Beyoncé whips up storm over new activist role

With slogans against police brutality and celebrations of African beauty in her new song, Beyoncé has suddenly transformed from crowd-pleasing entertainer to outspoken spokeswoman for the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement.

The 34-year-old superstar, who had been relatively quiet in 2015, returned in spectacular fashion with a surprise new song, Formation, marked by a video rich in political imagery and a raw bounce beat in the style of Southern hip hop.

One day later, Beyoncé took the message to the largest possible audience as she performed the song during the half-time show at last week’s Super Bowl, the most watched US television broadcast of the year which drew more than 111 million viewers.

Trading her soaring vocal range for a rap delivery, Beyoncé – who is estimated with her husband, rap mogul Jay Z, to be worth a combined US$1 billion – takes on much of the attitude of hip hop and boasts of her success.

But in Beyoncé’s version, the bragging also turns political as she insists that she remains true to her African-American heritage.

She describes herself as a “black Bill Gates in the making” – referring to the Microsoft billionaire turned philanthropist.