I Am… World Tour [Sydney Second Concert Review]
Beyonce brilliance bamboozles Sydney.
There’s something so mesmerizing about Beyonce Knowles performing live that means no matter what she’s singing, how saucy her dance moves or how good her vocal cords, you can’t keep your eyes off her.
In fact, she’s so incredibly stunning I would have been happy if she had stood at the front of the stage with the wind machine blowing her hair back for the entirety of her 2 hour show.
Everything else at her I Am … Acer Arena show on Friday night was a bonus and the 14,000 strong audience lapped it up.
Kicking off the high energy show with Crazy In Love, Beyonce jumped from song to song with such speed, there was barely time to absorb what was going on.
When she sang her lesser known songs such as Freakum Dress or Get Me Bodied, I focused on the incredible dancing.
Beyonce’s show was a wonderful concert experience – probably one of the best I’ve seen.
The show was crafted to minute detail, with a wind machine following Beyonce’s every move to ensure her hair billowed sexily at all times.
The show’s many costumes were created by legendary fashion designer Thierry Mugler.
Overall, Beyonce’s seven outfits were outstanding, from short body suits to a leather dominatrix style mini-dress.
The exception was the feline-inspired belt she wore to sing Diva, which looked like a chastity belt and definitely didn’t work.
Beyonce assembled a top notch team to help her look her best with eight professional dancers on stage for most of the show, and an all-female band slamming through the set.
“Sydney, are you guys enjoying the show so far tonight?” she asked the enthusiastic audience.
“I have to say to y’all, you’re an amazing audience. I’m having a good time with you guys.
“Wow, I write a lot of my songs for the ladies because I believe I’m here to empower all of you. I believe we need each other, we have to support each other.
“We learn the most from each other ladies, which is why every musician on the stage, they’re all women.”
The most moving moments came when Beyonce and her band slowed the tempo down.
Her version of Ave Maria – while wearing a wedding dress-inspired costume – gave me goosebumps and sent shivers down my spine
What makes Beyonce an amazing singer is not just that she has a good voice, it’s the extraordinary vocal control and range she demonstrates when she performs. There was no lip synching here.
Marking the half way point in her show, Beyonce strapped into a harness and was elevated about 15 metres above the crowd, carried into the middle of the arena to a circle platform where she proceeded to sing Baby Boy,
Irreplaceable, Check On It and a medley of Destiny’s Child hits – Bootylicious, Bug A Boo and Jumpin Jumpin.
It’s this point in her show she says she enjoys the most because she is surrounded by her fans.
After this set, security usher the pop star back to the main stage, where she rushes off for her fifth costume change.
She emerges in a floor length glittering gold gown to sing an Etta James inspired cover of At Last with a montage of Barack and Michelle Obama’s inauguration ball, at which Beyonce performed the song for the first couple’s first dance.
In her final song, Halo, Beyonce paid tribute to the late Michael Jackson, whom she gives credit to inspiring her to become the signer she is today.
And in the final moments, she pulled up a young girl from the crowd named Chelsea, who was obviously suffering from cancer. There was not a dry eye in the house.
Beyonce played Acer Arena Friday and Saturday night, and is to perform in Brisbane tonight before heading to Adelaide and Perth.
Review By: dailytelegraph.com.au
-
dymira davis
