Jaylen Carr – Editor-in-Chief
Solé Scott – Features Editor
Jaylen Carr- Everyone, get in formation with your disco-ball-inspired cowboy hats and your ‘House of Chrome’ attire. Queen Bey dropped her long-awaited Renaissance World Tour film on Friday, celebrating house and dance music pioneered by Black artists in the 1970s.
The film captured the live performance of the tour at all stops, from opening night in Stockholm, Sweden, to the final show in Kansas City. Viewers learned that it took Beyoncé and her team four years to prepare for the tour — a tour that became the highest-grossing tour by a female artist in history. On the film’s opening night, it grossed over $11.5 million from 2,539 locations, according to Variety.
The long-form documentary highlighted the tour’s choreography and, most importantly, the decades-long history of ballroom culture driven by queer Black and Latino communities.
During the film, she discussed how she understood her impact and always wanted to use her influence to shed light on marginalized communities.
Thus, she introduced “The Dolls,” her background dancers who would all get their chance to shine throughout the tour, especially after the song, “Pure/Honey.” The stadium would reach its fever pitch after that song; “The Dolls” performed their iconic dance moves, “voguing”, with the crowd’s eyes glued to the stage.
“My hope was the music from the ‘Renaissance’ would lead to some of these beautiful legends getting the flowers they deserve,” Beyoncé said in the film.
Those drag legends, including Kevin Aviance and Moi Renee, appearances by Ts Madison and Big Freedia, production by DJ Honey Dijon and the album imagery that pays homage to Harlem’s ballroom scene captured the true essence of the “Renaissance” phenomenon.
The album is inspired by her uncle Johnny, who was gay and loved house music. The film showed scenes of a young Beyoncé and Johnny dancing to 1970s house jams.
My favorite part of the film was when she performed my favorite song off her seventh studio album, “All Up in Your Mind.” She had her cowboy-inspired outfit on while singing with so much passion. There will never be another performer like Beyoncé. Viewers witnessed her work ethic and battle from knee surgery before the tour started back in May.
No disrespect to icon Michael Jackson; I believe it is safe to say that Beyoncé is one of one and is uniquely the greatest performer.
Solé Scott- America has a problem, and her name is Beyoncé Gisele Knowles-Carter, who just released possibly the greatest musical documentary, “Renaissance,” on Friday, Dec. 1.
First off, I need to give credit where credit is due. Beyoncé is that girl, plain and simple.
The film starts off with Beyoncé singing “Dangerously in Love” in a delicious black dress that prompted the audience in the movie theater to erupt in screams.
I would like to highlight the many different fierce outfits the superstar donned throughout the tour. She shone especially in the custom Versace and Pucci outfits she wore at her Inglewood birthday concert, which was chicness at its finest.
When the audio went out for “Alien Superstar,” the way her and her team handled the situation was mind-boggling, especially when she came out with a whole new outfit just to redo this song.
There were a few shocking moments in the film, such as Beyoncé having knee surgery a month before the Renaissance World Tour started.
The most gut-wrenching part was learning that her 11-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, read hateful comments on social media about her dancing. However, that did not stop her from perfecting her craft. Instead, it fueled her fire.
I gained a newfound respect after seeing the process of creating a show from the ground up. I was astounded by seeing the workers dismantling the set every concert to move on to the next.
After finishing the film, I am convinced that Beyoncé is the love child of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. She has the voice and artistry of both performers in one.
Even though the movie is two hours and 48 minutes long, it was worth watching, and you should listen to “Renaissance” and watch the film to understand who Beyoncé is in 2023.
