Excited Beyoncé fans sang and danced in ecstasy in Stockholm on Wednesday as the superstar embarked on her first solo tour in seven years, on a final countdown.
Among the hundreds of people who lined up outside the stadium to see the global music icon – one of the world’s best-selling artists – were some who had traveled half the world to see the show.
Beyonce, who has a record 32 Grammy Awards; Among the top 10 highest-grossing female artists. She is also a fashion icon, with designers queuing up to get her attention.
Many fans in Stockholm wore cowboy hats and rhinestones that glistened in the spring sun, mimicking the iconic artist’s outfit in ads announcing the 57-stop European and North American tour.
Julie Vargas, who flew in from Houston, Texas – Beyoncé’s home town – confessed to having a “shrine” dedicated to the star at home.
“I didn’t want any spoilers, I wanted to be the first to see it and take the news to the H-Town baby!” the 38-year-old surgical technologist told AFP.
He said, “I love Beyoncé, it’s her style, it’s her songs, it’s the production, it’s the choreography, it’s everything.”
Gabriel Cardiel, a 27-year-old medical student, also crossed the Atlantic from Brazil.
“She hasn’t been there for so long and this is her first concert and we don’t know anything about it,” he said.
“There’s mystery around it, what she’ll sing, what she’ll wear, what she’ll dress up for, what she’ll dance.”
– ‘Queen’ –
The “Renaissance World Tour,” announced in February after being teased last autumn, is the star’s first solo tour since 2016.
Tickets for the opening show at the 60,000-capacity Friends Arena sold out so quickly that tour organizers added a second for Thursday. From there she travels to Brussels at the end of the week.
The tour, which runs until September, is expected to earn the international artist around $2.1 billion, according to trade magazine Forbes. He is already a millionaire.
“We love Beyoncé, she’s the queen, that’s why we’re here,” 36-year-old artist Kasher Bloom from Riga told AFP.
Jarra Jatta, a 21-year-old fan from Helsingborg in Sweden, said she had been queuing for hours – but still wished she could get in early.
“I’m late, I honestly should have been here earlier. Anything to see him, see him and his power,” said Jatta.
“Beyoncé is the queen! Our mother, everything! I would do anything for her.”
In February, Beyoncé made history by becoming the most successful artist in Grammys history, surpassing the late classical conductor Georg Solti’s long-standing record of 31 lifetime trophies.
But despite winning another four Grammys, fans were disappointed she missed out on the award for Album of the Year for her seventh studio album, the house-tinged “Renaissance.” The 16-song 2022 album was an instant hit and earned widespread praise for its deep ambition.
– Decade at the top –
Beyoncé Gisele Knowles, now 41, has been in the upper echelons of pop music since her teens.
She initially rose to fame as part of Destiny’s Child — whose smash hits included “Survivor” and “Say My Name” — before launching a wildly successful solo career.
From setting the standard for overnight album drops to delivering her earth-shattering “Homecoming” show at Coachella in 2018, Beyoncé has long bucked the industry’s conventional wisdom. He is simultaneously one of music’s most private and most visible stars.
Her paradigm-shifting 2016 album “Lemonade,” which emphasized black womanhood against the backdrop of America’s legacy of slavery and a culture of oppression, is one of the most respected musical projects in recent memory.
She then dropped the critically acclaimed song “Black Parade” in June 2020, amid nationwide protests ignited by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white police officer.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)