Bey-ond whisky
I’ve been thinking about SirDavis, the new collaboration between Moët-Hennessy and Beyoncé which was announced this week. Is it yet another celeb-infused project like David Beckham and Haig Club, P.Diddy and Ciroc [RIP], or celeb-owned brands established with a beady eye on selling up for mega dollars to fame-dazzled corporations – George Clooney’s Casamigos (bought by Diageo for, ahem, $1bn) or The Rock’s Teremana?
While each of these has a slightly different backstory, they are united by being driven by a drink’s firm’s desire to have a celebrity as the face of the brand. The brand basks in the glow of their halo, their fans buy the booze, the celebrity gets some form of equity for giving their name (and a few good photo ops). Everyone’s happy – well apart from P.Diddy.
So what’s different here? Beyoncé is the difference. She changes the model by being … Beyoncé.
Her work opens up discussion, it empowers by subverting the received (colonialist/racist) narrative. It creates a sense of community beyond simply being ‘music’. It is a multifaceted, creative project.
Her last album ‘Cowboy Carter’ took country music (as well as bluegrass and zydeco) and reclaimed its Black heritage, spotlighting the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers.
Rhiannon Giddens (who plays on the album) has been doing the same for almost two decades, but the arrival of ‘Cowboy Carter’ gave her work a new significance.
’In this moment,’ she wrote in The Guardian, ‘after 100 years of erasure, false narratives, and racism built into the country industry, it’s important to shine a light on the Black co-creation of country music – and creation is the correct word, not influence.’
What Beyoncé did was bring focus on to what others have been building, adding another element to her greater project of Black empowerment and redressing wrongs. This is a political project.
‘Nobody owns an art form,’ wrote Giddens in The Guardian piece. ‘Everyone is allowed to enjoy and make country music, especially when done with respect, understanding and integrity.’ Now take that and apply it to whisky. Is the most powerful (for the moment) Black woman in the world, now adding whisky to her project?
It would make sense. There is a lost and under-researched Black history of whiskey-making in the US. Thanks to Fawn Weaver, and the arrival of Uncle Nearest we’re beginning to learn more, but there is much more work required.
If Jeffrey Wright (an investor in Uncle Nearest) had drawn from his bootlegging/moonshining heritage and worked with Moët-Hennessy instead would we be as excited? We should be, but Beyoncé’s involvement adds in more layers: a woman, a Black woman, misrepresentation, lost history. Once again subverting the narrative. There’s lots to unpick here.
Beyoncé opens doors and shines lights on Black history (women, racism, country music), saying, ‘this is wrong, this can change, this can be ours because it always has been.’ It’s added to her work, then she move on, that’s her modus operandi.
Has ‘Cowboy Carter’ resulted in more Black musicians make country music? Has it increased sales of country/bluegrass/zydeco in Black communities? I’m not sure, but by exposing the true story the opportunity has been created. It could be the same with whisky, but ‘could’ is the operative word.
If SirDavis has opened the discussion about Black whiskey history and the wider issue of women enjoying whisky, then the responsibility for ensuring that this now actually helps create change is Moët-Hennessy’s. How it sees this new acquisition and how it engages with the need for representation is key.
Is it seen as just another celeb endorsement, or will Moët-Hennessy engage with this wider debate? If the latter, then it will require a shift in culture – watching what jokes are told, what images are used in promotional campaigns, and how the wider LVMH workforce is treated.
The light from the Beyoncé halo isn’t the usual warm, contented glow, it is a clear cold light showing up injustices, but one which also illuminates possibilities for change.
SirDavis can be more than just a new celeb whiskey project. The ball’s in your court M. Arnault. Don’t drop it. Beyoncé’s watching… We all are.
