Review: Beyoncé Brings Her Renaissance World Tour to the UK
Beyoncé proves she still runs the world with her Renaissance World Tour wowing UK audiences (this is your spoiler alert)
I didn’t think it was possible to love Beyoncé more than I did as a nine year old dancing in my bedroom to Crazy in Love when it was released in the summer of 2003 (I’m not even ashamed to admit this), but after seeing Queen Bey live for the first time in Cardiff on Wednesday 17th May, 2023, I was utterly in awe of her.
After queueing from 3pm to get a good spot for the Queen, we waited over four hours to be blown away by Beyoncé’s talent. Her set list is the perfect mix of elegant, sophisticated and fierce (after all she is Sasha Fierce).
The word ‘extra’ is thrown around a lot amongst millennials and Gen Z’ers but when I say her set was extra, this is no exaggeration. Bey ends her show with SUMMER RENAISSANCE by defying gravity on a horse covered in glitter and then is flown across the stadium like the goddess that she is. The production value of Bey's Renaissance really is a work of art to be marvelled at.
Not only was the show packed full of glitter, wind machines (for Bey’s hair), dance moves for days and vocals that would turn an angel sassy, it also featured several incredible costume changes. In the opening act, which included songs such as Dangerously in Love and Flaws and All, she wore a stunning white, floor-length sparkly ball gown with a slit up the leg and vintage-style silver gloves. For her song HEATED things quite literally got heated as she wore a skin-coloured bodysuit with black glove hands hiding her modesty, whilst for PURE/HONEY Bey becomes a Queen Bee with black goggles and a short black and yellow dress. I could write an essay about all of her outfit changes, but you really have to see them to believe them.
Read More: See Beyoncé's Cardiff Set List Here
Now, there were some big omissions from Bey's back catalogue that may have left some fans disappointed such as Single Ladies, If I Were a Boy and Halo but I felt like it wouldn't have fit in with the masterfully seamless staging of the Renaissance and I personally didn't miss those hits.
Beyoncé quite literally left me buzzing and I’ll be telling my future kids and grandkids about her show. It is one not to be missed and to quote the Queen herself in Bow Down: ‘I know when you were little girls you dreamt of being in my world…’ I really did and it was everything I dreamt of and more.
