Beyonce Explains Lorella Cuccarini “Inspiration” For Billboard Performance

Robbie Daw | May 25, 2011 9:00 am

Were you disappointed with “Run The World (Girls)” singer Beyonce after finding out her seemingly original, awe-inspiring multi-media performance at Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards turned out to be lifted from a similar spectacle staged by Italian pop star Lorella Cuccarini last year? Well, relax, Bey fans — this diva has an answer for everything! “My makeup artist showed me the performance of Lorella Cuccarini a year ago, and it inspired me so much,” Beyonce told AOL Music. “I then met with the talented people who worked on it. The technology and concept were so genius. Thank god for YouTube or I would have never been exposed to something so inspiring. I never worked so hard on anything in my life as that performance for the Billboard Awards.”

Yes, thank god for YouTube, which has also made it possible for many users to post side-by-side videos of both Beyonce and Lorella’s performances!

Oh, well — Bey gave a jaw-dropping performance, which has undoubtedly garnered more attention via the online Lorella Cuccarini furor than it normally would have. And now, with a few brief sentences, she’s brushed off any notion of controversy. Lest we forget, she’s a survivor and she’s going to keep on survivin’, Beyonce famously informed us 10 years ago.

New media artist/film direcotr Kenzo Digital, who Beyonce collaborated with for the Billboard presentation, explained the following to Yahoo’s The Amplifier blog:

“[The Cuccarini artists] are awesome and do incredible work as well, but there are a lot of different inspirations for where our piece came from. That’s the thing, it’s very simplistic. If anything, it’s a great example of how great of a performer Beyoncé is. It’s just a bare white screen. It’s a technique in video art since the ’80s in terms of frontal projection and interactive things. That’s really nothing new.”

Are you happy that Beyonce came clean about her “inspiration” for the Billboard Music Awards performance, or do you think she should have at least tried to come up with an original concept? Let us know below!