Beyoncé’s Pregnancy Gives Twitter a Record-Breaking Bump

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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

News travels fast when a celebrity baby bump is exposed for the very first time. Especially when it’s Beyoncé’s. (via Techland)

The music icon and wife of Jay-Z broke a Twitter record when she announced her pregnancy at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards show in Los Angeles. After performing “Love on Top,” Beyoncé, 29, told the crowd before unbuttoning her coat and rubbing her belly: “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me.”

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The jaw-dropping announcement for the famous yet famously tight-lipped artist set off a frenzy of 8,868 tweets per second. This means Beyoncé’s pregnancy received more tweets than the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and even Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.

Twitter’s official global public-relations feed tweeted on Monday: “Beyonce’s big MTV #VMA moment gave Twitter a record bump.”

The previous record holder for trending news was Japan’s victory against the United States at the women’s World Cup final in July, which received 7,196 tweets per second.

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Kai Ma is a TIME contributor. Find her on Twitter at @Kai_Ma or on Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.