The audience is fuelled with excitement. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London is fully occupied up until the last seat. Over sixty thousand people wait for one person to appear. Their eyes are fixed on the gigantic screen, where they can see candy floss-coloured clouds drifting over a blue sky. They are waiting for her. Above them, the sky over London turns from a light blue into shades of orange to pink, and purple.
The time is 20:04. The sun sets behind the stadium, and the last sunray illuminates the stage, dipping it in a golden light, transforming it into a celestial space. Nothing is left to chance. She has waited for this exact moment. Music begins to play. A wave of energy ripples through the stadium. As if pulled by invisible strings, sixty thousand people rise from their seats, screaming like there is no tomorrow.
The music grows louder. Then, a voice echoes through the vast space, as if an angel itself has just descended from the heavens and graced the mortal crowd with its presence. The screams intensify, but the female voice rises above them. She sings: I love you. The audience applauds and begins to roar. I love you, she repeats. People throw their arms up into the air, greeting her. Others just begin to cry.
From the stage rises a beautiful woman. Her long, wavy hair, the colour of honey, flows gently in the wind. She wears an azure blue dress that ripples like the ocean, as if Thetis, the Goddess of the sea, herself had gifted her with this gown for this magical night. But she is not immortal. She is a woman of flesh and blood. Yet her voice enchants the over sixty thousand people in the stadium, filling them with excitement and joy unparalleled to any other experience.
Her image appears on the two huge screens to the left and right. It seems as if she floats through a blue-sky with rose-coloured clouds drifting behind her, the light of the last sunray, touching her dark skin, turning her gold. The crowd screams louder.
It’s unbelievable how loud people can scream when they are filled with happiness. But the music grows even louder. Her voice echoes through the stadium. Her voice transcends the excitement of the people, enchanting every single one of their hearts as if she were a siren, commencing her first song: I love you. Baby I love you. You are my life. My happiest moments weren’t complete if you weren’t by my side. You’re my relation in connection to the sun. With you next to me there’s no darkness I can’t overcome.
The audience explodes with joy. Most of them have been waiting for this moment for over five years. It’s May 29th, 2023. Beyoncé, the most famous woman on the planet, begins her first London performance of her Renaissance World Tour.
On that day, I was part of this crowd, in the very midst of it, cheering on Beyoncé. Her world tour, which has already been defined as one of the greatest live performances by an artist over the last few years, will go down in music history.
Since the death of Tina Turner, Beyoncé’s performance has had a special touch, celebrating music history, as she begins every show with a tribute song, River Deep Monutain High, remembering and celebrating the legacy of Tina Turner. During the show, before she starts the song, she says: I just wanna take a second and honour Tina Turner. If you are a fan of mine, you are a fan of Tina Turner! Cause I wouldn’t be on the stage without Tina Turner. So, I just want you guys to just scream so she can feel your love. I feel so blessed that I was allowed to witness her brilliance, and I also feel very blessed to be here. To perform. After so many years. Thank you for your loyalty. Can you help me sing this next song!
In an interview from years ago, Beyoncé says that Tina Turner has been one of her greatest influences and that she has shaped the music industry profoundly. It can be seen that Tina’s empowering songs, which originate in heartbreak and her live performances have influenced Beyoncé and other pop divas throughout their careers.
This is especially clear to see when it comes to Beyoncé’s opening songs for the Renaissance World Tour. Tina’s songs were always shaped by love and heartbreak. Beyoncé begins with some of her most iconic power ballads. She starts with Dangerously in Love, Flaws and All, followed by 1+1 and I Care. Since Tina’s death, she has added River Deep Mountain High in the middle of the four songs, which she defines as her favourite song by the iconic artist.
Not only emotional ties bind Beyoncé to Tina Turner but also professional ones. In 2008, the two singers took to the stage together and performed Proud Mary at the Grammys, which remains one of the most powerful performances in American television and music history. Afterwards Beyoncé said that performing with Tina Turner will always be one of the most precious moments of her entire career.
As breathtaking and beautiful as the five opening songs are, it is also Beyoncé’s appearance that dazzles the audience every night in a new way. Top designers all around the world fought for the artist’s attention. Because with every new show, Beyoncé wears a new Haute Couture outfit, radiating divine beauty. From Alexander McQueen, to Valentino, Iris Van Herpen, and Balmain, all the great fashion houses of the world answered the Queen’s call when she asked them to dress her for her Renaissance world tour.
This first part of the show really reveals Beyoncé’s iconic status as Queen, with an opening where she throws out vocals that vibrate through the hearts of the fans, reminding them, as she sings in Dangerously in Love, that she loves her fans dearly.
However, while some fans had already lost their minds, nothing could prepare them for what was to come next. Because then, the Renaissance begins. After Beyoncé performed her ballads, she leaves the stage again only to return even more gloriously. The stage shines silver, and robotic arms free Beyoncé from a silver robot suit, revealing the singer dressed in a tight, shimmering dress, accentuating all her curves. Everyone can see, a galactic goddess has arrived, ushering in a new era of Beyoncé’s work. House and disco music from the 80s, wrapped in vocals that excite and leave you just wanting more take over. The party of the year begins.
Beyoncé performs her two-and-a-half-hour show with her new songs in the order in which the album was recorded. This way, she creates smooth and seemingly non-existent transitions from one song to the next, mixed with remixes of iconic old songs such as Sweet Dreams during Alien Superstar, Naughty Girl during Virgo’s Groove, or Blow during her most exciting new track, Pure/Honey.
It is a mix of old and new that takes you to outer space, where you can forget all the troubles of the world and simply dance. This is the Renaissance. The penultimate performance truly catapults you back to the 80s and 90s. Her dancers take over the stage and begin to vogue to the beats of the Pure/ Honey track.
This is in particular an homage to the ballrooms of the late 70s, 80s and 90s. Originated in New York City, Afro-Americans and Latinos of the LGBTQ+ community created safe spaces for the youth to perform, dress up, and create art. People from marginalised groups could become what they couldn’t be in real life. Very quickly, this ballroom culture spread to other cities throughout the US and to Europe. The ballroom culture was born.
Modern Drag Queens also evolved their signature performance, Lip-syncing, at that time. It was also the place where House culture came into being. This term is not to be confused with House music but is a cultural and social phenomenon. A house was a safe space led by one mother, who was usually a trans woman. She took in protegees, (young people, usually teenagers or children who identified as LGBTQ+ and were cast out from their original families because of their sexual orientation) nurtured their talents, and made sure that they got off the streets, found work, and, of course, performed in the different categories of weekly ballroom competitions. They, so to speak, housed them when no one else wanted to.
Beyoncé addresses this clearly in every show of her world tour and in her new album. A powerful voice rings through the stadium and announces, The iconic mother of the House of Renaissance Beyoncé, during one of the sections before she comes on stage. Later, during her last song, Summer Renaissance, she sings: I wanna house you and make you take my name. I’m gonna spouse you and make you tat’ a ring. I’m gonna take you all the way, baby, can I take you all the way?
With these lyrics, she makes herself the mother and protector of the LGBTQ+ society, which, in recent years, has gone through so many troubles again, especially during and after the Trump administration and recent decisions made at the Supreme Court in the US.
While she continues singing her last song, Beyoncé is lifted up in a silver gown, glittering like a star, and floats above the audience, sending kisses to her fans.
Making this album and world tour all about house music and ballroom culture is also very personal for Beyoncé. Her cousin, from her mother’s side, whose name was Uncle Johnny, was a black gay man and fashion designer. He, together with Beyoncé’s mother Tina, created the first dresses for Beyoncé, her little sister Solange, and the other members of Girls Tyme, the first name of their girl group that would become the infamous Desitny’s Child.
Uncle Johnny lived through the golden age of the ballroom and influenced Beyoncé deeply. In an interview, her mother Tina said that Beyoncé and Solange worshipped the ground he walked on. Unfortunately, he never got to see her career unfold. He died of an Aids-related disease in 1998. As a black gay man, he did not receive the medical treatment, which at that time also didn’t really exist, and died. Heated, the 11th track on her album, is dedicated to him and immortalises him when she sings in front of thousands of people: Fan me off, I’m hot, hot, hot, like stolen Chanel, lock me up in jail, cuff me please, cause this ain’t fair, dripped in my pearls like Coco Chanel, Uncle Johnny made my dress, that cheap Spandex, she looks a mess, Fan me off, I’m hot, hot, hot, like stolen Chanel, lock me up in jail, fingertips go, tap, tap, tap, on my MPC, making disco trap, Uncle Johnny made my dress, that cheap Spandex, she looks a mess!
Beyoncé manages to build a bridge between today’s Renaissance, the injustices and troublesome times of the last few years and the music and culture of ballrooms, disco, and house music of the 80’s, transforming it all into one body of art. Just before the album’s release, she states: With all the isolation and injustices of the past year, I think we are all ready to escape, travel, love and laugh again. I feel a Renaissance is emerging and I want to be part of nurturing that escape in any way possible.
The 80s were a time of light and darkness. Ballrooms served as places of black, brown, and queer culture. Houses offered security to marginalised groups. Beyoncé understood this time, transported it, and transformed its most beautiful aspects riddled with pain into the present, which is not so different from the 80s.
Back then, the Aids pandemic raged across the globe, killing gay men, a lot of members of the queer community, but especially black and brown people, who, to this day, are more vulnerable to viruses and diseases because they do not receive, and especially in the States, cannot afford, the same medical care as most white people.
The same can be clearly observed during the COVID pandemic from 2020 to 2022. In the United States of America, black and brown people caught the virus quicker as most of them worked on the front lines. Besides, same as Black and people of colour in the 80s, they did not receive the same medical treatments as others. Similar patterns could be observed in the United Kingdom and other countries.
Politically, Beyoncé refers to the Trump administration that handled the COVID pandemic horrendously, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement and structural racism, in multiple songs during her Renaissance World Tour.
Three songs performed close together during the tour speak especially for these themes. The first one, is, of course, no other than Formation from her acclaimed 2016 album Lemonade. Since she dropped this song during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2016, this song stands for black power, gun violence, and the brutality of racism in the States. At the same time, she celebrates black diversity and shows us how powerful it is: My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana, you mix that negro with that Creole, make a Texas bama, I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros, I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils, earned all this money, but they never take the country out me, I got hot sauce in my bag swag!
During the tour, she performs this powerful song with two other bangers, Diva and Run the World, her most feminist songs, standing strong as commercial feminist anthems.
The other two songs that deeply refer to the Black Lives Matter Movement are My Power and Black Parade, which both feature on her film Black is King, which was produced as a celebration of Black, Pan African, and African heritage as an accompaniment to the live-action version of Disney’s 2018 The Lion King. Beyoncé lends her voice to the lioness Nala in the film.
The additional strength of My Power and Black Parade can be found in the lyrics exploring African and Afro-American heritage. During the show, Beyoncé’s lyrics and vocals are underlined by the fact that she rolls onto the stage, sitting on a silver tank, ready to fight and defend the rights of Black people while she sings Black Parade. In the background on the huge screens appears the Afro American Black Pride Flag (black and red stripes, black stars on a green background), and Beyoncé begins to sing: I’m goin’ back to the South, I’m going back, back, back, back, where my roots ain’t watered down, growin’, gorwin’ like a Baobab tree, of life on fertile ground, ancestors put me on game, Ankh charm on gold chains, with my Oshun energy!
Visually, it is a feast for the eyes. Vocally, it is a wonderful listening experience, creating a performance that can be on the one hand simply enjoyed for its entertainment but on the other hand also seen as a deep message building a bridge between Afro-American culture and African history by referring to Oshun energy.
Oshun is a goddess of the Yoruba religion, native to Africa and can be best interpreted as a goddess of fertility and beauty. She is a very powerful goddess of the Orisha, the pantheon of African gods. Some, like Oshun, survived colonialism and can be found in the culture and language of Brazil, middle-America and Afro American culture. Thanks to Beyoncé, she reached worldwide stardom.
Details like that are one of Beyoncé’s greatest strengths. If you choose to see and hear her themes and messages in the songs and the way she performs them, you get to experience not only an artistic masterpiece but also one that has deep layers of history and politics. If you don’t see and hear her deeper themes, you will be carried away by her vocal performance and catchy songs that will make you feel good anyway. This is why she remains commercially so successful yet uses her powerful voice to speak up and educate.
The Renaissance World Tour really is a mix of old and new, taking the celebration of marginalised groups, from the queer community to black culture, to the next level. A clear thread of the Renaissance album carries through, taking the audience into an outer space experience. Simultaneously, she excites the crowd with fan favourites such as I Care, Love on Top, Get me Bodied, Crazy in Love, Diva, or Formation.
I had the privilege to not only see the Renaissance World Tour once, but twice. My best friend surprised me with tickets for Beyoncé’s first night in London. We were in the middle of the stadium. It felt like celebrating with all of London and Beyoncé. It was the most spectacular show. Also, by not standing too close, we were able to take in all the visuals, the light shows, and the performance as a whole. It was truly breathtaking.
One aspect that is best enjoyed from afar, as it takes up the entirety of the stage and the screens, is the performance of her new song, America has a Problem. Before the song commences, visuals of prior music videos appear where gun violence and structural racism are addressed. These are mixed with images of Beyoncé. They are moments of stardom when she broke the internet either by posts, announcements, or performances that went viral. For example, she revealed via an Instagram post that she had given birth to her twins Rumi and Sir, which became the most liked image on Instagram. Another one was by dropping her self-titled album Beyoncé in December 2013 overnight, breaking the music industry, or her Superbowl performance where she simply dropped her new song Formation, sending a political and artistic message to over half a billion people watching live.
Then, as a final criticism of America, the flag of the United States of America appears on both screens, made out of guns. Afterwards, one phrase appears: Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.
This is most likely Beyoncé’s most brilliant visual message during the show. It is also the most ambiguous one. On the one hand, she shows the audience what’s wrong with America and the world and how news and information can be twisted and warped into a reality that harms people. On the other hand, she clearly shows how she has been a master of controlling her narrative to become the most celebrated woman of the 21st century.
The visuals end, and Beyoncé appears in a bee costume looking like a news agent, commencing her song America has a problem, which by this point, no one can deny. Seeing this from afar, as a whole, was a breathtaking and jaw dropping moment in London.
In Cologne, I got to see Beyoncé for the second time. This time I was closer to the stage with a platinum seat ticket. For the opening, she wore a dress that was even more beautiful than her azure blue one in London. She wore a pearl body suit, which made her appear like a mermaid. This outfit was also, of course, a reference to the lyrics of some of her new songs: I got pearls beneath my legs, my lips, my hands, my hips… I’m too classy for this world, forever I’m that girl, feed you diamonds and pearls, ooh, baby, I’m too classy to be touched… I’m stingy with that love.
These lyrics are from her new song Alien Superstar, and she also refers with this outfit to her beautiful song Brown Skin Girl, where she sings together with her daughter: Brown Skin Girl, your skin just like pearls, the best thing in the world, never trade you for anybody else. Here, she is in particular celebrating the beauty of Black and Brown women and their dark skin, who have been usually ignored or graded less beautiful by western society.
While, overall, the sound quality of the London performance was better because the stadium is only two years old and therefore has the best technology, live, in Cologne, I could make out a difference, especially regarding her Tina Turner Tribute. Her vocal performance of River Deep Mountain High was better than in London, but that might be because she had more time to practise the song.
Beyoncé only performed the tribute song once in Paris before she went straight to London. So even a Queen like Beyoncé gets to learn and become better. It was lovely to see how her performance of River Deep Mountain High was more nuanced and vocally grander in Cologne after more than two weeks of rehearsing it more often.
The rest of the show in Cologne was as breathtaking as it was in London. While different outfits surprised fans and made every performance visually more intriguing, it really is, in total, a complete masterpiece, bringing together the best of Beyoncé’s past and latest songs.
And as this world tour stands as an example of Beyoncé being the greatest performer on the planet, especially during this tour, something more, something deeper, comes through the show and gives it even more meaning than it already has. It’s not only music and history that Beyoncé celebrates, but also a legacy.
Just taking a closer look, even before the show starts, Beyoncé makes it clear that she stands with the LGBTQ+ community. On the huge screens on the stage, the rainbow flag appears hours before the show begins. It is not only the rainbow colours, though. The colours of the trans flag shine bright next to the colours of the rainbow. It is a special testimony by Beyoncé, as especially trans people in the states have battled very hard over the last years to keep and gain more rights, unfortunately, some of them were lost recently.
Next to the rainbow and trans colours, black and brown are there too. They have been added to the pride flag since the Black Lives Matter Movement and also grace the screens on the stage before the show begins. All these colours together speak of a shared and somewhat united history of minorities who have shaped and influenced the world of art in ways that no other minorities have. Black people, people of colour, and the queer community have set trends and created masterworks in every field of the arts, but especially in music, over the last one hundred years. The colours seen on the stage speak for themselves. They are a legacy not to be forgotten and are going to shape the path of music for the future.
Beyoncé’s cousin, Uncle Johnny, is of course part of every song and outfit of the new album, and tour as well as her love for the recently deceased Tina Turner. However, there is one other person who gets a special place in the show. After Beyoncé performs Break My Soul there is a remix of Break My Soul and Madonna’s Vogue. Here, she draws a clear bridge between the culture and history of ballrooms where the queer community performed voguing competitions, but she also gives special shoutouts to the queens that paved the way before her and the ones that are spreading love and the message of equality like Beyoncé herself does today.
She begins by singing: Queen Mother Madonna I love ya! Then she continues by rapping the names of all the other Queens: Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Betty Davis, Nina Simone, Betty Davis, Solange Knowles, Badu’, Lizzo, Kelly Rowl’, Lauryn Hill, Roberta Flack, Toni, Janet, Tierra Whack, Missy, Diana, Grace Jones, Aretha, Anita, Grace Jones, Helen Folasa Adu, Jilly from Philly, I love you boo,… Then she continues: Michelle, Chloe, Halle, Aaliyah, Alice, Whitney, Riri, Nicki.
It really is a blend of praising women who have paved the way for Beyoncé. She also lists the names of contemporary singers, some of whom she has worked closely with, such as Kelly Rowland, Nicki Minaj, or Alicia Keys.
Besides, she mentions the names of younger artists, her protegees Chloe and Halle. Beyoncé has nurtured their talent and took them with her on her Formation World Tour in 2016, when they performed as a duet as a warmup group.
Since then, the two sisters have both focused on their individual careers. Chloe focuses on singing and is currently on an American tour, whereas Halle follows her passion for acting. She reached stardom this year when she portrayed the little mermaid Arielle in Disney’s new live-action film.
Both women praise Beyoncé for supporting them whenever they needed help with struggles in their careers or other things when it came to singing or performing. They regard her as a mother, and Beyoncé talks about them with fondness, saying that she takes so much joy in nurturing young talents and opening up doors for them she had to open by herself or simply, kick in.
Clearly, Beyoncé creates a legacy for black artists to have it easier in an industry that marginalises Black people and people of colour frequently. At the same time, Beyoncé is on a level unparalleled to any other artist of her generation, creating music and giving performances that stand out and shine above all others.
She also focuses on her very own legacy, and one part of the Renaissance World Tour is very personal and precious. It is during the performance of the song My Power, that her oldest daughter, Blue Ivy, rises to the stage and dances together with her mother. It is especially the lyrics that underline this important moment of legacy. It all feels like coming full circle. The song My Power becomes Beyoncé’s and Blue Ivy’s power when Beyoncé sings: This that rhythm, this that lightning, this that burn, this ain’t no perm, this that nappy, this that herb, this that kinfolk, this that skinfolk, this that war, this that bloodline, on the frontline, ready for war!
The message couldn’t be clearer. Beyoncé is here, in all her power and beauty. She stands here with her daughter, both dancing to the rhythm and lyrics of My Power.
The Renaissance World Tour is so much more than the promotion of her latest album. It is, as she said, a celebration to escape the horrors of the last few years. At the same time, the show is a testimony to all the great people of the past who have paved the way for an artist like Beyoncé to be herself and perform the way she wants to. The tour celebrates Black culture, queer culture, and their histories and looks forward into an uncertain future, yet is full of hope, full of power, and energy, ready to go to war, and to fight for rights, but above all, shows the haters that without all the diversity of these communities, there wouldn’t be any culture or art.
Beyoncé manages to bring together all these aspects into a seemingly smooth two- and-a-half-hour show, accompanied by breathtaking visuals, stunning outfits, and, of course, her wonderful voice that captures the imagination of millions of people and brings joy to fans all around the globe.
This is a celebration of life and everything there is to come. Because don’t forget, she is just getting started. The Renaissance album is the first one of a trilogy. This is only the beginning and truly stands as a rebirth. As Beyoncé says in the beginning of the show: Welcome to the Renaissance!
Fabian's Writing 
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