Just weeks after her secret 2008 wedding to Jay-Z, Beyonce recorded Single Ladies, taking off her wedding ring in the vocal booth to channel the energy into an anthem for unmarried women. Released as a double A-side with If I Were a Boy, the track debuted the confident Sasha Fierce persona and hid a surprisingly aggressive composition beneath its playground handclaps.

This episode breaks down the song's diminished chords, Morse-code production, and low-budget black-and-white video shot in an infinity cove. It traces the choreography's roots in a 1969 Bob Fosse routine mixed with Atlanta J-setting, the resulting attribution debate, and how the track became the internet's first massive viral dance craze, preserved in 2026 by the Library of Congress.

• Why Beyonce removed her wedding ring while recording the single
• The minor a ...