10 Years of 'Single Ladies': Beyonce's Director, Choreographers & More Put a Ring on Her Iconic Music Video

This week, Billboard is celebrating the music video with a week's worth of content that looks at the past, present and future of the video, at a time when it seems to be as relevant as ever. Here, we flashback ten years for an extended look at how arguably the most legendary video from the 21st century's greatest music video star came together, and why its legacy endures a decade later. 

On the St. Louis stop of the 2016 Formation World Tour, Beyoncé and her dancers -- including her dance captain, Ashley Everett -- were just about to wave their hands through the final bars of “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” when the pop star paused. The buoyant bass continued to blast as she vamped, coyly pacing the stage before she turned on her heel and signaled for a gentleman in a white jacket to join her. John Silver, Everett’s boyfriend, trotted into the spotlight and took the floor, where he presented his dumbstruck love with an engagement ring -- one that got an all-too-appropriate cameo during a sequence as familiar to the crowd as the “Single Ladies” chorus itself. If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it: he did, so he did, and Everett flicked her wrist and flashed her newly-minted diamond in the routine she helped create.

That such a life-changing moment went down in the middle of a “Single Ladies” performance is perfect, as the song has proven to be a monumentally transformative force in the lives of Beyoncé and those of her closest collaborators. Everett was at Beyoncé’s side when she filmed the music video for “Single Ladies” and in the three months leading up to the shoot, when they and choreographers Frank Gatson Jr. and JaQuel Knight worked tirelessly to hone every kick, waist-wind, and lift that would go on to define one of the most iconic dances in pop music history.

“Single Ladies” was shot directly after the visual for “If I Were A Boy,” which was initially intended to be the showpiece for Beyoncé’s I Am… Sasha Fierce era. It was written as a mini-film, complete with dialogue, intrigue, and a significant plot twist to match the intensity of the love-scarred power ballad -- fitting, considering how she was about to star as Etta James in 2008’s Cadillac Records and already had leading roles in Dreamgirls and The Pink Panther under her belt. Both videos were directed by Jake Nava, who’d been working with Beyoncé on a regular basis since 2003’s “Crazy in Love” clip, her solo breakthrough. But “Single Ladies” also had Gatson -- who worked closely with Beyoncé as choreographer and creative director from her first days as a solo artist through the 2013 Mrs. Carter World Tour -- bringing the young and hungry Knight into Beyoncé’s orbit, where he closely remains.

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