BEES! This is YOUR chance to share your excitement & love and personally congratulate Beyonce` on her pregnancy!! Comment on this blog post to leave your personal message for the King B. ALL of the messages will be compiled in a decorative notebook and sent to a source where Bey is likely to receive it (I was considering sending it to the Dereon chief offices if I cannot find Beyonce's new management contact information.) If you have any suggestions of where to send the book, hit the "Contact/Info" tab on this site and fill out the form. DO NOT leave your suggestion with your personal note. Please refrain from using explicit language in your personal message. Until further notice, the last day for message collection is January 30th. Time to pollinate, bees! Spread the word about this post! Also, join my Beyonce` Facebook fan community at facebook.com/beyoncesbeehive. :)

AAAHHHHHHHHH! Beysus is having a baby, bees!!!! She announced the news while on the black carpet of the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. She took several photos hugging her dress to her baby bump, as you can see from the picture on the left. MTV subsequently tweeted: "OMG Beyonce just made a huge announcement on the #vma carpet! #baby!!!!!" Publicity representatives for Team Beyonce` also confirmed the news to the Huffington Post and Entertainment Tonight (ET). Congratulations to the King B and Jay-z. I know some of you might be worried about how Beyonce` will continue promotion for her latest album "4"; I am as well, but I'm sure she'll work it out somehow, and with her strong ethic, she'll be back on the scene if she takes anytime off in no time. ;) Check out her "Love On Top" performance below in which proud papa, Jay-z, Kanye West and Lady Gaga ham it up and enjoy the sight. At the beginning of the song she proclaimed "I want ya'll to feel the love that's growing inside of me!!" She later divaliciously rubbed her stomach after dropping her microphone. :)

I posted this video here because I believe it applies to Beyonce's fan-base. Do you guys agree with what I said?

Yet another video where Beyonce` poses and sits pretty (to see it, click the photo on the left). Like “Best Thing I Never Had,” the song allows for a fantastic visual and a great story, but again, Beyonce` DIDN’T take advantage of that. The imagery in the video did not encapsulate “1+1’s” romantic and tense symbolism, being more sexy than sensual and overly focused on just Beyonce’s sweet little face. Much of the video was aesthetically beautiful and I did appreciate the approach of simplicity; it just didn’t do the song lyrics much justice. On another note, I was frustrated with the sudden and ill-promoted presentation of the video. There was no official press release or prior notification. It just showed up. That affects attention and circulation. A similar thing happened with the “Best Thing” video. Get it together Team Beyonce`. Did you like the 1+1 video?  You can vote below. There is also a poll for favorite “4” video. In other news, be sure to catch Beyonce's performance at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 28th at 9pm EST.

Beyonce’s current album “4” has had a difficult time commercially. Although it debuted at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, its 1st week sales were the lowest of Beyonce’s solo career with only 310,000 units, compared to “I Am…Sasha Fierce” at 482,000. After more than a month, “4” eventually reached platinum (1 million copies) status. The promotional singles from the album, “Run the World (Girls),” & “Best Thing I Never Had” have had only moderate success. These results are a surprising turn for the usually chart-topping artist and many have wondered if Beyonce herself is concerned about the numbers. In an interview with Reuters Magazine, the pop-star discussed her approach to recording “4”: "This album was a labor of love. It was not about singles…I felt like the emotion, live instruments and just soul (were) missing out of the music industry; especially the popular music that's out. I wanted to bring it back to the music I grew up listening to. It's like a mixture of the '90s and the '70s and rock-n-roll." Much of music media has applauded Beyonce` for attempting to focus on the artistic side of things as opposed to concentrating on commercial appeal, but some fans are worried if the dismal numbers will have a negative impact on Beyonce’s career and have begun to theorize on why the sales aren’t stellar.

An often discussed theory on fan sites, message boards & blogs is that the absence of Mathew Knowles as manager is a profound factor. In March of this year, it was announced that Knowles (who is also Beyonce’s father) would no longer be her manager and that Beyonce` was opting to manage herself. Creative and entrepreneurial growth has since been given as a reason for the decision by the singer. Some commenting fans online have suggested that Beyonce` may not have the skill or the time to self-manage and is liable to make ill-informed choices that will lead (or has led) to the consequence of poor sales. “It’s difficult balancing the business and the creativity,” Beyonce` says as she discussed self-management with Reuters, “Having to balance the two is really hard and really making sure that I'm still doing my job, which is to be the performer and the entertainer and not have to do everyone else's job so that mine doesn't suffer; that's been a challenge…I'm sleeping with my blackberry, I'm having dreams that I'm answering e-mails, like it's that far!" 

Beyonce` made similar comments during her MTV special “Year of 4” in June: 
-“It was very risky for me to step out on my own.”
-“I have budgets to approve and people to hire, and a million things going on in the same week. I’m one human being. It’s a lot. Independence is not easy, but it’s going to get easier…As I get my team, it’s going to get easier.”
-“It’s very difficult managing myself. Every night when I go to sleep I ask hundreds of questions, but I’m learning so much, and I’m making mistakes and I’m learning from them. I’m not afraid to make a mistake, I embrace mistakes. They make you who you are. I’ve never been afraid to fall, and I say all these things, but now I’m getting tested.”

Management decisions may be the root of the awkward sales figures, but the reason isn’t known indefinitely. Promotion, sound, timing and many other things can affect the success of a single or album, but it’s clear that Beyonce` is sweating bullets over it. My opinion and synopsis? If I was Beyonce`, I wouldn’t sweat over it either. I don’t think the figures indicate anything about Beyonce’s career. “Run the World” didn’t work because it was melodically jagged and hard to sing along with. When songs are hard to sing along with, it’s hard for them to reach the top 40. Plus, the music was a recycled track from Major Lazor’s “Pon De Floor.” “Best Thing” has performed better on the chart than “World,” but has yet to reach the top ten. I’m not sure why that is, other than the fact it’s not techno-pop. The poor-charting singles are the only reason why “4” slowly went platinum, so in short, I feel the music being a cut away from the norm is the core reason for the sales. I feel Beyonce’s self-management is behind some of the last-minute promotion details, such as the day-of notification of the “Best Thing” video premiere. 
In relation to her management choices, I have confidence that Beyonce` will quickly get the hang of self-management, and I would prefer her to self manage versus hiring a stranger. However, I’m concerned that the additional responsibility may be tiresome and overwhelming in the long-run and I think it’s pertinent for her to hire a staff to assist her in some of the duties. What do you bees think about her sales and management?

Congratulations to Beyonce`! Her latest album, "4," was certified platinum (one-million copies sold) by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) on August 1st. Below is a screen shot of the certification on the RIAA website (click to expand).