Beyoncé at Nissan Stadium
In a silver-sequined sea of light-up cowboy hats, face paint and chainmail tops, the lights at Nissan Stadium went down Saturday night and “Nashville, I love you” came oozing over the speakers as R&B star Beyoncé rose up on a platform in the middle of the stage. Wearing a red-sequined dress that appears to be new to the Renaissance World Tour, she serenaded the crowd with the opening of “Dangerously in Love.” “I love you, I love you, I love you,” she sang. There was no doubt the feeling was mutual.
More than 50,000 of us had been eagerly waiting for the Queen to return to Music City — since at least her 2018 stop with husband Jay-Z, or else since the Formation World Tour came in 2016. And here she was in the flesh, greeting us with an emphatic “Hello!,” thanking us for getting dressed up and for our loyalty, reading our handmade signs. (Happy birthday, Tyrese!) A storm rolled through Nashville as the gates opened in the afternoon; by showtime, the weather was clear, but the threat of a 10 p.m. storm still lingered. Beyoncé instructed, “If it rains, we’re going to dance in that damn rain.”
Who could possibly open for Beyoncé? Why, the Queen herself, of course. The two-and-a-half-hour show began with 25 minutes of older hits like “Flaws and All,” “1+1” and “I Care,” finishing with “River Deep, Mountain High,” a tribute to the late, great Tina Turner. As the set ended, Beyoncé left the stage for the first of many costume changes. Her outfits are well-known, and so are many members of her impressive roster of dancers: Laurent and Larry Bourgeois — French twin brothers also known as Les Twins, to whom Bey referred at one point as her “first set of twins” — thrilled the crowd, as did Honey Balenciaga and Darius Hickman, two other dancers I was excited to see live.
While we waited, the enormous screen showed a full-body image of Beyoncé, curled almost in a fetal position. Starting at her toes and working upward, the on-screen Bey slowly morphed into an otherworldly silver-coated being. The portion of the show focused on her Grammy-winning 2022 LP Renaissance began with album opener “I’m That Girl”: “Please, motherfuckers ain’t stoppin’ me,” came the sample of the late Princess Loko from the P.A., as Bey returned to the stage in a silver Balmain bodysuit.
Beyoncé at Nissan Stadium
Highlights piled upon highlights, with more stunning costumes than you could shake a designer stick at. In a neon pink Ivy Park original, Beyoncé sang “Cuff It.” Having reached a point in my life at which I openly weep at concerts, I cried all the way through my favorite song from this album. After months of watching “Cuff It” challenge videos, here she was, in person, singing to the thousands of people sharing this experience. After donning a camo bodysuit and the wide-brimmed hat from the “Formation” music video, Bey sang crowd favorites “Formation” and “Run the World (Girls),” left again and returned riding a tank. You may think the tank portion is not the sexiest part of the show, but you are wrong. Perched atop the six-wheeled beast on a three-legged stool and, whenever the vehicle moved, holding onto a pole attached to it, she sang her part of the remix of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” and her own “Partition.” During the second song, she danced on the pole as the tank rolled off the stage, through an aperture in the screen on which was projected an animation of her open, metallic legs.
She put a spotlight on her backup singers, leaving the stage while they covered Diana Ross’ “Love Hangover.” Upon her return — decked out in my favorite of the Renaissance Tour outfits, a custom Loewe catsuit with trompe l’oeil hands and matching rubber opera gloves — she asked “Do we have any Virgos?” before launching into “Virgo’s Groove.” I’m a Taurus, but I’m pretty sure I yelled along with all the Virgos. “Heated” was everything I hoped it would be — singing, yelling, ridiculously large hand fans — followed by the dancers having a vogue-style dance-off culminating in a fantastic solo by Honey Balenciaga.
Beyoncé at Nissan Stadium
One of the most poignant performances was “Black Parade,” a song celebrating Blackness that Beyoncé released on Juneteenth 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. At the end, she held her fist in the air; her dancers followed, and pretty soon most of the stadium joined in. Later, I spoke with writer, trans advocate and fellow showgoer Olivia Blake; the symbolism of the fist resonated with her, too, as she pointed out, “This concert was the epitome of everything the Tennessee GOP is trying to erase: Blackness and queerness.”
Beyoncé at Nissan Stadium
After delivering her Kendrick Lamar collab “America Has a Problem” from behind a faux news desk, Bey sang “Pure/Honey” and vanished for a final costume change. She returned wearing her iconic silver Valentino dress with matching thigh-high boots, riding the disco-ball horse from the Renaissance album cover. “I want you to remember this night for five, 10, 15, 20 years,” she said as cables flew her and her sky horse over the stage and she sang the final song of the night, “Summer Renaissance.”
At the end of the stage, the cables lifted her off the horse and over the crowd nearby. All the while, silver confetti rained down, and she said “I love you, I love you,” as if she knew this was the exact refrain we needed to keep in mind once the show was just a memory. Beyoncé: 2. My tear ducts: 0.
