What's The Real Meaning Of Alien Superstar By Beyonce? Here's What We Think

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Beyoncé's "Alien Superstar" continues into the chorus, which contains an interpolation of "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Only instead of sexy, Beyoncé sings, per Genius, "I'm too classy for this world, forever, I'm that girl / Feed you diamonds and pearls, ooh, baby / I'm too classy to be touched, I paid them all in dust / I'm stingy with my love, ooh, baby." But there's more to this track which, like the rest of the album, references and was inspired by queer ballroom culture. 

For instance, the lyric, "I got diamonds beneath my thighs, but ego will find bliss," appears to be a reference to Maya Angelou's line in "Still I Rise" that says, "Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?" The song also samples the work of another famous and influential Black woman — Barbara Ann Teer, who founded Harlem's National Black Theatre. "Alien Superstar" includes a sample of Teer's "Black Theater" speech, according to the liner notes, where she says, "We dress a certain way / We walk a certain way / We talk a certain way / We, we paint a certain way / We, we make love a certain way, you know?" 

So, it might sound like a standard bop — and it is a bop — but the song is really a celebration of Black queer culture.

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