Beyoncé fans flooded the internet with memes after she was rumored to be performing at the Democratic National Convention but didn’t show.
Speculation swirled that the pop megastar would appear to endorse Kamala Harris for president and sing for the convention crowd on Thursday night.
Hours before Harris’ nomination speech, TMZ claimed Beyoncé was indeed the guest star, after letting the Harris campaign use her song Freedom in its ads.
But then rival outlet Hollywood Reporter reported a cameo was never in the works, quoting a spokesperson.
Beyoncé’s longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, re-posted The Hollywood Reporter’s account – after ignoring inquiries from news outlets, including DailyMail.com.
It’s unclear exactly how the rumor started – and why cold water was never thrown on it before the 11th hour.
The memes began in earnest, as they always do, joking that Beyoncé arrived but changed her mind in the parking lot and left, or slept through the convention.
Another showed the singer and Taylor Swift eating popcorn in an empty theatre, joking they were watching the DNC from home.
Others showed clips from Joe Biden angrily denouncing Donald Trump in a speech as if he were attacking whoever started the Beyoncé rumor.
Another had snippet from TV show Succession with Roman Roy growing increasingly concerned as a deluge of emails appeared in his inbox, joking that he was the DNC social media manager watching the growing Twitter speculation.
Yet more memes claimed the DNC started the rumor so people would actually watch the convention, some confessing it worked on them.
One post pointed out there were a lot of other events this year Beyoncé was wrongly rumored to attended, including the Olympics and Coachella.
TMZ eventually admitted ‘we got this one wrong’ and that it was taken in by the false rumors.
Some people joked – while some more seriously charged – that the Democrats used Beyoncé as bait to get Americans to tune into their convention.
‘Notice how they tricked you into thinking there was a special guest so you’d stick around?’ asked JP Freire, a Republican spokesperson for the House Ways & Means Committee. ‘What do you think their approach to policy will be?’
One user posted a video clip of President Joe Biden – who attended the first night of the convention and then went on vacation to California – and commented: ‘to whoever started the Beyoncé as dnc special guest rumour.’
‘Who in the hell does he think he is? Who does he think he is?’ Biden roars.
Another X user posted a video of actor Kieran Culkin watching his computer go nuts.
‘The guy manning the DNC’s social media accounts, watching the TayTay/Beyoncé surprise appearance speculation posts pour in while George W Bush is backstage painting a watercolour of Kamala,’ the post said.
Journalists joked that there was a special guest – the audience just missed it.
‘I can’t believe the special guest was Leon Panetta,’ posted Puck News’ Peter Hamby. ‘I’ll always remember where I was.’
The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter joked: ‘The special guest was the friends we made along the way.’
Ahead of Beyoncé being a no-show, Republican Senator Mitt Romney joked that the Democrats’ special guest was not him.
‘Contrary to fake news posts, I am not the surprise guest at the DNC tonight,’ Romney posted. ‘My guess is that it will be Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. So disappointing, I know!’