When a Man Got Slapped in the Face for Disrespecting the 'Mute Challenge' During Beyoncé's Tour

Beyoncé's fans take her 'mute' challenge seriously, Queen Bey had made it a point to make the live audience attending her Renaissance World Tour go silent during her song Energy. The moment she said, "Big wave in the room, the crowd gon' move / Look around, everybody on mute," the crowd would go 'dead silent' for a few seconds. As per Newsweek, the fan activity didn't happen as expected during her 25th September 2023 Houston, Texas performance, a male fan allegedly screamed during the mute session and got slapped hard for it. Since then more than 3 million people have viewed the video shared by Danny (@beyoncegarden) on X. 

Fans gave mixed reactions to the situation, one fan stated: "When the queen says stfu you stfu." Another fan chimed: "Yes. The mute challenge is serious. It’s the one think Bey asked of us to help her out with during the entire tour and if you can’t help out then you’re not a beehive." An X user mocked: "People really scream on purpose just to get attention or a reaction, I'm glad she did what she did." 

A fan reasoned: "Okay now see it’s not that deep! Yes it’s hella corny to scream but to get physical over what’s supposed to be a fun challenge is insane! You think Beyoncé really care about this that much for yall to be tussling? What if they would hit back? Yall calm down and have fun." A fan didn't agree with the situation: "Imagine thinking that you’re privileged and entitled enough to punch someone for not complying with a fucking trend." Another critic said: "Now if he had punched her in the face, her feelings would've been hurt. It's not that serious, Ma'am."

The devotion of Beyoncé's admirers is well-known. The actions of the fanbase dubbed the "BeyHive," served as the model for the psychological suspense series Swarm. The seven-episode series, which debuted on Amazon Prime in March 2023, stars Dominique Fishback as a music enthusiast who develops an obsession with her favorite singer and will stop at nothing to get her approval. 

As per Newsweek, in 2022 when the Renaissance album dropped, artist Kelis accused Beyoncé of stealing her 2003 hit Milkshake. Kelis also called Beyoncé "stupid and disrespectful" for not taking permission before using her piece. In the first version of Energy, Beyoncé sang a rendition of the well-known "la-la, la-la, la" from Kelis' smash song during an interpolation from Milkshake. Queen Bey never commented on the issue but silently cut out the controversial part from her song after facing accusations. 

However, Beyoncé's fans could not resist and attacked Kelis's Instagram posts with vengeance, they started posting insulting comments under several of her images. One of Kelis' followers defended her: "I'm starting to think the [Beyhive] is depressed just sad." The artist herself called the 'Beyhive' a cult, "It's got cult written all over it." Another Kelis fan stated, "Beyoncé fans are straight crazy… I ain't never seen folks go so hard for someone that they never even met or know personally. Mental illness is real. Just wow."