Music Blogs

Beyonce Knowles is in town. The former Destiny's Child pop tornado turned international big screen bombshell, aka "the hottest chick in the game" (© Jay-Z), aka Sasha Fierce, has been in the UK on a whistle-stop promo tour for her new album. Anyone watching last week's MTV EMAs would have seen her striding about like she owned Liverpool, which, let's face it, is preferable to having Ringo Starr's ugly mug lording it up. Then there she was on Sunday's "Strictly Come Dancing", warbling the Britney, Girls Aloud and Leona-slaying new single "If I Was A Boy" to the BBC and beyond.

During her stay in London, Beyonce has been luxuriating at the super-plush Mandarin Hotel overlooking Hyde Park, where one night costs more than the monthly rent on Famethrowa's flat, pretty much. This I know having been one of the select few journalists granted an audience with her on Monday. OK, so it's perhaps unrealistic to describe a ten-minute chat as "an audience". But never mind, because we were definitely in the same room for a bit and a conversation took place. As you might expect, I found her to be intimidating, beautiful and so famous that at times it felt like my face was about to implode. Happily this didn't happen.

Probably because Beyonce is also genuine, charming, down to Earth and seemingly encased in a glittering, glowing shield, as she spoke enthusiastically about the new album, her alter-ego and upcoming film roles, including that Wonder Woman gossip. More importantly, she also liked my Barack Obama badge and namedropped her husband, despite warnings from the team of PRs and handlers that discussing the topic would result in my certain death. We'll be posting the full interview on Yahoo! Music shortly but in the meantime check-out the "Strictly" appearance, which is worth a look for the intro by a seemingly indestructible and certainly borderline senile Bruce Forsyth alone.