STOCKHOLM: Thousands of fans flocked to Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday to celebrate the start of Beyoncé’s new world tour.
Titled after the Texan’s disco glitter bomb post-pandemic party album of the same name, Renaissance is a monster blockbuster concert experience on a different plane. 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 designed to assault the senses at dizzying scale.
Fans who had complained in recent months about the lack of music videos for “Renaissance” hits were in for a treat Wednesday as video projections and animations took center stage. The rapid succession of costume changes and decor shifts was baffling. The singer played on interactions between a digital and physical world where robotic devices make space for weird silver moon rovers or an inflatable horse. Even Queen Bey herself morphs into a cybernetic character. Seems confusing? It was.
Yet despite the impressive scale of the stage set, some moments still felt intimate. Beyoncé expressed heartfelt gratitude to fans for traveling from afar to witness her perform. She reached for songs spanning across her two-decade career, kicking off the show with “Dangerously in Love,” the title track of her 2003 first solo album, moving through 2011 female empowerment anthem “Run the World (Girls)” and dishing up a good selection of hits from “Renaissance” itself.
Wednesday’s show sold out the 46,000 tickets available; and if the audience’s reaction was anything to go on, the rest of the tour will be a hit. Beyoncé will make stops at more than 40 cities including London, Paris, Barcelona and Toronto before wrapping up the tour Sept. 27 in New Orleans.
