Bits & Beyoncés

Bits & Beths, time to strike a match and light up this juke joint! 

Wow, wow, wow, you guys. I saw Beyoncé live for the third time this week and I absolutely must talk about it. I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been such a fan of her for practically my entire life so, seeing her live, especially with her daughters, makes me genuinely emotional. Her attention to detail, storytelling ability, raw talent, and commitment to excellence make being her fan so much fun. Cowboy Carter and this tour showcases her talent and hard work more than anything before, and that’s coming from someone who went to the Formation World Tour and the Renaissance World Tour. She’s constantly raising the bar—and then somehow finding a way to outdo herself all over again. 

This tour she’s giving us looks, she’s giving us vocals, she’s giving us choreography, she’s giving us personality, and she’s giving us a whole history lesson and I am so here for it. 


The second we sat down in our seats, I started crying. Just looking at that stage, thinking about how Beyoncé was going to be right there and how all the anticipation and my tour in Ticketmaster had finally paid off, set me off. The lights went down and her dancers came out in red hooded cloaks, I knew she was about to put all that propaganda talk to rest once and for all. And boy did she. Hearing her sing the songs off Cowboy Carter live just made them all the more powerful. It’s not at all about praising America, it’s about acknowledging our history, the good, the bad, and the deeply painful. It’s about uplifting Black American history and placing it at the center. Some of the show’s visuals showcased poems about America, footage of real American people from different eras, and news broadcasts criticizing her, everything was so intentional. 

However, my favorite visuals were the ones with real footage of Beyoncé and her family. She showed how she grew up on stage, showing videos of her as a kid singing, all the way up to her working on the tour. The literal visual of her progressing in her career and how hard she worked to get to where she is today had me in tears. As if that wasn’t enough to make me cry, she showed home videos of her and her children, showing how she has progressed and grown as a mother, I was absolutely sobbing. From remembering her announcing her pregnancy with Blue Ivy at the VMAs to seeing her on stage with a 13-year-old Blue, who was absolutely slaying Soldier Field down, by the way, was an unreal, emotional experience. 

Her other visuals played like actual movies. From the Attack of the 400-foot cowboy to a classic old Western saloon scene, she was giving us a show! In the saloon scene, she (with flawless hair, of course) smashes a bottle over someone’s head and the entire stadium screamed “OH!” It was absolutely astounding. 

She performed nearly every song off the Cowboy Carter album, a full three-hour set after hours of rain and tornado delays. Her children even stayed up past their bedtimes to ensure the show would go on. Blue Ivy looked truly stunning, just like her mother, and her walk card did not decline. She absolutely killed the Deja Vu choreography and I just know Beyoncé is backstage every show feeling so proud of her girl. Rumi was just so adorable smiling so big, you could tell how happy she was to be on stage with her mom and big sis. 

Beyoncé’s vocals were absolutely wild, especially during ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ and ‘Daughter.’ I mean that This ain’t Texas riff and the literal Italian opera live were absolute crazy work. It is wild to think about how she can sing like that for three hours on top of full choreography. She is not real! I’ll be posting some videos on the Bits & Beths Instagram, because you know I took 100 and have been watching them all day every day ever since. 

Something I noticed during this show was how much of her personality we got to see, not just when she spoke, but in every aspect of the show. Her facial expressions said so much about how she feels during each song, it is a completely different experience than listening at home.  She had so many fun tricks and stage aspects to this show that I feel like I haven’t seen from her in the past. I mean come on, she rode a mechanical bull while she sang ‘Tyrant,’ her mind. She floated across the stadium in a horseshoe and then did it again in a freaking car. She had a robot arm pour her a glass of her own branded whiskey. The production level of this tour was insane, I thought she couldn’t top Renaissance but somehow she did. 

Speaking of my girl, Renaissance, she had a full “Welcome back to the Renaissance World Tour” moment which I was nowhere near emotionally prepared for. Full Renaissance vibes back in the building, TYJ (Thank you, Jesus!) I have never screamed louder than seeing Ms. Honey Balenciaga strutting down the runway once more. I am so glad the Queen brought her back. This makes me even more excited for the Act III tour because it may mean we’ll be getting Renaissance and Cowboy Carter acts during those shows as well. And thank God for that because the thought of never hearing Renaissance or Cowboy Carter live again does not sit right with me. 

Before I close out, I also have to say that there is truly a different kind of energy at a Beyoncé concert. After finding out the concert was going to be delayed, we got to Soldier Field just before the rain started coming down. Not one person in that stadium was even remotely worried about getting poured on, not even worried about the possibility of a tornado. People were dancing and strutting their stuff in the pouring rain while people cheered them on from the sidelines. I saw girls dumping out their cowboy boots filled with water, laughing at themselves in the process. A little girl wearing a pink cowboy hat and I exchanged compliments on each other’s outfits. We sang her songs and giggled with the people around us, all offering to take each other’s group photos.  We chanted “BEYONCÉ BEYONCÉ BEYONCÉ”  as we got attacked by a wall of rain just to let her know we were still there. Baby, the Beyhive was buzzin’. 

I left the stadium drenched in rain and tears because this was more than a concert, this was her establishing her legacy in real-time. I admire the hell out of that woman, her work ethic paired with her God-given talent creates something absolutely unreal to experience in person. She has proved once again, that she is the performer of this century, no doubt about it.


My best friend’s & my outfit, by the way!

This concert, like every Beyoncé concert I have attended, was truly the experience of a lifetime. If you ever get the chance to see the Queen live, you simply must do so.

Write you soon!

Beth


Previous
Previous

Beth’s May Top Artists

Next
Next

Beth’s April Top Artists