In his own words: “She is coming.”
After Beyoncé dropped the cryptic two-word tease ahead of her latest tour, the phrase quickly became one of her fans' favorite ways to express their excitement about her next move.
So when it was revealed that she would be attending this year's Met Gala as the event's co-chair, red carpet watchers saw the potential for much more than just a party appearance.
This past week, the speculation circulating online has been imaginative: Will she release her first single in two years? Will you take the opportunity to announce an album? A tour? Maybe Blue Ivy will accompany her? (That last one is unlikely, since minors are not normally allowed entry.)
Whatever will be announced or not, it's been 10 years since Beyoncé attended the event, a stellar fundraiser for the fashion-oriented Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her fans are hungry to see her in more than just a polished Instagram post.
All eyes will be on the pop star to see how she interprets this year's dress code, “Fashion is Art.” Over her seven previous Met Gala appearances, Beyoncé's ensembles have evolved from minimal elegance to bolder, bolder pieces with the help of a veteran stylist and a Givenchy creative director.
Below, a look at Beyoncé's Met Gala history and where the appearances fit into her unique career path.
2008
Superheroes: fashion and fantasy
Armani Privé
Beyoncé attended her first Met Gala in May 2008 wearing a strapless blush pink Armani Privé dress with a sweetheart neckline and a cape-like train, a nod to that year's Costume Institute spring exhibition, which examined the parallels between fashion and superheroes.
At the time, the Marvel cinematic universe was in its infancy (the first “Iron Man” movie premiered just three days earlier) and the global recession was on the horizon. It was also six months before Beyoncé released her third studio album, “I Am… Sasha Fierce,” and just a month after Beyoncé and Jay-Z tied the knot in a private ceremony in TriBeCa.
Her understated and elegant look by Giorgio Armani, who was honorary president of the event, preceded the release of her smash hit “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” which helped propel her to a completely different superstar level.
2011
Alexander McQueen: wild beauty
pucci
After finishing her “I Am…” world tour and creating her own management and production company, Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé returned to the Met Gala carpet three years later in a black Emilio Pucci mermaid dress with gold embroidery, black sequins and a keyhole cutout at the chest.
The look was in honor of the evening's broader theme celebrating Alexander McQueen, the British fashion designer who died aged 40 and was acclaimed for his provocative womenswear collections. Due to the dress's fishtail design, Beyoncé sometimes had a hard time walking up the red carpet stairs upon arrival. So, with the help of Jay-Z and Ty Hunter, her stylist at the time, she was finally able to get in.
Later that year, Beyoncé would also release her fourth studio album, “4,” and announce her pregnancy while performing at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.
Beyoncé, who was rehearsing for her upcoming tour and originally wasn't planning to attend the 2012 gala, decided at the last minute that she wanted to go, her former stylist told WWD.
“Literally, in a day or a couple of hours, all of that happened and it ended up being one of her most talked about looks,” she told the magazine in 2017.
The look in question was a sheer, embellished Givenchy dress with a black and purple feather train. That year's exhibition brought into conversation the iconoclastic designs of Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian fashion designers.
This would be the first of five Givenchy dresses she would wear at future Met Galas, and a first look at what would become a close relationship with Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, the house's creative director until 2017.
2013
Punk: chaos in haute couture
Givenchy
A few months after headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé was honorary chair of the 2013 gala, which looked at the sartorial impact of punk culture since its emergence in the 1970s.
“Although the democracy of punk opposes the autocracy of fashion, designers continue to appropriate punk's aesthetic vocabulary to capture its youthful rebelliousness and aggressive force,” Andrew Bolton, now curator-in-charge of the Costume Institute, said in a statement.
Teaming up again with Givenchy, the pop star wore a custom dress with fiery details, a strapless corset bodice, and matching elbow-length gloves and thigh-high boots.
2014
Charles James: beyond fashion
Givenchy
Charles James was a visionary 20th-century Anglo-American couturier who took sculptural and mathematical approaches to designing his ball gowns and would describe his style as many things, including “a high form of eroticism.”
Rising to the occasion for the 2014 Met Gala in her honor, Beyoncé arrived wearing a sheer black Givenchy ensemble with black sparkly embellishments, a plunging neckline, and a cinched waist. Her hair, tied up in a bun, was covered by a black net veil.
She was accompanied by her husband and her sister, Solange Knowles, was also present. The three would make headlines after Solange got into a physical altercation with Jay-Z while the three were riding together in an elevator after the gala. Footage of the ordeal was later leaked to the public, sparking furious speculation about the status of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's relationship.
Beyoncé arrived at the 2015 gala in a striking, custom-made, almost completely sheer dress adorned only with carefully placed multicolored Swarovski crystals.
That spring's exhibition, which examined how Chinese art and film have influenced Western fashion design, resulted in some of the most memorable Met Gala looks to date, including Rihanna's canary yellow Guo Pei dress and Sarah Jessica Parker's Philip Treacy headpiece.
That year's Met Gala also highlighted the growing power of social media, marking the first time #MetGala was a global trending topic on Twitter, with around 1.5 million tweets posted with the hashtag, according to the museum.
With her and Jay-Z's last-minute arrival on the red carpet and a year after the elevator incident, all eyes were on them as they entered.
2016
Manus x Machina: Fashion in the age of technology
Givenchy
Less than a month after the surprise release of “Lemonade,” Beyoncé’s sixth album, in which she chronicles an emotional journey through marital betrayal, arrived at what would be her last Met Gala in a decade.
In the spirit of the corresponding exhibition, an exploration of “how designers are reconciling handmade and machine-made in the creation of cutting-edge couture and ready-to-wear,” Beyoncé wore a custom Givenchy latex dress with a mermaid silhouette, puffed sleeves, and pink flowers throughout.
The dress was adorned with hundreds of pearls and the color of the dress contrasted with her smoky eyeshadow. Of course, he arrived fashionably late and unaccompanied, and posed for a few photos before entering.
