But in her new Netflix documentary Homecoming, the 37-year-old details what a huge struggle it was for her to return to the stage after giving birth to twins Sir and Rumi, both mentally and physically.
'In the beginning it was so many muscles spasms and just internally my body was not connected, my mind was not there,' she said. 'My mind wanted to be with my children.'
Beyoncé and husband Jay Z welcomed the fraternal twins on June 13, 2017. Less than a year later, on April 14 and 21, she was the headlining act at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.
Though the superstar has been performing for over two decades, she explained in the new doc that this concert was very different.
'It's my first time back home on the stage after giving birth, I'm creating my own homecoming. And it's hard,' she said.
First, there was the emotional toll of leaving behind three children — the twins and seven-year-old Blue Ivy — so she could craft and rehearse the show for eight months. The star spent four months on music and voice rehearsals, and an additional four months on dance rehearsals.
'What people don't see is the sacrifice,' she said. 'I would dance and go off to the trailer and breastfeed the babies. And the days I could I would bring the children.'
Then there was all the physical work that had to be done.
'There were days that I thought, you know, I'll never be the same. I'd never be the same physically, my strength and endurance would never be the same.'
'You know a lot of the choreography is about feeling, so it's not as technical, it's your own personality that brings it to life. And that's hard, when you don't feel like yourself.
'I had to rebuild my body from cut muscles… it took me a while to feel confident enough to freak it and give it my own personality.'
Getting back into shape was just one of several hurdles, but it was a big one. Beyoncé revealed that she was 218 lbs. at her highest pregnancy weight.
What's more, she had a host of health problems to recover from, including toxaemia and preeclampsia. She also had the trauma of surgery, having undergone an emergency C-section because of of the twins' heartbeats paused a few times in the womb.
'My body went through more than I knew it could,' she said.
Even once she'd recovered from the medical conditions, the weight didn't just fall off. Beyoncé said six months after giving birth, she started dieting, limiting herself with 'no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, no alcohol.'
'And I’m hungry,' she said. 'Just trying to figure out how to balance being a mother of a six year old, and twins that need me, and giving myself creatively and physically. It was a lot to juggle.
'It's not like before when I could rehearse 15 hours straight. I have children, I have a husband, I have to take care of my body.
'I definitely pushed myself further than I knew I could, and I learned a very valuable lesson: I will never, never push myself that far again.'
That's not just because it was so difficult — her bigger family also gave her a new perspective on life.
'I feel like I'm just a new woman in a new chapter of my life, and I'm not even trying to be who I was. It’s so beautiful that children do that to you.'
Beyoncé had also touched on the subject in an interview with Vogue last year.
'To this day my arms, shoulders, breasts, and thighs are fuller. I have a little mommy pouch, and I’m in no rush to get rid of it. I think it’s real,' she said. 'Right now, my little FUPA and I feel like we are meant to be.'
'I think it’s important for women and men to see and appreciate the beauty in their natural bodies,' she added.
At the time, she also told the magazine how her body had changed after the birth.
'After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery,' she said. 'Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that.
'I needed time to heal, to recover. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier. I accepted what my body wanted to be.'
In Homecoming, which was released on Netflix today, the singer also spoke at length about what went into planning the show.
'I respect things that take work, I respect things that are built from the ground up. I’m super specific about every detail,' she said.
'I personally selected each dancer, every light, the material on the steps, the height of the pyramid, the shape of the pyramid… Every patch was hand sewn, every tiny detail had an intention.
'There were so many meetings with [Balmain designer] Olivier [Rousteing] before he flew to Los Angeles, so we could understand why do we want these colors, what do they represent, what is the silhouette, what is going to look the most graphic. How do we look united, but how do we have these different characters that are going to stand out?'
She said the show took months of scripting, 'and when you spend so many months on choreography and arrangements, and when there are over 200 people on the stage, you want to make sure you see everything.
'And I was very adamant that we were well rehearsed, and we knew the show front to back. There was a lot of steady cam, and we did things that were very unconventional for a festival show.'
She said she had three sound stages — one for the band, one for dancing, and one for creative staff — and she would hop between them.
'It takes a huge team, it takes a village, and I think we all worked to our limit. In the rehearsals, I am directing and watching the show. I'm in the audience and I'm able to be on the stage and kind of see the stage at the same time.'
At the end of each rehearsal, there'd be a meeting of more than 50 people — 'all of the department heads' — where they'd discuss what could be improved upon.
'I really have to have dedicated people that are down for the cause,' she said.
- Daily Mail
