Beyoncé Honored Michelle Obama In The TIME 100 List With The Perfect Tribute
Forget fantasy sports brackets, I have a fantasy league made up of the perfect squad. While my squad is (sadly) just a pipe dream, Beyoncé and former first lady Michelle Obama have prime spots on it, because they are perfect #squadgoals. To prove it, Beyonce's quote about Michelle Obama in the TIME 100 list will give you all the feels — and make you extremely jealous.
Each year TIME puts together their list of 100 most influential people in the world, from scientists to filmmakers... and even former first ladies like Obama, featured in this year's list under the "icon" portion. While that's cheer-worthy enough, it gets better, because no less than Queen Bey penned the blurb honoring her. Beyoncé wrote a deeply beautiful tribute to Obama that started, "Loving Michelle Obama wasn’t much of a choice —" and that set the tone for the rest of the piece. At one point Beyoncé talked about Obama being the first African-American first lady and expressing her gratitude that her children have Obama to inspire them. She wrote,
She would’ve been impactful simply by being in the White House, the first African-American First Lady. But she also used her position of power to improve the world around her… She has continued to open herself up, even if it meant being criticized. She has continued to be a portrait of grace. I am so grateful that my daughters and my son live in a world where Michelle Obama shines as a beacon of hope who inspires all of us to do better and to be better.
It's fitting that Bey wrote the tribute, given that these two superstars have apparently been friends for awhile. Maybe it started when Beyoncé performed at President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration? Or maybe it was in 2011, when the superstar and Obama teamed up on the first lady's "Let's Move" initiative to combat childhood obesity. When the friendship was solidified is not important, what is important, however, is that they are actually friends and Obama was even seen jamming out at a Beyoncé and Jay-Z concert on July 30, 2018 — just two weeks after also seeing Beyoncé in Paris.
Keep those tissues close, because I have some more for you. The TIME 100 list wasn't the first time Beyoncé gave a tear-inducing tribute to Obama. Back in December, Obama appeared on CBS This Morning to share some great news — that she was adding 21 more stops to her Becoming book tour. The reveal came with a segment called "Note to Self," which featured Obama reading a letter she wrote to her young self about her life. The clip also featured some never-before-seen photos of a younger Obama. About a month after Obama's "Note to Self", on Jan. 17, Beyoncé shared one of those never-before-seen photos on Instagram in honor of Obama's birthday. The superstar posted a black-and-white throwback picture of Obama as a toddler on with "bow down" written in pink over the image. Mic drop. Beyoncé didn't even caption the photo, because after "bow down" what more is there to say really?
If you need some more proof that everyone is (friend)shipping Obama and Beyoncé, the Instagram post racked up almost three million likes.
I am going to be very real with you right now, I think one of the purest and most precious friendships this world has right now is the relationship between our two queens: Beyoncé and Obama. Now if only they'd just, like, let me in.
