Stop what you’re doing, right now. Interview Magazine has released a rare and intimate interview from our favourite set of sisters since Mary-Kate and Ashley circa-Billboard Dad: The Knowles.
Beyoncé turns interviewer on younger sister, Solange, as the two discuss everything from Solange’s amazing album A Seat at the Table and the influences behind it to heartbreak and ‘womanism.’
Here are 11 things we learnt from the interview:
1. They Actually Do Normal People Things
Beyoncé opens the interview asking Solange ‘Are you exhausted? I know you had a parent-teacher conference?’
Wait, stop right there. Solange goes to Parent’s Evening? Even superstardom, it seems, can’t stand in the way of maintaining good parent-teacher relations.
2. Solange Was A Really Cool Child
While Beyoncé is, well, Beyoncé, we’ve always known Solange was the cooler sibling. And it seems that this has been the way since childhood.
While Beyoncé was busy practising her high notes and wearing double denim with Kelly Rowland, Solange spent her childhood being ‘obsessed with Alanis Morissette and Minnie Ripperton.’
Beyoncé divulges ‘...and you were mixing prints with your clothes ...when you were only 10 years old.’ Ahh, the benefits of not having Mama Tina make all your outfits...
3. Solange LOVES The Real Houseswives of Atlanta
When Beyonce asks her sister what makes her laugh the hardest? Solange is quick with her reply. ‘The Real Housewives of Atlanta, hands-down.’ The singer admits she watches the show *religiously *andit always has her in stitches.
Hello? Bravo TV are you reading this?! We smell a cameo opportunity!
4. A Seat At The Table Was Inspired By Powerful Emotions
‘For this record specifically, it really started with wanting to unravel some truths and some untruths.’ explains Solange…hmm…Jay-Z?...elevator, perhaps?…
‘There were things that had been weighing heavy on me for quite some time. And I went into this hole, trying to work through some of these things so that I could be a better me and be a better mom to Julez and be a better wife and a better friend and a better sister.’
Luckily for us, such emotion made for a pretty good album.
5. Solange Wrote All The Lyrics For The Album
When asked by her sister the misconceptions of being a strong woman, Solange admits, for the first time, that she wrote every single lyric on her album but has been apprehensive to admit it as she ‘constantly has to fight against is not feeling arrogant.’
Solange credits both her sister and her mother for being ‘examples of speaking about our achievements, these things that deserve to be celebrated, without feeling bashful about it.’
6. Cranes In The Sky Was Written At A Really Difficult Point In Solange’s Life
The track, featured on her 2016 album, was actually written eight years ago, when Solange was going through a divorce from her high school sweetheart, the father of her son Julez.
‘I was working through a lot of challenges at every angle of my life, and a lot of self-doubt, a lot of pity-partying. And I think every woman in her twenties has been there—where it feels like no matter what you are doing to fight through the thing that is holding you back, nothing can fill that void.’
7. The Iconic Artwork for A Seat At The Table Wasn’t Always Supposed To Look Like That
The cover of Solange’s third album, which shows the singer bare-faced; her hair adorned with colourful duckbill clips, received great praise and spawned hundreds of Insta copycats. But the final image was not Solange’s original artwork plan.
‘I wanted to put these waves in my hair,’ explains Solange ‘and to really set the waves, you have to put these clips in. And when Neal, the hair stylist, put the clips in, I remember thinking, "Woah, this is the transition, in the same way that I'm speaking about on ‘Cranes.'" It was really important to capture that transition, to show the vulnerability and the imperfection of the transition—those clips signify just that, you know?’ We know.
8. The Sisters Are Both Really Proud Of Their Houston Heritage
Growing up on Parkwood Drive, in Houston, Texas, Beyoncé and Solange both express how extremely thankful they are to have grown up alongside expressive, vivid storytellers and strong. powerful women.
‘We grew up in the same neighbourhood that produced Scarface, Debbie Allen, and Phylicia Rashad. So, culturally, it was as rich as it gets,’ explains Solange. ‘I feel so happy that I got to grow up in a place where you could be the pastor's wife, you could be a lawyer, you could be a stripper on the side, you could be a schoolteacher—we saw every kind of woman connect on one common experience, which was that everyone wanted to be great and everyone wanted to do better. And we really became womanist because of that.’
9. Solange Has A Keen Eye For Upcoming Talent
Beyoncé praises Solange’s ability to seek out the next big thing before it happens. New artists, DJs, producers, fashion brands…Solange is the ultimate curator of cool. She puts it down to simply ‘being on the internet way more than I should be.’
10, Solange’s Relationship With Husband Alan Is #Goals
Aside from having one of the coolest wedding photos of all time, Solange and music video director husband Alan Ferguson bear testimony to the fact that romance is not dead.
‘I felt like our relationship, by the grace of God, is the one thing that I can count on to be intact and to be solid,’ reveals Solange. ‘Only a person who loves me would say yes to shooting 21 scenes in one week and climbing mountains and literally crossing waterfalls with million-dollar equipment strapped to his back.’
11. Even Solange Gets Star Struck
She may be a member of one of the most famous familys in the world, but that doesn’t mean that Solange is immune from making an idiot out of herself as Beyoncé readily reveals:
‘One of my proudest moments as a sister was when I was able to introduce you to your hero, Nas,’ tells Bey, ‘and you cried and acted a fool. I was so surprised - Mrs. Too-cool-for-everything acting a fool.’
To read the interview in its entirety: Go to Interview magazine
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.