Beyoncé launches Renaissance tour with 37-song set list, dazzling costumes

For the record:
11:27 a.m. May 15, 2023: A previous version of this story said that Beyoncé would be perfoming at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 2 and 3. She will be performing at the Inglewood venue on Sept. 1, 2 and 4.

So excited, so exotic — Beyoncé's a seasoned professional — and her Renaissance tour cycle is officially upon us.

Queen Bey kicked off her global tour Wednesday at the Friends Arena in Stockholm with the first of 57 sold-out shows. Tens of thousands of fans converged there to see the most-decorated Grammy Award winner in history perform during her first tour in more than six years.

The “Break My Soul” hitmaker brought the crowds, the dance music, enormous set pieces and the crystals, cowboy boots and sparkling bodysuits during the three-hour-long show, which featured a whopping 37-song set spanning her two-decade career.

Bey kicked off her ambitious set with her 2003 solo-album title track “Dangerously in Love,” moved through the 2011 female empowerment anthem “Run the World (Girls)," as well as every one of the 16 tracks from her latest album, "Renaissance," including "Cuff It," "Break My Soul," "Church Girl" and "Alien Superstar." She closed the show with "Pure/Honey" and "Summer Renaissance," according to the Associated Press and Billboard.

"Renaissance is a monster blockbuster concert experience on a different plane," the Guardian said in its review. "Dripping with sci-fi disco decadence, sex, body positivity and feminine Black pride, the near three-hour spectacular plays out in front, behind and, at times, inside a football-pitch-wide high-definition video screen designed to assault the senses at dizzying scale."

"Fans who had complained in recent months about the lack of music videos for 'Renaissance' hits were in for a treat Wednesday as video projections and animations took center stage," the AP reported. "The rapid succession of costume changes and decor shifts was baffling. The singer played on interactions between a digital and physical world where robotic devices make space for weird silver moon rovers or an inflatable horse. Even Queen Bey herself morphs into a cybernetic character. Seems confusing? It was."

The New York Times described it as a spectacle that was "part retrofuturism and part disco fantasia."

The first night also included Bey thanking fans for coming to see her, as well as dancing robot arms and nods to Mary J. Blige's "I'm Goin' Down," Britney Spears' "Toxic", husband Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Lift Off" and a remix of Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage." She also paid tribute to her Destiny's Child roots and worked in music from her other hit albums, "Beyoncé," "B'Day," I Am… Sasha Fierce," "Lemonade" and "Lion King: The Gift."

The 41-year-old performer also had nine costume changes, in what Vogue dubbed "club-ready couture creations." The perennial showgirl's custom looks, all styled by Shiona Turini, included a UV-color-changing dress by Anrealage, a bejeweled Loewe bodysuit, an Alexander Wang bodysuit, a custom Coperni, a Balmain pearled corset inspired by her collaboration with designer Olivier Rousteing that debuted earlier this year, and a holographic dress created by London-based designer David Koma.

While fans largely ate up the performance, some were convinced that the singer was injured during the concert because she wasn't delivering many of her signature dance moves. The Daily Mail reported that she opened the show with a series of ballads and was taking more breaks throughout, leading some to believe that she was recovering from a rumored foot injury. Four months ago, speculation surfaced about Bey having a secret foot surgery following her performance in Dubai at the opening of Atlantis the Royal — her first concert since 2018.

The New York Times also noticed her subdued moves: "[F]or one of pop’s ultimate dancing queens, Beyoncé’s performance was far less physical than on past tours. She often seemed to keep her feet stationary while shaking her upper body, and appeared to favor one leg. She spent much of one song sitting atop a prop." Her reps did not comment on the performance.

Beyoncé is set to take the stage again Thursday in Stockholm before heading to Brussels and Cardiff, Wales, next week. The Renaissance tour dates span 40 cities in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States and will include three shows in California. Beyoncé will play Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara (Aug. 30) and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (Sept. 1, 2 and 4) before the tour concludes in New Orleans in late September. Her originally announced Sept. 3 show at SoFi Stadium was rescheduled for Sept. 1.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.