Nefertari Williams: Two Steps Smarter

I think Beyonce and Taylor Swift may have just two stepped all over our minds. 

 

Follow me through my pathway of parallel thinking..  And forgive me but “I was dreaming when I wrote this – forgive me if I go astray”. 

 

Well that’s where I’m going to start. This is a quote from the late great genius, artist and superstar, Prince. He wrote Purple Rain and America went wild. We didn’t care what genre it fell under – it was just amazing music… and we love it still to this day. 

 

Prince initially wrote this as a country song to sing with Fleetwood Mac specifically for Stevie Nicks but she admitted that she got a “fearful end of the world” vibe from the lyrics so she didn’t want to record it. She was right to get that vibe. The sing Purple rain is an actual spiritual reference that speaks about getting through tough times and your faith in a higher power during the end of time. Many pondered on the songs meaning for years. 

 

Prince used the color purple reference often, almost like he knew his end was coming sooner than later. 

 

I open with a Prince reference to show how we have had artistic geniuses  use their lyrics to shape our thinking throughout time. The art of story telling can change the mindset of generations- and it has. I believe it may be happening now. 

 

We lost this great artist in April 21, 2016 and his songs are still referenced and considered some of the most clever pieces of music ever made. 

 

Fast forward to present day. 

 

The world is on fire (as I write this Texas is literally experiencing its largest wild fire ever recorded 2/27/24) . There are three active wars, constant cyber attacks, women have lost their right to not have babies in some states and to get pregnant in other states. To top it all off, we have a man who is saying the quiet part out loud while running to be President. He wants to be a dictator (the very opposite of what the framers wanted America to be) He feels he has total immunity as a former President. 

 

This former President has tried to over turn the 2020 election, has incited an insurrection (but I think we have to call it a riot) and he might actually win his party’s nomination for reelection into the White House. 

 

Some Americans are ok with this because they feel as though they have been over looked and unseen. They are angry. Some may say rightly so. Some can’t even afford to buy groceries and they have been struggling financially for years. 

 

The problem is – the one man that they feel will be their “retribution” is part of the system that is keeping them poor but that’s another topic for another article. 

 

Ok, so here we are in an election year. We have a candidate who is running that most of the country doesn’t want to win. He is running against the current President who some believe is too old to do the job with the vigor that is needed. That is the epitome of being stuck between a rock and a hard place according to many voters. 

 

The former President is known for not having a close relationship with the truth. He feels the last election was stolen from him and now he uses strange conspiracy theories to get his “followers” to believe that if he loses again it is because he was cheated. 

 

This brings us to my reasoning for opening with the lyrics of the late great artist, Prince and his influence on the world. There have been stories surrounding a young beautiful pop star which are implying that she is using her popularity to influence the election. If she is that’s not against the rules and other artists have made songs that seemed to be aimed at influencing the election for the former President.

 

Like the late great artist, Prince – She too used to be a country song writer. To top it all off she starts dating a very popular Football star who happened to make it to Super Bowl 2023. That’s when more conspiracies started stating that they are just dating to gain more popularity which will mean a stronger audience and possibly more votes for the incumbent candidate. 

 

Ok fast forward; we have a popular award ceremony and Taylor Swift, the famous pop star (former country star) wins album of the year. Now this is a big deal because in comes another player. Beyonce, also a mega star has the most awards that this academy has ever given but has yet to win the one big award- album of the year. Taylor Swift  wins this title nearly every year.

 

Ironically (or maybe not) Beyonce’s  husband Jay-Z is honored at the 2023 Grammy award ceremonies and was allotted time to give a speech. He used that time to tell the world that it is wrong that his wife has never won album of the year although her songs have won the most awards ever (again – except for the highest honor that they offer which is album of the year). 

 

Now we are all confused. Why would he do that? 

 

During the big award show the pop star Taylor announces that her new album would release soon which brings the audience to a roar. With this announcement the pop star and Travis Kelce her famous football playing boyfriend are the most talked about couple all the way up to the big football game of the year. The Superbowl. 

 

The pop star has been making appearances at football games to see her famous boyfriend and this has been great for ratings. It has also pulled in a demographic of Americans who don’t normally watch football. 

 

Everyone is excited because there are rumors that the boyfriend is going to ask the pop star to marry him if he wins the big game (Travis  did win but didn’t propose).

 

So everyone is watching the big game. Then there is another twist. The mega star (Beyonce)does commercials during the superbowl  and announces that she’s dropping a country album ( she never won album of the year as a pop star and now she’s switching to singing country music). She then releases two country songs. Everyone is shocked. Everyone also thinks that this may be a competition between the pop Star who was a former country singer and the mega Star. 

 

That would be an interesting theory except when you turn on social media all you see are people doing the two step to the Mega stars new country song and the people who are dancing to it are the same demographic of the Ex President who is trying to get re elected. 

 

Coincidence – I think not. In fact I think the plot thickens. I don’t think the pop star and the mega star are competing at all – I feel that it’s all a brilliant plan to unify the country which has been deeply divided due to the two Presidents running on opposing issues. 

 

I also think, like the late great Prince has done so brilliantly ( for example when his record label would not give him a fair contract, to gain back control he referred to himself as a symbol that could not be spoken out loud ) one of the two singers is the master mind behind this effort to use music to unite Americans. 

 

In the mean time I’ll be two stepping right along with the rest of America as the Beyonce, mega star becomes the first black woman to have a song reach number one on the country charts, the catchy country ditty seems to be leaving us a little less divided. 

 

I think Taylor Swift, our blonde pop star, with her oh so mischievous grin, is sitting back, cowdboy hat cocked, thinking….the plan is working.

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About The Author:  Nefertari Williams is a jewelry maker, activist for women with heart disease and the mother of five beautiful children.  She lives in Willingboro, New Jersey.  To access additional articles by Nefertari Williams link here: https://tonyward.com/nefertari-williams-the-vicious-cycle-of-war/