Beyoncé releases something almost resembling a music video to get out the vote

Beyoncé has long since transcended the rules of traditional pop stardom. She no longer needs to follow the path of radio single/music video/interviews/promo performances; she can release what she wants, when she wants, and still be successful regardless. She’s strayed so far from the path she came up on that she actually started teasing fans who wanted her to release music videos for Renaissance, selling tour merch that read “You are the visual, baby.” For Cowboy Carter, she stated that she wanted people to “focus on the voice” rather than get distracted by visuals. Which makes it all the more confusing that on Tuesday she released a visual to accompany the Cowboy Carter track “Bodyguard.”

This is not a music video, per se. It’s mostly a glorified photoshoot (she used to dance in these!), and it doesn’t even cover the entire song, cutting off after the second verse. The next point of confusion is that the clip is titled “BEYWATCH,” which only serves to sow more discord over the pronunciation of her nickname (the Bay vs. Bee wars continue). In it, the singer dresses like Pamela Anderson (to complement the lyric “I could be your lifeguard”) and cheekily recreates the actor’s 1999 MTV VMA red carpet look with a twist: Beyoncé’s version of the character is attending the “No Visual Awards.”

This non-music video is ostensibly meant to celebrate Halloween—she wishes fans a “Happy Beylloween” at the end—except that, as you know, we are several days out of Halloween season now. It’s also ostensibly a “get out the vote” ad, given that it was released on U.S. Election Day and the caption of the YouTube video is simply #VOTE, but beyond a small “Vote!” flag that pops out of a toy gun, there’s nothing particularly political about it. It is unsurprisingly also a bit of a whisky ad (at one point she takes a swig of her new liquor Sir Davis). Overall “BEYWATCH” is not any one thing in particular, except perhaps a reminder to Grammy voters that Cowboy Carter is still in contention for top prizes. No matter; the Beyhive will surely be happy with whatever they get.