The clouds that covered the mountain of Montjuïc on Thursday mixed with those that were drawn on the immense screen on the stage of the Olympic Stadium, a heavenly environment to receive a goddess like Beyoncé, who appeared as a diva to finish riding in on a luminous horse. Welcome to the Renaissance tour.
Five years have passed since his last visit to Barcelona. It was before the pandemic that the Texan devoted herself to conjuminating Renaissance, an album presented last night in Barcelona in front of the 53,000 people who filled the venue at 8.30 pm, when, half an hour late, the concert still began in broad daylight
An immense high-definition screen occupied the entire width of the stage several stories high, perforated in the center with a perfect circle acting as an entrance and exit door, through which Beyoncé and the twenty dancers moved and dancers who accompanied her throughout the show. With this megalomaniacal frame, Queen Bey jumped on the floor wearing a long and shiny dress to develop a performance of almost three hours that confirms her as the diva of the moment, an emotional tribute to disco music, to its roots in black culture and the ties that bind it to the LGBTI community.
“Barcelona, ​​I love you”, she said as soon as she jumped the stage to perform Dangerously in love in front of the audience, a constant throughout the concert, which surprised the diva. This was followed by a string of ballads ( Flaws and all , 1 1 sitting on the piano, I care ) played on the piano for Miss Carter to show off her beautiful and powerful voice in front of an audience that chanted the lyrics and applauded each display more vocal of the artist, who performed River deep- Mountain high, by Tina Turner to close this calmer phase.
It was the first link of a continuous crescendo that ended with the stage transformed into a dance floor to the rhythm of Renaissance themes, which sounded almost entirely within a repertoire made up of 34 themes, almost the same as Grammy (32) has the artist.
The sets were divided into several parts, each of them interrupted by a few minutes of spectacular video sequences to give time for all the necessary changes. The first of these opened the door to a colorful industrial setting for the first wave of new tracks. Wellcome to the Renaissance, Beyoncé appeared, dressed as a cyber queen and surrounded by dancers to perform six songs from the new album, starting with I’m that girl, which gave rise to the first of many elaborate choreographies. This was followed by the loudly acclaimed funky Cozy, to continue with Alien superstar and Lift off, after which the mezzo-soprano disappeared again.
Cuff it reopened chapter under the slogan “Let there be house”, followed by Energy, where Beyoncé made the audience vibrate by shaking her hips to continue with Break my soul, with which she paraded on the secondary stage in the middle of the track, raising the pulses even higher. Another change, and it’s the turn of the red inferno to attack Formation, the only track from the acclaimed Lemonade of 2016 included in the tour, followed by another round of previous works such as Diva or Black parade, not forgetting the gift to the audience of Run the world (girls), which got everyone dancing, including Beyoncé’s daughter, who took the stage. Her mother accompanied her up in a kind of seventies space vehicle on which she played Black parade and Savage.
For Church girl, from the new album, the night had already made an appearance and the stage drew gothic ogival arches that disappeared giving way to an abbreviated and celebrated Get me bodied / Before I let go, shining voice, and the soul of Rather die young and Love on top, which left an audience who knew it in its entirety sing along.
Although to the satisfaction of the audience when they heard Crazy in love culminated solo by the band accompanying Beyoncé: two keyboards, drums, bass guitar, three winds and four female voices. Seu was the next intermission (the 7th) during which a huge disco ball was placed on the stage to announce what was to come.
Aware of her divine status, Beyoncé came out of a huge shell like Botticelli’s Venus playing the mellow Plastic off the sofa, to start the second and final round of Renaissance songs (Naughty girl was one of the first hits of the solo artist). The tribute to disco continued with Virgo’s Groove, the sensual rhythm of Move (wearing a suggestive golden frog) and Heated, a new step on the dance floor before the final interlude. The gig seemed to be winding down, but the ex-Destiny’s Child frontman returned behind an announce table to rap America has a problem, followed by Pure/Honey, and finished the job by flying over the stage on a silver horse, with disco glitter, while Summer renaissance played, with samples of I feel love by Donna Summer as the final curtain of a show devoted to dance and freedom.
