Beyonce Comments on Billboard Music Awards Performance

At Sunday's 2011 Billboard Music Awards, Beyonce performed her current single 'Run the World (Girls)' in what was a unique and visually arresting marriage of choreography, art and technology. It was nothing short of stunning, as the singer danced and interacted with a variety of projections on a screen behind her. Some even called it the performance of her already storied career!

While people lauded her performance as groundbreaking, modern, futuristic and epic –and it was all those things -- it was hardly original. In typical classy Beyonce fashion, the pop diva acknowledged that she borrowed from another artist and she did not take credit for being the architect of the performance. In an interview with AOL Music, she addressed her influence and she spoke about being directly inspired by a 2010 performance by Italian pop singer Lorella Cuccarini.

"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."

Watch Beyonce's Performance From the 2011 Billboard Music Awards