Beyonce and Jay-Z sweet on On The Run Tour

CARDIFF, Wales, a city first settled by the Romans in 55 AD, claims to be home to the highest per-capita concentration of castles (and also, incidentally, indoor Victorian shopping arcades) in the world. Perhaps it’s fitting then that on the first Wednesday in June it hosted royalty, becoming ground zero for the global launch of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II tour. By 3 p.m., the pubs and sidewalk cafes surrounding Principality Stadium spilled over with fans downing al fresco pints and Zinfandels and swaying to a booming, Bey-adjacent soundtrack (Rihanna, Ciara, Dawn Penn). By 7, the flower-crowned, bedazzled, and already drunk began to pour through the venue doors; at approximately 8:30, the house lights went up.

As Nina Simone’s “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” echoed through the speakers, artfully composed videos of the couple flashed onscreen, superimposed with a stark title card: The Gangster & the Queen. Moments later the evening’s entertainment emerged, respectively, in a shimmering diamanté blazer and bodysuit and a loosely tailored suit in blinding Miami Vice white, as they launched without preamble into “Holy Grail” from Jay Z’s Magna Carta, with its “Smells Like Teen Spirit” refrain and Beyoncé in the temporary role of hook boy Justin Timberlake.

“Part II (On the Run)” and “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” pivoted to the signature snake-charmer prelude of “Drunk in Love,” while acrobatic dancers stacked in a sort of massive living-room cabinet posed backlit in dramatic Fosse tableaux, “Cell Block Tango”-style. The tease of “Irreplaceable” segued quickly into “Diva,” its digitized, gleefully bratty chorus paired with fitting images (Michael B. Jordan’s Black Panther villain, vintage Janet Jackson and Diddy).

“Clique” was the first of several solo tracks in which Jay took on both his own verses and those of his Watch the Throne partner and erstwhile frenemy Kanye. Soon, his other other half reemerged in a Gucci letterman’s sweater, suede thigh-high boots, and a glittering face mask best described as Hannibal Lecter couture, and together they traded off a cavalcade of singles: “***Flawless” and “Feeling Myself” for her, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” into “On to the Next One” for him. E Weekly