--- title: Serena Williams: Performing With Beyonce, Watch Ellen VIDEO description: The Grand Slam champion reveals on Ellen that she missed her note in a live performance with Beyonce on the Formation World Tour canonical: https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-18T22:28:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:50.245Z og:title: Serena Williams Talks High-Pressure Beyonce Concert Performance og:description: Each passing day is a new opportunity to feel the pressure of Beyonce's existence og:url: https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Serena Williams Talks High-Pressure Beyonce Concert Performance twitter:description: Each passing day is a new opportunity to feel the pressure of Beyonce's existence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Serena Williams Confirms the Power of a Beyoncé Crowd Is a New Level of Pressure  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Nov 18, 2016 10:28 PM UTC  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Nov 18, 2016 10:28 PM UTC [Serena Williams](http://time.com/70910/serena-williams-2014-time-100/) may have won 22 Grand Slams, but nothing compares to the challenge of performing next to [Beyoncé](http://time.com/70716/beyonce-2014-time-100/). The tennis player, who [dances](http://time.com/4378426/beyonce-official-sorry-video/) alongside the singer in her visual album [_Lemonade_](http://time.com/4305810/beyonce-lemonade-hbo/), joined Bey onstage for the final night of the Formation World Tour. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on _Ellen_, Williams said that the crowd at the show dwarfed the number of people who watch her tennis matches—and the pressure got to her. “I’ve performed tennis-wise in front of thousands of people but not, like, crowds that huge,” she said. “So all I could think was, ‘Serena, don’t miss your note. Don’t miss your note.’ And what did I do? I missed my note! I was like, ‘God dang it!’ But then I was like, ‘OK, this is so fun. I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to leave,’ so I was trying to stay out there extra deep but eventually they told me in my ear, ‘Serena, get off the stage.'” Williams appeared on _Ellen_ to promote the opening of the Compton-based Yetunde Price Resource Center, named after her eldest sister, who was killed by gun violence. The center aims to connect families affected by gun violence with service providers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/"},"headline":"Serena Williams Confirms the Power of a Beyoncé Crowd Is a New Level of Pressure","datePublished":"2016-11-18T22:28:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:50.245Z","description":"The Grand Slam champion reveals how she missed her note in a live performance with Bey","url":"https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4577436/serena-williams-on-beyonce-concert/","name":"Serena Williams Confirms the Power of a Beyoncé Crowd Is a New Level of Pressure"}}]}] ```