Review: On her way to making history here, Beyoncé fills Bank of America Stadium with love
At 8:54 p.m. on Wednesday — officially almost an hour late but, truth be told, perhaps a bit earlier than some of us might have predicted — Beyoncé’s voice boomed out of the speakers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, forming five spoken words that were music to tens of thousands of sets of ears.
“North Carolina!” the 41-year-old megastar said excitedly, pausing after those two to wait for 10 seconds of screaming to subside as she rose up from underneath the stage while saying these three, before continuing:
“I love you.”
That initiated yet more screaming, followed by a whole lot more where that came from upon fans getting a good look at her wearing the first of seven different costumes that each almost certainly cost more than your house — in this case, a low-cut black bodysuit with a matching silk taffeta, matching gloves, and dazzling earrings that spilled down the sides of her neck like tiny waterfalls.
At that point she probably could have changed her tune and started singing “I hate you” over and over again and still have sent the Beyhive into a breathless state of ecstasy.
But no, love was in the air to start the Charlotte edition of her “Renaissance World Tour,” and Queen Bey’s choice to kick things off with “Dangerously in Love” — the ballad that bridged her transition from ’90s girl group Destiny’s Child to her solo career — was designed to keep it there.
“I love youuuuUUUuuu / I loOOoove you-ou-ou-OU-ou / I love you-oo-ooooo,” Beyoncé crooned over her pianist’s gentle chords.
If it wasn’t yet obvious that the feeling was mutual, the sellout crowd made it known during the kickoff song’s climax. After the singer let rip another string of “I love you’s,” fans spent 25 seconds showering her with thunderous applause as she just stood there smiling. Then Ms. Carter returned the favor by giving a masterclass in melisma, stretching out the final utterance of the words “dangerously in love” over the course of nearly a minute.
“Thank you so much. Y’all look so beautiful. I wanna thank y’all for being here. Thank y’all for getting all dressed up,” Beyoncé said, surely noting the preponderance of platinum cowboy hats, leather, fishnet, corsets, chaps, chest cleavage, butt cleavage, bodysuits, body glitter and sequins. Oh, so many sequins.
“I want y’all to know that this is my gratitude tour. After 25 years, I’m still able to do what I love to do —” and here whatever she said next was drowned out by screams and cheers. But this part was crystal-clear: “Thank you for loving me.”
It went on like this all night, this back and forth, Beyoncé loving on the crowd, the crowd loving on Beyoncé.
Which, sure, sounds like how you could sum up any big concert as it pertains to the relationship between singer and audience. Except this one just hit differently — perhaps because ... well, I mean, she’s Beyoncé.
And perhaps because she was in the process of making history in Charlotte.
No female artist had ever before headlined a standalone concert at Bank of America Stadium (i.e. a concert not associated with a Carolina Panthers football game, e.g. as a halftime show). Furthermore, no Black artist had ever before headlined a standalone concert at BofA Stadium.
Since the pandemic, and since the Panthers’ renewed interest in staging stadium concert tours, the venue has hosted a parade of A-listers including The Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Kenny Chesney, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Garth Brooks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John and Luke Combs. But it’s never hosted as many women or as many Black people at one time, for any event, as it did on Wednesday night.
Nor has it ever hosted as many Black queer people.
This, in fact, may be Beyoncé’s cleverest coup of all: She made an album (“Renaissance,” which has been out for a year now) that celebrated Black queerness and the dance clubs that spawned voguing. Then she built a tour around it that took NFL and college football stadiums — not exactly the first places you’d think of being safe spaces for Black queer folks — and turned them into safe places for Black queer folks.
But despite the very heavy focus on songs from “Renaissance” and that album’s evolved, progressive themes, Beyoncé’s Charlotte show still also aimed to be a broad crowd-pleaser.
She busted just about every dance move in her repertoire that her fans could have hoped she’d bust. She donned a stunning array of glittering boots, hats, jewelry and bodysuits (perhaps the most eye-popping of which, in Charlotte, was a gold-sequined number adorned with imprints of actual-sized black hands with red fingernails that were seductively placed around her chest and groin areas).
She sang heartfelt ballad “1+1” while sitting on a platinum-colored grand piano; her part of Megan Thee Stallion banger “Savage” from the top of a metallic armored tank; sweet and sexy love song “Plastic Off the Sofa” while lounging inside a giant clam shell lined with silver sequins; and show-closer “Summer Renaissance” while floating over the large circular catwalk on a disco-ball horse that is apparently named “Reneigh.”
There also seemed to be cameras everywhere — on tracks at the front of the stage, and on wires hovering over it, and in the hands of men constantly maneuvering to try to get a killer angle, even if that killer angle is from literally a foot and a half in front of her face.
Meanwhile, from the in-case-you-were-wondering file: Lizzo’s name indeed was included in the name-dropping portion of “Break My Soul,” in spite of her being accused of creating a hostile work environment by former dancers and being left off the list at a show earlier this month after that news broke. Eleven-year-old Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Bey and Jay-Z, showed up as she has in most but not all other cities to crush a series of dance moves during “My Power” and “Black Parade.” Beyoncé’s pregnant trumpet player, Crystal Rovél Torres, is still on the road and on stage even though her bump is getting pretty big.
Those were really the only things up in the air besides the start time, which has creeped later in other cities but mercifully came before 9 p.m. here. (The show ended at 11:24, although people began heading for the exits shortly after 11, and I have to spill that I saw former Charlotte Hornet Dell Curry sneak out with three songs to go.)
Now, if you forced me to come up with a criticism of the show, I’d say that I think most Beyoncé fans would have been more than happy to sacrifice a few of the “Renaissance” songs they least connect with if it meant they could have heard “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” or “Irreplaceable,” or “If I Were a Boy,” or especially “Halo” — the song she closed her last Charlotte show with in 2013, and the song she walked off with in Raleigh in 2016.
That said, it seems like Beyoncé has a loftier ambition when it comes to this particular tour. Like she knows she can always do the greatest hits later, but what needs to be done now are these particular songs.
These things might have even been exactly what was on her mind when, shortly before the end of the show, she smiled out at her fans and said this: “Thank you for being such an incredible, beautiful audience. ... I felt your energy. I feel your energy. And it feels so good.
“It’s such a beautiful night. I want y’all to remember this night. Remember where you’re standing. Remember what you’re wearing. Remember who you came here with. Remember how you feel. I hope you leave here inspired. I hope you feel safe. And I hope you feel love in your heart and you’re smiling everywhere you go.”
On this particular night, in this particular place, there was probably not a more appropriate way to say goodbye to this particular crowd.
Beyoncé’s setlist
1. “Dangerously in Love”
2. “Flaws and All”
3. “1+1”
4. “I’m Going Down”
5. “I Care”
6. “River Deep, Mountain High”
7. “I’m That Girl”
8. “Cozy”
9. “Alien Superstar”
10. “Lift Off”
11. “Cuff It”
12. “Energy”
13. “Break My Soul”
14. “Formation”
15. “Diva”
16. “Run the World (Girls)“
17. “My Power”
18. “Black Parade”
19. “Savage (Remix)“
20. “Partition”
21. “Church Girl”
22. “Get Me Bodied”
23. “Before I Let Go”
24. “Rather Die Young”
25. “Love on Top”
26. “Crazy in Love”
27. “Plastic Off the Sofa”
28. “Virgo’s Groove”
29. “Naughty Girl”
30. “Move”
31. “Heated”
32. “America Has a Problem”
33. “Pure/Honey”
34. “Summer Renaissance”
This story was originally published August 10, 2023 at 7:02 AM.
