Anyone who tuned in to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night expecting to watch Beyoncé make a surprise appearance onstage was likely disappointed to see former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta standing there instead, not a rhinestone to be found on his staid blue suit. For weeks, ever since Queen Bey gave Kamala Harris’ campaign permission to use her stirring anthem “Freedom” as its theme song, speculation had mounted that she would perform at the convention — and that maybe she would even team up with fellow pop supernova, Taylor Swift, to send a woman to the White House. On Thursday, the theories shifted into overdrive on social media, thanks largely to a single tweet from a random X user teasing a surprise appearance on the final night of the event.
If the unchecked, unfounded Bey-Tay rumors now feel like a moment of virtual mass hysteria, it’s also easy to understand why so many of us got carried away with the showbiz wish-casting. The star power across the four nights of the Democratic National Convention was so potent, the mood so buoyant, it made sense that two of the only figures whose fame and influence transcends an increasingly fractured cultural landscape, would be there, too. Organizers of the event — which was hastily revamped in a matter of weeks after President Biden dropped out of the race — pulled off a feat that seems impossible in 2024: turning the convention into must-see TV.
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