Sunday night, I caught the end of the Grammys and watched Adele use her Album of the Year award acceptance speech to declare Queen Bey the real award winner for her visual album, Lemonade. Besides a few commenters on Instagram, I haven't seen or heard many people disagree with Adele’s statement.

I mean let's be real here, whether you liked the album or not, Beyoncé wove sound and imagery together to create something fresh and poignant; and her hard work was evident. I don't think we were all wrong for our initial collective WTF, and Adele herself doubled down on her awards speech by later asking, “What in the entire f*ck does Beyoncé have to do to walk out of this BS awards shows with an Album of the Year award?!” (slight paraphrase)

I pondered the question myself for awhile. By now, most of us think of Beyoncé as a visionary, someone who pushes the envelope again and again. I have no doubt in my mind she's already thinking of the concept for her next great project, and I wonder what the woman could do this time to top herself.

Surprisingly enough, my pondering actually yielded some pretty worthwhile ideas. Considering that I am not a visionary by any means, I have to think that the ease with which I came up with these ideas perhaps indicates that she isn't actually as bold as we think she is; that maybe she hasn't truly proven that she can go toe-to-toe with innovators and AOTY award winners like Taylor Swift.

I mean we all shade her, but it was a pretty novel idea to write songs about ex-boyfriends. I mean literally no one ever thought of singing about breakups before Taylor Swift and the masterful rhyming of never, ever, and together should be enough to convince you of her songwriting genius.

Anyway, I know this is an unpopular opinion and I risk death by bee stings, but below are my three suggestions for how Bey can push the envelope further, off the edge of the damn desk, so that she can finally take home one of those coveted awards:

1. Personally go to each academy member’s home to perform the entire album live, with a fully built stage set, choreography routine, spoken word feature from a Maya Angelou hologram, and tribute to Oshun.

2. Dedicate a ballad to each of her twins and record both songs as she is pushing them out of her womb.

3. Die. And then come back to life to record an album, complete with visuals, music, and olfactory special effects, to describe what it was like in heaven.

Again, I'm not sure if any of those ideas embody that innovative spark that helps Adele and T. Swift keep those AOTY gramophones rolling in, but if she's really going to go for it, I think it's time for Bey to try harder.

Courtney Iona

Writing since February 2017 · 3 stories contributed