Review: Beyoncé came to slay at Hard Rock Stadium | PHOTOS
The two biggest concert tours in popular music this year share a similar blueprint: A stylish and charismatic star is set in a beautifully designed jewel box of next-level visual technology and dazzling couture, where the empowering joy that bonds over 60,000 fans manages to achieve an unexpected intimacy.
That such tours are led by women may go without saying.
While Taylor Swift and Beyoncé speak to common constituencies — young women, LGBTQ communities and others who feel marginalized — they go about it in different, though equally effective, ways.
Swift’s record-setting Eras Tour is a showcase for a brilliant songwriter whose deep connection with fans is strengthened by her humility, the candor in her lyrics and the shadow of loneliness apparent in many of her most beloved songs.
As she proved again when her Renaissance World Tour hit a sold-out Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Friday night, Beyoncé is not about humility. She was there to slay. Not even a painful lesson in South Florida traffic chaos could keep her down.
Over the course of two-and-a-half hours and more than 30 songs, Beyoncé was an unstoppable force — sassy and provocative, physical and fashionable — and her exceptionally stylish audience never left their feet.
She took the stage with a nod to Destiny’s Child on “Dangerously in Love,” performing in front of a massive, extra high-definition video board that extended from one side of the field to the other. Each pixel seemed intent on assuring even those in the upper reaches of the stadium that Bey’s hourglass figure has been untouched by time (at age 41).
Backed by an excellent band (led by the electrifying solos of guitarist Agape Jerry) and an extraordinary corps of more than a dozen dancers of all shapes and sizes, Beyoncé and her wildfire of honey-blonde hair and ever-present smile seemed to enjoy the show as much as the crowd did.
No one was smiling at 8 p.m., when the concert was scheduled to begin. At some point earlier in the evening, the exit to Hard Rock Stadium from Florida’s Turnpike was closed, sending southbound drivers west to the exit at Northwest 27th Avenue. Traffic backed up for miles and acres of seats inside the stadium sat empty at showtime.
Law enforcement officers polled outside the stadium said they did not know why the exit had been closed. One suggested the move was made to alleviate earlier congestion on the Turnpike.
To her credit, Beyoncé waited until everyone seemed to be in their seats, finally hitting the stage at 9:20 p.m.
The show, which included most of the tracks from her “Renaissance” album, was divided into themed sections, each separated by a video interlude that enabled her many unbearably chic costume changes, from the opening ensemble by celebrity Albanian designer Valdrin Sahiti to an avant-garde bee costume, dedicated to the Bey Hive, by French fashion icon Thierry Mugler.
“Dangerously in Love” gave the first section, called Opening Act, a touch of operatic theatricality, Beyoncé showing off the range and strength of her voice immediately, in case there were any questions. That section ended with the singer prowling the stage to a searing version of the confrontational clapback “I Care.”
This segued into a snippet from “River Deep-Mountain High,” the first of Beyoncé’s many tributes to other female performers, this one “dedicated to my queen, Tina Turner,” she said.
For the Renaissance section, Bey came out as a chrome-plated club temptress, getting down and dirty with “I’m That Girl,” “Cozy” and the ribald power trip “Alien Superstar,” which prompted a fist-pumping sing-along.
She kept that vibe going in the next section, Motherboard, a house-music throwdown that included the bouncy anthem “Energy” and a blistering version of “Break My Soul,” Bey and the audience going back and forth with the declaration “You won’t break my soul!”
The songs in the Opulence section honored more self-determination and cooperation among women (but no “Single Ladies”), highlighted by “Run the World (Girls),” which slipped into the anthemic “My Power.” These songs featured a performance by daughter Blue Ivy Carter as part of the dance crew. Just 11, she handled herself well out front and her confident wave and kiss to the crowd drew loud applause.
In front of a beautiful black-and-silver backdrop of vaguely religious architecture, Bey did the saucy “Church Girl,” followed by old-school fave “Get Me Bodied.” This section, called Anointed, concluded with the audience doing most of the chorus for “Love on Top,” which led into her massive hit “Crazy in Love.” The crowd went wild.
Beyoncé turned up the heat with the sexy come-on “Plastic Off the Sofa,” which led to the similarly sultry “Virgo’s Groove,” “Naughty Girl,” “Move” and fan-favorite “Heated.” The latter was greeted by a field of handheld fans that the audience swayed over their heads as she sang, “Fan me off! I’m hot, hot, hot!”
The final section, called Mind Control, saw Bey and her female dancers in Mugler’s sci-fi bee get-ups for “America’s Got a Problem” and the sexually charged “Pure/Honey,” which ended with individual dancers in an extended dance-off. The crowd loved it.
She closed the show atop a crystal horse for her pulsating tribute to disco icon Donna Summer in “Summer Renaissance.” Before disappearing in a cloud of glitter, Beyoncé seemed to address the large contingent of LGBTQ fans in the audience, saying, “I hope you feel love and I hope you feel safe.”
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.