Obamas 1
Obamas jam at Beyoncé and Jay-Z concert
00:59 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

The singer is reportedly yielding her influence at Vogue

It's not the first time

CNN  — 

Who runs the world? Beyoncé, apparently.

But you already knew that.

The superstar singer is reportedly not only going to be on the September cover of Vogue, but has used her star power to get the publication to hire its first black cover photographer in the magazine’s 126-year history.

According to Huffington Post, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has given Beyoncé “unprecedented control” over her photographs and the captions, all of which the singer will write.

Oh, and unlike most every other cover subject, Queen Bey will not be sitting for an interview.

CNN has reached out to reps for the singer for comment.

The news that’s buzzing the Beyhive most is that Beyoncé has selected 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell for the project – and the fact that it’s taken so long for a black photographer to get the coveted cover shoot.

It’s not the first time the star has used her influence to foster conversation about race and culture.

In 2016, her 56-minute long “Lemonade” visual album had listeners and Billboard hailing it as “a revolutionary work of black feminism.”

Decoding Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’

“What’s most revolutionary and cathartic about ‘Lemonade,’ though, is that it dares to make a new canon, finding references in the unphotographed past and future simultaneously, a land of no men,” Miriam Bale wrote for Billboard. “”F**k you, I’ll build anew,” Beyoncé seems to say with this daring and necessary work.”

Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner’s mothers make appearances in her “Lemonade” video, as she paid tribute to the three black men whose controversial deaths sparked outrage in this country.

Beyoncé herself stirred controversy with her 2016 Superbowl halftime performance.

Her costume references to the Black Panthers outraged police unions and led to calls to boycott her performances (something that didn’t come to fruition).

Why the Beyoncé controversy is bigger than you think

It hasn’t stopped either the singer or her husband, rapper Jay-Z, from continuing to use their influence to shed light on the state of people of color.

He is the executive producer of “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story,” a six-episode unscripted series devoted to the 2012 killing and subsequent trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of the teen.

Trayvon Martin’ leads wave of racial-justice documentaries

And at Coachella earlier this year, Beyoncé became the woman of color to headline the popular festival.

Beyoncé makes history with Coachella performance

She presented a performance that was so unapologetically black that even her mother, Tina Knowles Lawson, said she “was afraid that the predominately white audience at Coachella would be confused by all of the black culture and Black college culture because it was something that they might not get.”

“[Beyonce’s] brave response to me made me feel a-bit selfish and ashamed,” Lawson wrote on Instagram. “She said i have worked very hard to get to the point where i have a true voice and At this point in my life and my career i have a responsibility to do whats best for the world and not what is most popular.’”