Side by Side Video: Did Beyonce Copy Billboard Performance from Italian Singer?

Beyonce has been accused (yet again) of her “original” stealing ideas.

This time her performance of “Run the World (Girls)” during the 2011 Billboard Awards show is at issue… with many top blogs comparing the two and accusing Miss. B of stealing her performance from a February 2010 performance by Italian pop star Lorella Cuccarini.

A side by side comparison of the two is indisputable.

Lorella’s influence can be seen when watching the shows side-by-side. It feels as though Beyonc?’s team used Lorella’s show as a template and personalized it by changing out some of the details. Not only does Beyonc? use some of the same scenes Lorella used, but they fall in the same sequence.

Bey’s Billboard performance is full of obvious similarities…

So if your question is ‘was Beyonce’s Billboard Awards performance a copy?’… the answer is “yes”… but we already knew that.

Plus Beyonce has fessed up.

Video of the two performances side by side + Bey’s explanation below:

Video: Beyonce vs. Lorella Cuccarini

Beyonc? clarified speculation about the motivation for her cutting-edge show Monday when she explained that seeing Lorella’s interactive video performance made her want to make her own version.

“My makeup artist showed me the performance of Lorella Cuccarini a year ago, and it inspired me so much,” Beyonce told AOL Music.

“I then met with the talented people who worked on it. The technology and concept were so genius. Thank God for YouTube or I would have never been exposed to something so inspiring. I never worked so hard on anything in my life as that performance for the Billboard Awards.” (source)

Lorella has given Beyonce props for admitting she ganked her sh*t clearing things up… and so do I.

Watch Beyonce’s full Billboard performance HERE.