Ribicca Mamuye/BuzzFeed
Two young Black women went to see Beyoncé in concert at her Formation World Tour in Seattle and one of them was stunned when the singer complimented her huge afro.
BuzzFeed reports blogger and retail analyst Ribicca Mamuye and her friend political organizer Hamdi Mohamed went to see the “Lemonade” record maker at CenturyLink Field on May 18. The two Seattle natives were wearing their hair in voluminous styles that night but 22-year-old Mamuye self-consciously pulled her hair back in order to “stop bothering the people behind me,” she told the website.
But her 26-year-old friend was not having it. Mohamed removed the hair tie and told Mamuye, “Girl, you gotta pull your hair out, Beyoncé about to notice us.”
She adds, “I literally took the hair tie out of her hair. I said, ‘Your hair is beautiful, let it out.’ ”
What happened next surprised both of them.
As Mamuye’s boyfriend filmed the show he caught the moment Beyoncé looked at the lifestyle blogger and Mohamed.
“I was singing and doing the dance moves to ‘Daddy Lessons‘ and that’s when she swung her head and sang and pointed right at me,” Mohamed said.
Then, the singer looked at Mamuye, patted her hair and motioned that she liked her afro by giving her a thumbs up.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFm-jtdHZaC/
“It’s one thing to be that close to Beyoncé and for her to take two seconds [to] compliment you… It’s so surreal,” Mamuye told the website adding, “I got more than … my money’s worth.”
Beyoncé has been a big supporter of embracing Black heritage in recent years. She controversially took on police brutality in her “Formation” video, the lead single for “Lemonade.”
When asked about the backlash, she said “the most powerful art is usually misunderstood. But anyone who perceives my message as anti-police is completely mistaken,” the singer told Elle magazine in a rare interview. “I have so much admiration and respect for officers and the families of officers who sacrifice themselves to keep us safe. But let’s be clear: I am against police brutality and injustice. Those are two separate things.”
