Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 05/26/2011 at 4:39 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: beyonce

Damn. Watch this video, taken by Jay-Z backstage at American Idol, of Beyonce rehearsing her performance of “1+1,” and try not to get chills at some point. Watch the video here.

Great, right? But we’re not entirely taken by the “no microphone! NO EFFECTS!” angle. Nobody was calling Beyonce’s on-stage performance “fake,” after all. And even if they were, both microphones and vocal effects have definite uses, and if Beyonce–or anyone else–wanted to make use of them, why fault them for taking advantage of the full palette of sounds out there? It’s not all that different than, say, choosing venues with good acoustics. And the video is plenty impressive just as a well-rehearsed performance, one where both Bey and her backup singers shine.

One thing we are taken by, though, is Jay’s moniker as “Andy WarHOV.” Suckers for a pun, you know.