Beyonce has opened her Formation world tour – without addressing the rumours of marital infidelity fuelled by her latest album.
Queen B came out swinging in Miami in an oversized black western hat and bodysuit, trading her normal stilettos for military-style combat boots. She closed the show with a song for Jay Z, saying: “I love you so much.”
The singer opened the show with Formation and then moved to her latest anthem Sorry, singing: “Tonight, I regret the night I put that ring on.”
Both songs were from Lemonade, which she released days earlier in an HBO special with full visuals. Much of the album appeared to tie into Beyonce’s life, and lines like “Are you cheating on me?” raised questions of whether her husband, Jay Z, had been unfaithful.
She also performed Rocket and Drunk In Love, then sang Me, Myself And I (“I’m going to be my own best friend”), before moving on to Single Ladies.
Beyonce said little about her new album and did not mention her husband – until the end, when she dedicated a song to her “beautiful husband”.
She did reveal that her favourite song was All Night, a slow number that starts, “I’ve found the truth beneath your lies.” There was no mention of the presumed other woman, the much-discussed “Becky with the good hair.”
Noticeably absent from the two-hour concert were the political undertones of her Super Bowl half-time show earlier this year, where Beyonce’s dancers donned berets, sported Afros and wore all black, similar to the style of the Black Panther Party.
Police unions urged officers not to volunteer or work at her shows and criticised what they called her “anti-police” messages.
But the police presence at the Miami show was apparently unaffected.
The performer also cast her stage in purple to honour Prince during a costume change while Purple Rain played, and dedicated her final number Halo to the late star as fireworks shot into the night sky.
“Prince, thank you for your beautiful music. … He’s an artist that inspired all of us,” she said.
A montage of Jay Z holding the couple’s newborn child in the hospital played as she sang.
Wednesday’s show also included a snippet from Jay’s grandmother’s 90th birthday telling the crowd she turned life’s lemons into lemonade.
She also gave a shout-out to her husband at the end: “I want to dedicate this song to my beautiful husband. I love you so much.”
- Sat, 9 Nov 2024
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