Celebrities have suffered from the practice of equating them to the divine for almost the entirety of modern history. But only Beyoncé is deserving of such a comparison in the truest sense. Over the course of a career that started when she was just a teenager, Mrs. Carter has demonstrated not only a tremendous body of work (one that somehow keeps improving in quality), but also an amazing sense of grace, elegance, and professionalism. She is the pop star of the new millennium, a designation that few others appear to be even somewhat deserving of.

Video Phone, ft. Lady Gaga

Do you recall crunk music? Although “Video Phone” isn’t Beyoncé’s most well-known song, the Gaga collaboration transforms an unsettling Western sample into a popular crunk beat. In this song, the two divas become a little strange as they sing about using a cell phone to record pornographic films.

Run the World, Girls

Bey successfully reversed a Major Lazer song, giving her album 4 the “frenetic booty-rave front” it sorely needed. The visceral thrill of “Run the World” hits especially hard in its simplicity; girls really do run this mother. She would go on to do call-to-arms songs bigger and better.

XO

This song might not quite have the same immediate impact it did when it initially appeared on her game-changing self-titled album (in reality, with each, listen, it sounds more and more like a Coldplay B-side), but damn if it can’t make you feel some emotions. And “baby love me lights out” is among Bey’s kindest, most sincere gifts in a career full of ways to show love.

If I Were A Boy

Beyoncé promises us all in her potent, gender-reversing guitar jam that she’d be a much better partner than the wastemen she’s met over the years, and we believe her. Where can we register?

“***Flawless” ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A million-dollar trap beat can be combined with a memento from your youth, a clip from a TED Talk by a well-known Nigerian novelist, and other elements to create, in the simplest terms, a neofeminist message for the general public. This is a true artistic genius. The only acceptable reaction? Bow down, ladies.