Music review Dizzying three-hour concert drips with sci-fi disco, sex and black pride
The Guardian|May 12, 2023
Even without Taylor Swift's Ticketmastermelting Eras Tour nipping at her heels, it wouldn't do for a star as ambitious as Beyoncé to merely protect her status as the greatest pop show on Earth. Not when her first solo headline tour since 2016 could push 21st-century live entertainment another lavish leap forward.
Malcolm Jack
Music review Dizzying three-hour concert drips with sci-fi disco, sex and black pride

Beyoncé: Renaissance World Tour

Friends Arena, Stockholm

Titled after the Texan's disco glitter bomb post-pandemic party album of the same name, Renaissance is a monster blockbuster concert experience. Fifty-seven stadium dates globally, starting in Stockholm, are projected to gross as much as £1.9bn ($2.4bn) by the time the tour ends in New Orleans late September. Dripping with sci-fi disco decadence, sex, body positivity and feminine black pride, the near three-hour spectacular plays out in front, behind and, at times, inside a football-pitch-wide high-definition video screen.

The BeyHive, as Beyoncé's fans style themselves, are buzzing as they prepare to see their queen live for the first time since 2018's On the Run II co-headliner with Mr B, Jay-Z. Beyoncé appears first in a video cut scene, laid out across the giant screen semi-naked in dimensions big enough to be visible from space.

This story is from the May 12, 2023 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the May 12, 2023 edition of The Guardian.

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