. A big reason we keep on following the games is the athletes, and that includes their achievements, stories and humanity.
Watching people perform at a high level and on a consistent basis is beyond inspirational. But sometimes, the greats are too great for too long that their excellence starts to be taken for granted by onlookers, and three-time NBA Champion LeBron James thinks so, too.
“I think people have just grown accustomed to what I do, and it’s just taken for granted at times,” arguably the best player of this generation said to ESPN’s David McMenamin during practice late last year. “Because I do it so often and it’s been a constant thing for so long, that ‘Oh, that’s what LeBron’s supposed to do.’ It looks easy, but it’s not.”
James made being dominant in Year 15 of a professional sports career look easy, but taking into account the inverse proportion of athletic performance and age, it’s most definitely not. Michael Phelps made every competition he joined in the 2008 Olympics appear a sure-win situation, but considering he was up against the top swimmers in the world, it’s certainly not. Muhammed Ali made boxing in the 1970s look like an everyman’s sport that anyone with a glove and a decent hook can excel in, but taking into consideration that it’s one that ends with a person laying on the ground out cold or bloodied in the face, it’s absolutely not.
And, of course, this commendable display of consistent dominance, the ability to deliver and shine the brightest when the moment is at its biggest, transcends sports.
It happens across different industries, from arts to commerce and, yes, entertainment, starting with Beyoncé, who was originally set to make her Coachella debut last year before doctors ruled her out after giving birth to twins.
Here was a 36-year-old artist who, over the past weekend, was back with a vengeance. Here was someone with the amount of charm, beauty and talent that any person would be lucky to have one of, but has all three, rising to the occasion and taking what she ultimately proved was still hers.
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UPON looking at the viral thread of @thereimond, I saw his response to netizens calling him out for shaming members of “Where can I buy this ‘Baychella’ makeup” club. He responded: “I just want to say that I am not trying to shame them. It’s not their fault they’re atheists.”