Beyonce offered fans a surprise Wednesday morning, releasing a live album companion to her previously announced "Homecoming" Netflix special, documenting her appearances at Coachella last year.
"Homecoming: The Live Album" (Parkwood) is available for download at iTunes and Amazon, as well as available for streaming at major services, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and Tidal, which she co-owns with husband Jay-Z and other artists.
Beyonce's Coachella ambitious appearance stunned many when it was streamed live from the music festival last year. But "Homecoming" adds behind-the-scenes footage, as well as commentary. "When I decided to do Coachella, instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella," she says in the documentary, adding that there were four months of rehearsals that went into the show that she performed twice. "I studied my history. I studied my past. And I put every mistake, all of my triumphs, my 22-year career into my two-hour 'Homecoming' performance."
The shows featured Beyonce backed by a massive marching band and dancers, inspired by those at HBCU, historically black colleges and universities.
"I always dreamed of going to an HBCU," Beyonce explains early in the documentary. "My college was Destiny's Child. My college was traveling around the world and life was my teacher. I wanted a black orchestra. I wanted the steppers. I needed the vocalists. I wanted different characters. I didn't want us all doing the same thing. And the amount of swag is just limitless. The things that these young people can do with their bodies and the music they can play, the drumrolls and those haircuts and the bodies _ it's just not right. It's just so much damn swag. It's just gorgeous. It makes me proud. I wanted every person that has ever been dismissed because of the way they look to feel like they were on that stage killing it."
