There aren’t many celebrities who could break through the anxiety of Election Day and get us all talking about something other than our political anxiety, but naturally, Beyoncé has managed to do exactly that. On Tuesday, she released a visual for “Bodyguard,” one of the standout tracks from her 2024 album Cowboy Carter, marking her first standalone solo music video release since “Formation” in 2015. (Dropping this latest one on Election Day feels almost like a reward for how patiently we have waited for almost an entire decade. You’re next, Rihanna!) Watch “Bodyguard” below:
In the video, Queen Bey takes some major sartorial inspiration from the great Pamela Anderson, which shows her in a platinum blonde wig, reclining in a Baywatch-esque swimsuit, and even sporting an approximation of Anderson’s iconic pink fluffy hat. The black dress and gloves that Beyoncé wears in the video also appear to be an ode to Anderson’s costuming in the 1996 film Barb Wire, and personally, I’m now dreaming of some kind of Bey-and-Pam collab.
Given that Beyoncé is an ardent supporter of vice president and 2024 Democratic candidate Kamala Harris—even recently appearing at a Harris/Walz rally in her hometown of Houston, Texas—it should come as no surprise that her Election Day–timed release included some final get-out-the-vote messaging: At one point in the video, Beyoncé fires a gun that displays a flag reading “VOTE!”
Perhaps the most relatable moment of the video, though, is the shot of Bey chugging brown liquor. Not to romanticize alcohol as stress relief, but I will most definitely be taking a page out of Beyoncé’s book and commencing cocktail hour as soon as the earliest polling numbers start coming in.
