18) Beyonce – Run The World (Girls)
2011 was the year of Beyonce. After her much-discussed year off, she threw herself back into the spotlight with Run the World (Girls), the lead single from her tremendous comeback album, 4.
The video features some of the most incredible choreographed dance routines we've seen in years, as Beyonce ushers us into a theatrical battle of the sexes in the sandy, sun-bleached deserts of California.
With jaw-dropping fashion, tamed lions, hyenas on leashes and exploding cars, Beyonce changes the game once again.
"Strong enough to bare the children/then get back to business," she sings. Her message of female empowerment could've been an early tip-off to one of the biggest showbiz news stories this year: her pregnancy with husband Jay-Z. If she wasn't pregnant when she filmed the video, after all, it happened soon after (we still don't know the exact dates).
Beyonce continued pulling out all the stops with her Glastonbury performance in June, becoming one of the first solo female artists to grace the festival's Pyramid Stage.
Since then, she's released a slew of additional music videos (Best Thing I Never Had, Countdown, 1+1, Love On Top, Dance With You), launched a perfume and captivated the media with her ever-expanding baby bump (and a few conspiracy theories regarding said bump).
After her jam-packed 2011, Queen B shows no signs of slowing down. As she says in Run the World, she's strong enough to bare the children, then get back to business. And who knows what business she'll get up to next!
Read our track-by-track review of Beyonce's album 4
Return to Top Videos of 2011: Part One (Videos 20-11)
Go to Top Videos of 2011: Part Two (Videos 10-1)
