Fresh from the Friday debut of that dress, first lady Michelle Obama — showing up in a look that was decidedly more demure than her state dinner look but still sleek in all black – made an equally “yassssss”-worthy appearance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York on Saturday night.
Obama was there to introduce her Let Girls Learn initiative, a drive to give 62 million girls around the world access to an education. But that worthy cause was hardly the only thing that had the audience of 60,000 screaming.
Before taking the stage, the first lady shared a hug with Beyoncé, the White House’s diva-in-chief. After instructing the crowd to “give it up for the first lady of the United States,” the pop star literally ran into Mrs. Obama’s open arms — and the crowd went wild.
“I am honored to follow a woman whom I admire and adore. Someone who believes as passionately as I do in the boundless promise of girls worldwide,” Obama said once the roars — punctuated with more than a few cries of “I love you, Michelle” — temporarily died down.
That split-second hug had done them in. Again the public had a piece of empirical evidence proving that Bey and Meesh are besties — in real life. Never mind the inaugural ball serenade, the national anthem sung on the Mall, the 50th birthday performance, or the letter Beyoncé wrote Obama thanking her for just being. Or that time the first lady admitted that if she could switch careers, she “would be Beyoncé.” Not a singer, an actor or a performer but simply “Beyoncé.”
And perhaps that’s what Mrs. O was doing in that silhouette-skimming mermaid gown from Vera Wang Collection at the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Being Beyoncé.
