Another Minute, Another few early highlights from Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour opener in Stockholm, Sweden, today, May 10. This time, dancing robot arms and brilliant era-bending mash-ups.
During her performance of “Cozy,” Beyoncé showed off some of the tour’s outrageous and elaborate stagecraft and props. This bit involved two swinging robot arms outfitted with two big rectangles that perfectly framed and moved with Beyoncé as she sauntered through the Renaissance highlight.
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Later, the robot arms were used again to wild effect, scanning Beyoncé’s white cape with a light that caused a stunning stained glass print to appear. Fittingly, Beyoncé then launched into “Church Girl.”
Elsewhere in the show — which opened with the first live performance of “Dangerously In Love” in over a decade — Beyoncé delivered a clever mash-up of some old and new favorites. She started to perform “Sweet Dreams” from 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce. But as the song’s guttural bass synth swelled, Bey deftly switched up the lyrics and began to sing the hook from “Alien Superstar” off Renaissance: “I’m too classy for this world/Forever I’m that girl.”
ALIEN SUPERSTAR X SWEET DREAMS IM FINNA EXPLODE BITCH #RENAISSANCEtour pic.twitter.com/7xcSJQxuZM
— Tyler Carey SAW BEYONCÉ 7/17/23!!!! (@mimiscataIog) May 10, 2023
This is not the only mash-up/medley in the setlist thus far. Earlier in the performance, Beyoncé combined her four-ballad “1+1” with two R&B classics: Mary J. Blige’s “I’m Goin’ Down” and Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.” (In the 2008 film Cadillac Records, Beyoncé played James and recorded her own version of “I’d Rather Go Blind.”)
The Renaissance tour will continue in Europe in May and June. Beyoncé’s North American tour will begin on July 8 in Toronto and will conclude on September 27 in New Orleans.
Beyoncé released Renaissance last July, marking her seventh studio album and first proper LP of all new solo material since 2016’s Lemonade. (In the interim, she did, of course, release Everything Is Love with Jay-Z and her live album Homecoming while also spearheading the soundtrack for the live-action remake of The Lion King.) Beyoncé won four Grammys for Renaissance earlier this year, making her the most decorated Grammy winner of all time — though she was controversially excluded from the three major categories of Record, Song, and Album of the Year.
