The song was helped a lot by its video, which is one of Beyoncé’s most instantly recognizable with its iconic choreography and black-and-white photography. Soon after, it reached number-one, where it remained on-and-off for four weeks.

“Single Ladies” didn’t take much time to take off, reaching the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 just a month after its release. But how exactly did it win, and was it the slam dunk that in hindsight we might think it was? Of the many awards it won, “Single Ladies” notably gave Beyoncé her first - and so far only - general field win at the Grammys: Song of the Year. Either way, it's no wonder Bey has to catch her breath at the end of the take.Few songs have felt as monumental in 21st century pop music as Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” The song and its iconic music video served as year-defining material from Queen Bey, and it still holds up among the singer’s classic songs. Gatson remembers it took eight hours, while Bey herself once said the shoot lasted 12 hours. It's why the 3-minute, 18-second video took somewhere between eight and 12 hours to shoot. So instead of breaking the song up into parts, which is how music videos are typically shot, the dancers performed the entire dance at least 50 times all the way through, Gatson estimates. Beyoncé wanted the video to feel like one single shot. On set, t he dancers performed the 'Single Ladies' routine at least 50 times in its entirety. According to Gatson: 'She kind of turned her heel over a little bit, but when we went over to give her ice, she said, 'Nobody's going to stop me from doing a Beyoncé video.'' (And they didn't.)ġ0. About 25 takes in, Ebony nearly injured her ankle - and kept on dancing. One of the backup dancers had an accident halfway through the shoot.

'It was funky, but the ballet training made the technique and the alliance look incredible.'ĩ. 'I think there's something about their ballet training that brought a different class to ,' Gatson says. Unlike Beyoncé herself, Ebony and Ashley were both trained heavily in ballet.

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