Do you know who has it all? Beyonce has it all!
For a while it was just awkward, Beyonce was that girl from the defunct girl group who just couldn’t find her way as an actress. Breaking into the mainstream with largely non-spoken roles, she fought her way to what was ostensibly the top. Remember a little movie called Dreamgirls? Remember the teaser trailer at the Tony Awards?
Beyonce was credited as a lead, and by all accounts from the initial audience test screenings before the official opening, the camera stuck to Ms Knowles’ face like it had nowhere else to turn! But curses and crumbs, the preview cards handed in were all about JHud – and Bey’s scenes got left on the cutting room floor. This included a supposedly ferocious moment involving Deena Jones and a young kid fronting a group called the Campbell Connection who was such an obvious MJ rip off it hurt! Geddit?! Diana Ross and Michael Jackson?
Well here’s what it looked like…
Moving on!
Dreamgirls flops – or good enough for a musical. It didn’t become a legendary worldwide phenomenon so now we can all think of it as a flop (Les Mis has gone that way too – don’t deny it!). Beyonce then stumbled about between Etta James impersonations and downright BAD suspense thrillers. Then finally love hit our girl and she married Jay Z.
Now in Oz, it is easy to forget how removed we are from the world of Hip and Hop. But Jay is big news over in the states and has the bank roll to prove it. I’d sooner stick pencils through my eardrums than listen to any of his music, but what do I care? This is a Beyonce article!
Pop success has stalked Bey from a very young age. If it seems like only yesterday she was busy out-singing everyone else in Destiny’s Child (#PoorMichelle) that’s because it was! She’s only thirty-two and by all accounts at the height of her power.
Right now her Mrs Carter’s World Tour is packing them in at every port of call – and Bey is getting rave reviews for her singing, her showmanship and the spectacle her concert provides. It’s a fan fan fan fan’s world for our self titled Queen Bey as she struts her stuff on the stage and that applause keeps coming.
Well lucky for y’all (to slip in some Bey vernacular) I got to see the third of Mrs Carter’s Sydney shows. So to those of you wondering as I was when I bought my ticket just how Beyonce is live: lets deconstruct!
The Beyonce show is not just A spectacle it’s THE spectacle! An unparallelled lighting show complete with extensive pyrotechnics – the stage literally catches fire! – illuminates a dual stage set up in a customarily sold out arena as you are treated to a long line of incredible music video-esque presentations on a giant screen that moves almost as much as the star does. Kelly Rowland to Beyonce lets say (#PoorMichelle).
Beyonce’s reveal is epic! No ifs. No buts. Just epic. And then she goes on to present a greatest hits set list that is well considered, well constructed and brilliantly presented by a shit hot band and the fiercest mob of dancers that ever never toured with Madonna. Bey herself dances up a storm and never once is the audience not in the palm of her hand. It’s like what a Judy Garland concert must have been like. Sheer hysteria from the Bey-loved.
Vocally is where I draw the line at being all gay over the Queen of Pop. Beyonce has one of the best voices going in today’s world of pop music. In an industry where JHud is too R&B to be mainstream and Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift are credible chart threats, Beyonce is a blessing! Her vocals combine range, power and skill. Her voice is dexterous and sweet with tone! Oh such tone! Mixed up together with her dancers dancer moves and her incredible stage spectacular – is it any wonder it raised the roof!
Now if she’d actually been singing at the time I would be a happy camper today!
Bey is known to lip-sync to “live performance” tracks. And to her credit – the way she does it is tight! Spoken intros lead flawlessly into songs virtually entirely lip-synced with a live spoken proclamation or a flyaway melisma just to keep it real yo! But by my count three songs were performed live in their totality.
There’s a lot of arguments about lip-syncing and why there really is no choice these days. Pop songs however simple can still be a huge vocal challenge – and this is Beyonce! Imagine “Love On Top” four nights in a row as you schlepp around the world in costumes so tight you can hardly breathe in them anyway…
In answer to this firm and inarguable HELL NO!!! I offer a three word defense: Tina Turner Bitches.
See I’m old fashioned when it comes to pop divas. I like them on a big stage with an orchestra in a series of big dresses, lots of hair and lots of make up. I don’t really care if I can see your bootay – optional extra – so long as I can hear your voice blow the roof off! You can keep your chore for the solo break – get your vocal on bitch or I am just not on the bus!
At this stage can we just admit that Generation X has killed live performance?
No not Gen Y… Gen X!
Face it guys and gals – the kids these days may not know what live vocals sound like any more and can’t stand a concert unless it looks like an MTV music video – but you started it right! Now sit back ye buyers of early Madonna and Britney Spears and despair!
Beyonce is the sad culmination. The biggest vocalist since Whitney Houston and the biggest popstar since 80′s Madonna. She doesn’t need to lip-sync. But if it means your show can be higher octane and drag in that younger demographic and keep them off their iPhone for a solid ninety minutes – well unless they’re taking a good vid for YouTube later! – then live vocals are the first to go!
And as fearsome as Beyonce is on stage… she didn’t have that one thing all good divas have after a sell-out standing ovation show: afterglow!
Her smile looked more a part of her costume than anything else while her audience interaction was kept strictly to the VIP sections. At one point she held the hand of one lucky disciple of Queen Beysus while looking straight out into the auditorium, before shaking it off and strutting away. Her visit to the stage in the middle of the crowd was accompanied by a statement that she was “so happy to be closer to y’all”. After which she sang (and she did actually sing!) “Irreplaceable”.
Even so, her crowd interaction lacked one thing that would have made me buy it – warmth. The Queen arrived. Put on her circus and threw about some bread. The populace satisfied, she announced to us all that we would remember being at this concert in twenty years time – and left without so much as an encore.
She was tired – she’d just sung through three songs.
Beyonce has it all – she just doesn’t want to share! But you better follow along with this show. There’s not a single popstar in the world right now under 40 who can match her!
Whoa – uh – ohhhh.
Diva Knows Best
Xoxox