Everyone was pleasantly surprised when Beyoncé opened up the 2016 BET Awards, as there had been no prior announcement that it was happening. As one could imagine, it was quite the task to make it happen AND keep it a secret, and BET’s Debra Lee explains just how much of a task it was to Billboard.

“She committed several weeks ago,” Debra said. “We had four tons of water that we had to get on the stage and then clean up after her performance. We were worried about electricity and other things that could go wrong. But we wanted her to have the performance she wanted. She hadn’t been to the awards in a few years. After hearing her new music, I thought it was important for her to be there. She has a show in England tomorrow night, so it was great of her to agree to stay because it wasn’t the perfect timing. I saw the rehearsal the night before the show and that’s when I first learned that Kendrick Lamar was part of it. She does the water dance in her concert but with all women. But Beyoncé thought it was important to have men and women of color come together. She wanted this to be a performance she’d never done before. She wanted it to be epic, and it was.”

Marisa Mendez: Twitter || Instagram

On keeping it a secret:

“We threatened people within an inch of their lives to keep the secret. Beyonce wants to do it her way; I respect her for that. And she didn’t want people to know she was going to be on the show. So we told very few people on the team. I was a nervous wreck until the day of the show [laughs] because I was like, ‘If this leaks out, this may not happen.'”

Read the full interview here, and check out the electrifying performance here if you haven’t seen it already! (Or if you just want to watch it again because…Beyoncé.)