Renaissance World Tour
Beyoncé performs in Brussels, Belgium during her Renaissance World Tour on May 14
King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels
Beyoncé shouts to Brussels crowd at Sunday's concert: «You're the best crowd ever!» The crowd cheers. All this would be ordinary and unremarkable if it were not on Wednesday of the same week [10. May] with the second stop of the tour that started in Stockholm. The internet is abuzz with real-time jokes about how Beyoncé hates Swedes and how Swedes should be embarrassed for not rooting for Queen Bey enough. Of course, this is not a surprise to someone who has followed pop culture a little, Beyoncé is more than just another singer, for superfans she is a deity-like icon, and her first solo tour in seven years is a pilgrimage where you have to know how to behave properly. The rating is given not only to the performer, but also to the audience who paid hundreds of euros for a ticket.
Beyoncé, who is touring with her seventh studio album, Renaissance, isn't interested in playing hits or tapping into the nostalgia market for easy cash. Although on the day of the concert in Brussels, May 14, exactly 20 years passed since the release of the hit single «Crazy In Love» from his first solo album, the star does not make a big deal out of it, the song will be performed, but squeezed in between others. A megahit that would be a career highlight for some is just one of many for him. Most of Beyoncé's other popular songs like «Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)» or «Halo» remain unplayable.
Beyoncé's warm-up is Beyoncé herself. At the beginning of the nearly three-hour concert, she takes the stage in a long dress and sings a couple of ballads, mainly from her album «4», which she calls her favorite album, after the song «Dangerously In Love» by her former girl group Destiny's Child. Starting the presentation of a house album with slow songs with a piano accompaniment is a bold choice, the main reason of which seems to be simply to show the crowd, next to the club bangers, that this is still one of the most powerful vocalists in the world. The opening act has nothing to do with the rest of the concert, the piano and backing band are rolled back to the back of the stage and Club Renaissance is declared open.
«Renaissance» is a tribute to the gay and club culture of the 80s and 90s. Ballroom, vogue, house. As pop divas often are, Beyoncé has always been a gay icon, but she's never made music so obviously aimed at an LGBT audience before. It is rumored that Beyoncé is currently recovering from a foot injury, so she will be dancing less than on her previous tours. Even with that in mind, it would be a total lie to say that Beyoncé won't be dancing on this tour, but she's mostly letting her backup dancers shine, including ballroom names like Honey Balenciaga. In addition to the dancers, the stage has not been spared either — as if at least a hundred LED screens were not enough, robot arms, a giant clam, a disco ball, a tank and a horse are rolled out from behind the stage at different times, of course all of them sparkle in silver. For «America Has A Problem,» the stage transforms into a giant news studio for KNTY 4 NEWS, anchored by Queen Bey herself in a bee costume.
Vocally, Beyoncé is perfect. Watching the performance with the 53,000 people in the stadium mainly on a screen, while having grown up with Beyoncé's videos, there is even a surreal doubt in the meantime that it is all real after all. If Beyoncé is just as perfect and iconic as she's seemed all these years, is there still a need to stand in a subway line in the suburbs of Brussels instead of re-watching her Coachella performance on YouTube? How could Beyoncé top herself? Of course, it seems a sin to complain that everything is too perfect. Small, more intimate moments were shared with fans who bought more expensive tickets, one of whom, for example, was able to shock Beyoncé with the information that she has already been to 35 concerts.
Most of the songs played were from last year's «Renaissance», and aside from the opening ballads, the older stuff («Get Me Bodied», «Formation», «Diva», «Sweet Dreams») was chosen to fit the hedonistic and robotic party carpet. For artists with decades-long careers, focusing on newer music can often be disappointing: «shut up and play the hits!», as LCD Soundsystem put it. Several songs such as «Blow» from the self-titled record and the bonus track «Dance for You» from the album «4», as well as the Destiny's Child classic «Cater 2 U» sounded just a few bars embedded in other songs, probably remaining elusive to most ears, but offering the joy of recognition to long-time listeners. Although in my opinion, full of pure joy, «Renaissance» is Beyoncé's best album to date, standing away from the fan zones, people remained rather modest when hearing the new songs and revived to old hits like «Crazy In Love» and «Run the World (Girls)». The fans who danced in front of the stage in glittering cowboy hats were hardly disappointed, so some of them spent the whole night behind the stadium gates in order to see their idol as close as possible.
Like «Renaissance», the concert ended with two five-minute songs — «Pure/Honey», straight from the floor of some New York gay club, and «Summer Renaissance», which samples Donna Summer's «I Feel Love». While the first one was introduced with a dance battle full of death drops, during the last song Beyoncé is pulled down into the sky on a silver horse above the audience's heads. If The Jackson 5 and Diana Ross covers didn't already make it clear, floating above the stadium as a disco angel leaves no doubt — Prince, Summer, Ross, Jackson, Madonna — the list can be continued in different ways, but not without adding Beyoncé's name to the legends.
Perhaps this is a naive hope, but the green capital Tallinn, which is hosting major events such as the song festival and The Weeknd's concert this summer, could learn a lot from the concert organization in Brussels. Instead of traffic jams, the concert ticket came with a free round-trip public transport ticket, and the next subway train arrived a minute after the previous one left, those arriving by bike could park their vehicle in the guarded parking lot for free and receive a Beyoncé badge as a gift, in addition, there were separate party trains and buses running between the nearby cities. Quite a nice change from the car imprisonment of major events in Tallinn.
Beyoncé kicked off a major 'Renaissance' album tour in Stockholm, Sweden last week, with props such as a flying disco horse and a tank and a full-scale crew of dancers, sound engineers and automation specialists.
Beyoncé has released a new remix version of «America Has a Problem» from her latest album, Renaissance, featuring Kendrick Lamar. Lamar has previously contributed to «Freedom» from Beyoncé's «Lemonade» album and «Nile» from the soundtrack to the remake of «The Lion King,» reports Pitchfork.