When Beyonce stunned the world with her visual album Lemonade
back in April, it proved to be her most strikingly personal and
political collection of music yet. Usually the mother of heartache on
her pop-centric balladry and empowering anthems, Queen Bey had always
positioned herself as the older sister with warm advice rather than the
scorned wife with vengeance in her veins.
But
her Formation World Tour - which arrived at Wembley Stadium last night
(July 2) - scraps everything you thought you knew about Beyoncé's back
catalogue. Yes, artists have always re-contextualised their songs to fit
the current narrative of their latest piece, but the positioning of
Bey's older material during this tour
unlocked a whole layer that's been
dormant under the polished production for years.
This happens time and time
again throughout the Formation world tour. Beyoncé ferociously growls
through super-charged Jack White collaboration 'Don't Hurt Yourself', before linking it with the "I'll be damned if I see another chick on your arm" bite of 'Ring The Alarm'. The politically fired and fantastic 'Freedom' places the Black Lives Matter movement centre stage, pulling in Destiny's Child's classic hit 'Survivor' for an empowering conclusion.
It happens amongst a backdrop of carefully curated visuals from her latest album Lemonade,
interspersed with home videos of her husband and her daughter Blue Ivy.
The Kardashians have an E! reality show to give an insight to their
tumultuous lifestyle, but Queen Bey can sell out a world tour and
package it into an art piece to be projected onto a giant rotating
HD-screened monolith to tell her story.
Of
course, none of this smart narrative would work unless its performer did
it justice. It helps, then, that Beyoncé can flip between magisterial
pop goddess to approachable icon within the flick of her hair or the
break of a smile. There's such a rich authority to every movement she
makes, every note she sings and every glance across the stadium, it's
difficult to not be caught up in the awe of it all.
Her often formidable and fearsome choreography throughout numbers like 'Run The World (Girls)', 'Bow Down' and 'End Of Time' is powerful and mesmerising, but is then offset by the tenderness of '1+1', 'Me, Myself and I' and 'Runnin (Lose It All)'.
Beyoncé's dynamic ability to be both vigorous and vulnerable can't be
matched by her contemporaries. In fact, we'd go as far to say she's
effortlessly proven herself to be this generation's Michael Jackson.
It's
fitting, then, that she honours the late King of Pop, referencing his
own massive shows at Wembley Stadium. "I started singing a very, very
long time ago," Bey told the crowd. "The first concert I ever saw was
Michael Jackson. And I started dreaming that one day, I'll be in
stadiums. All the way in London."
And all the way in London, the crowd was fully on side and willing to fulfil that dream. Enough so that 80,000 fans sang 'Love On Top' in
unison as Beyoncé ad libbed a capella over the soulful number. It was a
stunning moment amongst the high energy set, and one which showcased
the sheer might of Beyoncé's following from starting as a Destiny's
Child band member 19 years ago, to a superstar who will go down as one
of the greats.
The Formation World Tour was
not only named after its incredible opening number (causing thousands to
proclaim "I slay!"), but showcases the fascinating evolution of
Beyoncé, the person and performer we know today. Classic and new tracks
alike are brought together for one of the most cohesive and insightful
shows of her career to date. Beyonce may have retired her alter-ego
Sasha some years ago now, but the Fierce very much remains.
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