As if 2009 hasn't already been jam-packed for Beyonce Knowles, the singer-actress is currently preparing a year-long world tour with dates in Canada set to launch later this month. "I've been working on this tour for eight months," Beyonce told EW when we caught up with her on the set of a TV ad she was taping. "It's crunch time! I've been rehearsing and trying to make sure I put my set list together. Right now I'm anxious and I can't sleep -- I'll be wanting to be at rehearsal. That's the only thing I can think about. But I can't wait." While details are still being worked out, she has dates tentatively penciled in for the U.K., Ethiopia, Japan, Brazil, and more, plus a run through the U.S. this summer. She'll be backed once more at each show by the all-female band from 2007's The Beyonce Experience tour.
Beyonce has also finished two new music videos to keep fans happy while she's crisscrossing the globe: "Broken-Hearted Girl," from the ballad-heavy I Am... half of her recent double album, and ...Sasha Fierce's up-tempo "Ego." Beyonce co-directed the latter clip with her choreographer. "My goal for [the 'Ego' video] is simplicity," she says. "In 'Single Ladies,' I saw this old tape of Bob Fosse's wife, and I used that as inspiration. I thought in this world, with all the technology and everything that's going on, to strip everything down -- great idea. So I kind of did the same thing, but glossy and black, for 'Ego.'"
One thing that the video for "Ego" won't share with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" is a certain animatronic appendage. "I didn't have the Sasha Fierce hand [in the video]," she laughs. "But I have it on the tour. It's actually even more wild -- I have to figure out how I'm going to perform with that hand!"'
