Beyoncé surprised her Latine fans when she performed one of her classics for the first time in 15 years. During her viral surprise performance in Dubai on Saturday (Jan. 21), the pop icon sang her hit “Beautiful Liar,” which features Shakira.
Beyoncé performed a headlining set at Atlantis The Royal Resort in Dubai. She was invited as a part of Atlantis Resort’s “Grand Reveal” weekend to celebrate the new hotel, which is set to open next month. Though there was a strict no-phone policy, footage emerged online from Beyoncé’s spectacular performance. Her team later released professional videos and photos from the show.
Beyoncé performed many songs from her deep catalog of hits. A surprising inclusion in the setlist was “Beautiful Liar.” She first released the song in 2007 as a collaboration with Shakira. It was in the deluxe edition of her album B’Day. Beyoncé later added the track to the setlist of 2007’s The Beyoncé Experience World Tour and only performed it there. Beyoncé and Shakira have never performed the song live together.
In the leaked footage from Beyoncé’s Dubai performance, she can be seen in a red gown, moving her hips to “Beautiful Liar.” There’s a bit of an Arabic sound to the song that the singer captured with her hypnotic choreography.
Notably, Beyoncé cut out the “Shakira, Shakira” part of her “Beautiful Liar” performance. However, fans of both artists were happy to see the singer perform the song once again. Some fans even saw the performance as Beyoncé’s way of supporting Shakira as she navigates her split with ex Gerard Piqué. “This was in solidarity with Shakira idc,” one fan wrote on Twitter. “I don’t think Beyoncé & Shakira understand how much we STAN Beautiful Liar like we need a live performance, another collab, merch, anything involving these to queens,” wrote another fan.
The only special guest during the performance was her daughter Blue Ivy. She joined her mom on stage to perform their song “Brown Skin Girl.” Beyoncé didn’t perform any music from her latest album Renaissance.