Beyoncé Knowles has a problem and it’s this – she can’t stand still for very long! When not singing her heart out, the former Destiny’s Child chanteuse spent most of this two-hour extravaganza either shimmying from side to side or tearing up and down a glittering staircase, her troupe of equally agile dancers in tow.
It isn’t billed as the Beyoncé Experience for nothing. In fact choreography and technology almost threatened to outflank the pop princess on this hot, hot night in Dublin. If it wasn’t for her powerfully impressive pipes, it would have been a triumph of style over substance.
Her entrance alone was worthy of a Cecil B. De Mille production. Arriving phoenix-like out of the floor of the stage dressed in a thigh-revealing sparkling dress, bathed in dry ice, her windblown tresses flowing back, all before cascading flames, she hit the ground running with her first solo hit ‘Crazy In Love’. With the audience already whipped into a frenzy of excitement (most of them having spotted Westlife’s Mark in the crowd before the lights went down) they rarely settled for the remainder of this breathless performance.
Beyonce certainly knows how to elicit a response. “I’ve been bragging to the others,” she said at one point. “Just wait ‘till you get to Dublin.” The crowd responded with a chant of ‘Olé Olé Olé’.
Highlights included her recent duet with Shakira, ‘Beautiful Liar’, and a trio of Destiny’s Child numbers, comprising ‘Independent Women’, ‘Survivor’ and ‘Soldier’. Some of the quieter tunes from her recent album B’Day met with a more muted reception, but she notched it up again for the encores, exiting with the soulful ‘Déjà Vu’ – leaving the sweat-drenched crowd hot but happy.
Phew!