The Daily Telegraph

Power and passion crown dazzling night for the queen of pop

- By Charlotte Runcie

Beyoncé Stadium of Light, Sunderland ★★★★★

When it comes to sheer innovation, showmanshi­p and creativity in contempora­ry pop, Beyoncé has everyone else beaten. There’s a reason she’s so often called Queen B.

Beyoncé has been a full-time pop star since her teens, and it’s hard to believe that she’s still only 34. Her Formation world tour has now hit Europe with an opening night at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, complete with extensive fireworks, a giant revolving cube of projected visuals, and a crowd of 50,000.

Her sixth solo album, Lemonade, was a surprise release, appearing online in its entirety on the streaming service Tidal on April 23 this year.

Her latest music is a feat of intricate songwritin­g with a unique and intimately personal flavour, densely woven from references to other musicians and writers, and varied styles from New Orleans jazz to blues, funk and country. She seized headlines with the album’s seemingly explicit and furious references to infidelity.

Her husband, Jay-Z, also appeared in the project, along with some home videos and a cameo from the couple’s young daughter, Blue Ivy.

By incorporat­ing personal material with the history and contempora­ry reality of black people’s suffering in America, as well as insistent allusions to creative work by black artists, particular­ly women, Lemonade and Beyoncé’s live performanc­es are together evolving into a glittering and mighty manifesto for black women. Meanwhile, Beyoncé may be the biggest pop star on the planet, but – as they (almost) say about superstar footballer­s – could she do it on a cold, wet Tuesday night in Sunderland?

She opened with Formation, one of her newest songs but already a hellraisin­g, foot-stomping crowdpleas­er. She performed the songs from

Lemonade with real fire and passion, flitting seamlessly between them and hits from her back catalogue to create an evening that was as much about empowering her female audience (“If you are a woman, you are born strong”, she said to the crowd) as it was about entertainm­ent. She also alluded to those cheating rumours: “Have you ever had your heart broken? I have.”

While some stadium-rock acts go all-out for visual and audio effects to fill the space, Beyoncé was at her most spellbindi­ng when all the backing tracks were turned off and the live band stayed quiet for her a cappella version of 1+1, with yelping high notes and ever-ascending key changes.

Her more choreograp­hed and adorned performanc­es of the big numbers, including boisterous country song Daddy Lessons and old favourites from Bootylicio­us to the love anthem Halo, proved that Beyoncé’s voice is as strong as ever, and that she’s at least as accomplish­ed a dancer as she is a singer.

And if the enormous, echoing stadium wasn’t always the best setting for her whip-smart and snappy vocal ornamentat­ion, it was emphatical­ly a stunning demonstrat­ion of her enormous following, and the power of her music.

On the strength of this performanc­e, nobody would deny her the pop throne.

Tour details: beyonce.com/tour

 ??  ?? Beyoncé mixed the personal and political with virtuoso vocal displays
Beyoncé mixed the personal and political with virtuoso vocal displays

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