When Beyonce and Jay Z started dating there was a clear ‘story’ to their coupling. He was an ex hood drug dealer-come-rap superstar and she was a pop chanteuse with a killer voice. Over time as they’ve collaborated they’ve moved from her singing vocals supporting his rap to a more nuanced collaboration style where they can both explore different aspects of music they enjoy, including trap music and reggae.

Beyonce doesn’t care what you think. Well, to be clear, she doesn’t care what you think. She’s rich as Croesus and that in itself has given her freedom to explore all sorts of avenues with her music. She doesn’t need to be clean cut pop star who excels in respectability politics when she can throw the respectability book out the window and write her own Bey-ible.

I love seeing an artist with her talent feeling confident in her own power. I also love seeing a woman of my age being able to explore what it means emotionally to be a woman in the prime of her life, negotiating some of the complexities of having a long term relationship with her husband. As someone whose been married for coming up to 15 years, married life is not easy. You have ups and downs and times that you hurt each other, but on balance you need to make each other better people. Beyonce and Jay-Z seem to be there.

Not all of her music talks directly to my lifestyle, but that’s what music is about. It can take you to a place where you explore different stories and different emotions. I love the journey Beyonce’s music has taken over her career and can’t wait to see where she goes with her music and art next.