Beyonce Channels Pamela Anderson, Urges People to Vote in New ‘Bodyguard’ Video

In what is apparently the first official video to be released from her months-old “Cowboy Carter” album, Beyonce comically channels Pamela Anderson’s “Baywatch” look in a new clip for the song “Bodyguard” — retitled “Beywatch,” naturally enough.

The  video, which dropped early Tuesday, is uncharacteristically low-budget for the singer, depicting her in a variety of settings, usually in a red swimsuit styled like Anderson’s. In addition to Anderson’s “Baywatch” look, Beyonce also channels “Barb Wire,” in a black dress and high boots, as well as the actor’s outfit in the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. She is seen astride a motorcycle, strutting around a photo studio and what appears to be a parking lot, and comically lights a cigarette, which she burns half of.

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It is an unusual Election Day message, as it is more Halloween-themed — at one point a message reads “Happy Beylloween” — and only references the election when the singer pulls out a prop pistol which releases a flag that reads “Vote.”

The mock-MTV segment, which is deliberately grainy to evoke an old video, features a chyron that reads “No Visual Awards,” apparently a poke at the complaints that no official videos were released from her two-part “Renaissance” album cycle, of which “Cowboy Carter” was the second release. However, the singer did release a full-length documentary late in 2023 of her “Renaissance” stadium tour that year, which rampaged across North America and Europe during the summer.

Regardless, the timing of the new video is odd, as it seems Halloween-themed but arrived five full days after Oct. 31, and hours before polls opened for a far more serious event, the presidential election in a deeply divided race — especially considering that Beyonce emphatically endorsed Kamala Harris for president with a unifying speech at a rally in the singer’s hometown of Houston late last month. Perhaps the video is intended to be comic relief for an anxiety-ridden population.