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While the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards are still a few weeks away, the trophies have already begun rolling out for some of the past year’s biggest shows.

Beyoncé’s Black is King, The Masked Singer, The Simpsons and Love, Death and Robots are among early winners for this year’s Emmy Awards, as the Television Academy announced juried category honourees in the fields of animation, costume, interactive programming and motion design.

Juried categories are decided by a panel of professionals in the appropriate peer groups with the possibility of one, more than one or no entry being awarded an Emmy. There are no nominees but a one-step evaluation and voting procedure with open discussions of each piece of work.

Outstanding individual achievement in animation was awarded to Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal, The Simpsons and four recognitions for Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots. Costumes for a variety, nonfiction or reality program went to Black is King, The Masked Singer, and Sherman’s Showcase Black History Month Spectacular.

The juried awards will be presented at the 2021 Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on September 11 and 12. An edited presentation of the ceremonies will be broadcast on FXX on September 18.

The Primetime Emmy Awards will follow on September 19, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer with a limited in-person audience in downtown Los Angeles.

One Year of Black Is King. Shop now on shop.beyonce.com.

Beyonce.com was updated with new stills and behind the scenes photos from Black Is King.

MTV announced the nominations for the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards on Friday, with "Brown Skin Girl" up for one award:

Best Musical Moment (Presented by Sonic Drive In)
Black Is King, “Brown Skin Girl”
The Kissing Booth 2, "Lost in the Wild" (Elle & Marco's Dance Competition Performance)
Love & Monsters, "Stand by Me" (Mav1s & Joel watch the Sky Jellies)
To All The Boys: Always and Forever, "Beginning Middle End" (Peter & Lara Jean's Song)
Bridgerton, "Wildest Dreams" (Daphne & Simon's Honeymoon Phase)
Cobra Kai, "I Wanna Rock" (Miguel & Johnny at a Dee Snider Concert)
Julie and the Phantoms, "Edge of Great"
WandaVision, "Agatha All Along”

Fan voting for best musical moment will open May 11 on MTV’s Instagram Stories and close May 14. The award will be presented live from the Palladium in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 16, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Beyonce shared new stills from "Lemonade" on the day of the album's 5th anniversary. She wrote:

"I’m grateful that this body of work has resonated so deeply with so many people. I’m so thankful for all the beautiful souls involved in making one of my favorite pieces of art. As I celebrate five years of LEMONADE, I encourage everyone to continue healing, loving, forgiving and uplifting.

I hope you find joy today.

💛"

The 25th Annual Art Director’s Guild Awards took place last night as a reimagined virtual show. "Black Is King" was nominated in one category, which it ended up winning. Congartulations!

Variety Special
Black Is King (Production Designers: Hannah Beachler, Carlos Laszlo, Susan Linss, Miranda Lorenz, Brandon Mendez, Rika Nakanishi, Ethan Tobman)
Democratic National Convention 2020 (Production Designer: Bruce Rodger)
Super Bowl Half Time Show Starring Jennifer Lopez & Shakira (Production Designer: Bruce Rodger)
The Oscars (Production Designer: Jason Sherwood)
Yearly Departed (Production Designer: Suzuki Ingerslev)

For Women's History Month 2021, GRAMMY.com is celebrating some of the women artists nominated at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards show. Today, we honor Beyoncé, who's currently nominated for nine GRAMMYs.

In a 2011 interview, Beyoncé revealed the things she wanted to accomplish before her 40th birthday. "I would love to direct—continue to learn videos and maybe by then a film, a short film," she told Access Online(opens in a new tab). " a documentary, I love documentaries." The singer will turn 40 in September having accomplished that goal.

Since that interview, the global pop star has continued to steadily hone her craft to become one of today's most influential visual storytellers in pop music. She began experimenting with visuals on her 2006 sophomore solo album, B'Day, but it wasn't until years later, when she released her surprise 2013 self-titled record that she delivered a true "visual album" that pushed the envelope(opens in a new tab)—every song had(opens in a new tab) a music video and all visuals were released together without any promotion.

The 2016 critically acclaimed Lemonade added a narrative between each music video—something Beyoncé hadn't done before—to create a cohesive look at Black generational trauma. In 2019, she released the GRAMMY-winning documentary Homecoming, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at her preparation for her historic Coachella performance in between concert footage.

With the critically-acclaimed visual albums and documentary under her belt, she turned her sights to another visual goal. Last year, Beyoncé released Black Is King, the feature-length film inspired by her work with Disney on the 2019 remake of The Lion King. The nearly 90-minute film that premiered on Disney+ started as a quick test shoot in Beyoncé's backyard in The Hamptons but ultimately took more than a year to make and spanned several countries.

The Art Directors Guild revealed their nominees for the 2021 ADG Awards. Standout nominees include Beyonce’s “Black is King” in the Variety Special category. The winners will be announced during a ceremony on April 10.

VARIETY SPECIAL
Black Is King (Production Designers: Hannah Beachler, Carlos Laszlo, Susan Linss, Miranda Lorenz, Brandon Mendez, Rika Nakanishi, Ethan Tobman)
Democratic National Convention 2020 (Production Designer: Bruce Rodgers)
Super Bowl Half Time Show Starring Jennifer Lopez & Shakira (Production Designer: Bruce Rodgers)
The Oscars (Production Designer: Jason Sherwood)
Yearly Departed (Production Designer: Suzuki Ingerslev)

Beyoncé leads all nominees for the 52nd annual NAACP Image Awards, which were announced Tuesday.

Queen Bey received six nominations, the most for any recording artist, including Outstanding Female Artist and Outstanding Soul/R&B for her 2020 song, "Black Parade." Her Disney+ film, Black Is King, landed three nods, including Outstanding Music Video/Visual Album. Beyoncé also received a nomination for her assistance on Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage" remix.

The 2021 NAACP Image Awards airs on BET and for the first time on CBS March 27th at 8 p.m. ET.

See all Beyoncé's nominations below and vote here!

Outstanding Female Artist
Beyoncé - “Black Parade” (Columbia Record/ Parkwood)
H.E.R. - “I Can’t Breathe” (RCA Records/MBK Entertainment)
Jazmine Sullivan - “Lost One” (RCA Records)
Ledisi - “Anything For You” (Listen Back Entertainment/BMG)
Alicia Keys - “Alicia” (RCA Records)

A seven episode mini-series special to commemorate the prolific Beyoncé project that took the internet (and Bey-hive) by storm: Black is King premiered last week on Spotify.

Dissect is a serialized music podcast hosted by creator Cole Cuchna available exclusively on Spotify. The podcast series takes an academic approach to analyzing iconic albums that has had an undeniable influence on music and hip-hop culture.

In this surprise drop, Cole is joined by special guest co-host, Dr. Titi Shodiya (Dope Labs) to dive into an in-depth exploration of the lyrical metaphors, historical anecdotes and nods to African spirituality embedded all throughout the project. The series breaks down BIK’s commentary on White supremacy proliferated through Western religion; spoken word poems like Joshua Abah’s “Uncle Sam” featured in the project, and its uncanny parallels to featured rappers’ work like Kendrick Lamar’s “Wesley’s Theory”; and the story of how one Black female artist’s stolen and appropriated work led to the smash hit, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” while becoming the key reason behind Beyoncé creating Black Is King.

In the final bonus epiosde Cole and Titi talk to co-director Kwasi Fordjour, stylist Zerina Akers, and music director Derek Dixie about their work on the film.

Listen to the entire series below.

Beyoncé’s “Black Is King” earned nine Grammy nominations Tuesday, including song of the year and record of the year. The singer, who led the nominations, also received a nomination for Best Music Film. It was the fourth time she has been nominated in that category after winning for Netflix’s “Homecoming” and getting nominations for “Lemonade” and “Beyoncé & JAY-Z: On the Run Tour.”

“Black Is King,” now streaming on Disney Plus, was executive produced by Beyoncé as a visual companion to her 2019 release, “The Lion King: The Gift.”

Cinematographer Santiago Gonzalez talked with Variety about how the visuals for the Grammy-nominated music film came together and collaborating with Beyoncé.

What conversations did you have with Beyoncé regarding the visuals for “Black is King?”

The project evolved as we shot. Most of the conversations about the look of the different sections I shot were discussed more with each specific director. I was in a lot of prep meetings with Beyoncé but those were after she and the director had landed on a general look and feel for the section. These meetings would be logistical and world-building and at times I would present to her my ideas for the lighting so we could get more granular about what was needed for each day.

Beyoncé is the one to beat at the 63rd Grammy Awards, snagging an eye-popping nine nominations.

The Recording Academy unveiled this year's nominees Tuesday via livestream.

The singer is up for record of the year for "Black Parade" as well as "Savage," her collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion. "Black Parade" also got a nod in the song of the year category. And "Brown Skin Girl" is a contender for best music video.

Beyoncé, who now has a lifetime 79 nominations and 24 wins, is the most-nominated female artist in Grammy history. She's tied with Paul McCartney for the second most-nominated artist of all time, trailing only her husband, Jay-Z (who received three nominations this year), and Quincy Jones – both with 80 career nominations.

If she takes home four gilded gramophones at the 2021 awards show in January, she'll become the female artist with the most Grammy wins. Eight trophies and she'll make history as the performer with the most Grammy wins of all time.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grammys are moving ahead on an in-person ceremony Jan. 31 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The event will be broadcast on CBS and hosted by Trevor Noah of "The Daily Show."

See all of Beyoncé's nominations below.

Artist, businesswoman, perfectionist – the one woman powerhouse that is Beyoncé talks family, fashion and philanthropy (and bee hives) with Edward Enninful, in British Vogue’s December 2020 cover interview.

It was always going to be special. How could it not be? And yet I’m not sure I could have predicted how having Beyoncé – an icon of music, fashion and culture for more than 20 years – on British Vogue’s cover this month would finally come to pass.

As I logged on to my laptop one evening in early autumn to oversee the 12-hour shoot more than 3,000 miles away, in New York, I felt the thrill of the new. It was the culmination of months of preparation. “It takes enormous patience to rock with me,” Beyoncé Knowles-Carter wryly notes in our interview on the following pages, in a rare and rounded glimpse into her world. But let me tell you this: rocking with Beyoncé is electric.

Our creative discussions began during the early days of lockdown, and an idea quickly took shape. Social justice, a pandemic – it was clear that this was the moment for something extra. As we all know, it has been an extremely tough year for fashion, and so we wanted to create a no- holds-barred celebration. Who, after all, has the ability to elevate and excite like Queen B? And so we approached some of our favourite designers, who each made a custom piece for a 20-page extravaganza with a purpose: to uplift an industry.

Beyonce has been nominated for the 2020 UK Music Video Awards in four categories and E! People's Choice Awards and All Africa Music Awards in one category. See the full list of nominations below and vote here and here.

UK Music Video Awards

Best R&B/Soul Video – International
Tiwa Savage – 49-99
Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer – Already
Yseult – Corps
070 Shake – Nice To Have
Gregory Porter – Revival
Marvin Gaye – What's Going On

Best Styling in a Video
Tiwa Savage – 49-99
Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer – Already
Raleigh Ritchie – Aristocrats
Yves Tumor – Gospel For A New Century
Michael Kiwanuka – Hero
Dua Lipa – Physical

How was it collaborating with Beyoncé in terms of her imparting her vision, but then giving you the space to go and pursue yours?

It was a really great experience just to have the support from her in terms of resources and the attention it was going to be given because there's so much great work that is made out there that doesn't really get distribution. And another thing was just how respectful she was. I wish all directors and producers of culturally-sensitive material treated it with a level of seriousness that she did. There were so many conversations about what things meant. If it appeared in the shot, she wanted the meaning of what it meant, the history of it, even if it's like a mural, she wanted to know who painted it. I've never produced something and had to also be an archeologist at the same time.

There were a lot of days where I was like, "Oh yeah, I've never really thought about, even though that's part of my culture, I've never really thought about the actual history of what that means." And so, that lent itself to a lot of cool conversations and a lot of really cool moments. We were discussing cultural appropriation and I sent her clips of a Nollywood movie that is named after her. There were just like a lot of just weird conversations that were bouncing around during the project that led to certain choices being made. I really enjoyed all the questions she would ask me, because a lot of them I didn't really have an answer to. It's just some of those things where it's part of your culture, part of your life, but you're like why am I drawn to this? Why am I attracted to this? Like, what does this mean to me? Or what does this mean to other people in my life or other people with my identity, things like that. So, that was probably the most interesting part about collaborating with her, how much she wanted to know and understand. I've never really had a director or producer just be such a scholar. And even still, she was telling me that she had learned about other people and places and things making this project.

Beyonce premiered the music video for "Brown Skin Girl" on YouTube and shared new stills.

How long was production from start to finish?

Zerina Akers: My part, wardrobe, was about three months – concept to finish. But there are people who have worked on it longer. Beyoncé had the idea to do a much smaller project and it grew from there. She was like, ‘I want to start this thing.’ So I started going into fabric stores and swatching things that spoke to me as I listened to the music in my headphones. And then I had to get on the horn and call my counterpart who handles a lot of the market. I just called everyone I knew that could make things. I hired a whole new team of seven people.

When you first started going to those fabric markets, what was the brief at the time?

Zerina Akers: At that point, Beyoncé wanted to do quick bites. It was originally meant to be a few music videos. She wanted to shoot a minute of each song — a small piece to promote the album. And then it evolved and snowballed. It’s a Beyoncé project, so course we knew it would have a certain magnitude. But we had no idea at the outset that it would become what it is now. But most of all, I wanted her to feel good and empowered as she was performing. That was the most important thing for me. That she feels great.

Zerina Akers and Kwasi Fordjour shared more stories from the set of "Black Is King".

Zerina Akers shares the inspiration for the visual album, which dropped a week ago on Disney+.

There are not many performers who can steal even an iota of the spotlight away from Beyoncé when she’s locked in. But in Black is King, her new visual album released last week on Disney+, an intriguing figure returns again and again to demand viewers’ attention. He wanders gorgeous African landscapes pensively, eyelids heavy and skin painted so blue as to appear almost translucent; he dances side by side with Beyoncé, hips jerking, tongue flailing outward.

That man is Stephen “Papi” Ojo, a self-taught 22-year-old Nigerian-born performer who has quietly played an outsize role in bringing African dance to American stages. He flanked Rihanna’s right shoulder at the 2018 Grammys as their gwara gwara dance (from South Africa) became a moment of international fascination; he taught Janet Jackson the kupe (from Ghana) for her music video “Made For Now,” a vibrant whirlwind of diasphoric triumph.

And in Black is King, Ojo is the most prominent face beyond that of its headlining star. He plays the “blue man,” who represents the subconscious of the protagonist prince and the power of African dance. It’s another unexpected moment of ascendance for a self-described “boy from Lagos” who has experienced harrowing personal tragedy and is still searching for financial stability: just a few months ago, he was packaging boxes overnight at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island.

“I have to make sure my people are properly represented,” Ojo says. “The fact that we have a legend like Beyoncé doing these moves will make people generations from now want to research them and think, ‘If Beyoncé is doing it, it must be important! It must have some kind of meaning.’”