When Channing Tatum and Beyoncé performed a duet of the latter’s “Run the World (Girls)” at the end of Spike’s Lip Sync Battle Jan. 7 opener, it was abundantly clear who’d won the competition. C-Tates had defeated his wife, Jenna Dewan Tatum, in faux-vocal combat, but let’s face the music — Beyoncé was the undisputed champion of the episode. Even so, it wasn’t as simple as arranging for the Grammy Award-winning singer to just show up and dance. Lots of planning was involved.
Not to mention the fact that, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Tatum and Beyoncé had never met before the moment they took the stage together:
Tatum and Beyoncé had never met prior to the taping. Producers were keen to keep it that way until the absolute last moment, so their moves backstage were carefully choreographed to keep the duo from running into one another — and keep Dewan Tatum in the dark.
“That moment on air, that’s the first time they ever met,” [executive producer Casey Patterson] adds. “He’s dressed as her, dancing and singing to her song. We were just hoping he would keep dancing.”
This doesn’t mean that Beyoncé wasn’t involved in the show until the very last minute, of course. As Patterson points out, all songs are requested by each episode’s two competing guests, and these songs must be cleared with various artists and record labels beforehand. Tatum specifically requested Beyonce’s “Run the World (Girls),” and Beyonce’s camp approved.
However, the singer didn’t agree to come onto the show until the night before. Patterson suggests this may have had something to do with her interactions with Tatum via smartphones:
“Channing, during one of his rehearsals, sent an iPhone video message to her about two days before the show,” says Patterson. “Only Channing and Beyoncé know the back and forth, but I think that’s what put it over the top.”
Whatever happened, it apparently convinced Beyoncé to appear on the Lip Sync Battle stage. This information was kept from Dewan by Tatum, as he wanted to surprise her. Yet it seems that the production kept her onstage arrival from C-Tates until the very end, too.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
