Beyoncé live in Tottenham review – ‘Definitely the loudest so far’

Before Beyoncé took to the stage at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it had been seven long years since her last solo performance in London.

And Queen Bey’s descent on north London as part of her Renaissance World Tour was never going to be unheralded.   

At times, more than half a million people were in Ticketmaster’s virtual queue when tickets went on sale in February.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium breached its licence in an effort to extend Beyoncé’s stay at the venue for an extra three nights.

On the first evening of her London residency (May 29), fans with standing tickets rushed past a line of security guards, eager to get as close to their idol as possible.

Model Naomi Campbell, popstar Dua Lipa and Camden’s own Mae Muller were all in attendance.

And Beyoncé was not ungrateful for Londoners’ devotion. Wearing a flowing blue ballgown to start her almost three-hour set, she thanked the crowd for their “support and loyalty”.

Many might have expected Beyoncé to plunge straight into one of the exploding dance tracks that sustain Renaissance, her seventh studio album.

Instead, the former Destiny Child’s star started the show where her solo career began, with a rousing rendition of Dangerously in Love.

Three more piano ballads followed, before the 41-year-old paid tribute to Tina Turner, who died last week, with a version of River Deep, Mountain High.

But then, with the sun setting, and after a brief interlude for the star to make the first of her seven outfit changes of the night, Beyoncé launched her pop spectacle.

During a performance filled with references to outer-space, mythology and science-fiction, Beyoncé transformed her stadium-sized part of north London into an other-worldly ballroom of dazzling lights and pulsing vocals.

At one point the star appeared as Botticelli’s Venus emerging from a clamshell, at another she was rolling across the stage on top of what looked like a lunar rover.

Favourite hits from her most recent album – including Break My Soul, Alien Superstar and Virgo’s Groove – brought Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to life.

But, despite its grand, sweeping scale, Beyoncé’s show was also at times a family-affair.

Her husband, Jay-Z, was spotted among the other VIPs at the event, and their 11-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, took centre-stage at one point, marching at the head of the singer’s dance troupe during a rendition of Formation.

Run the World (Girls), Black Parade and Partition were some of the other tracks from previous albums included in the set-list .

To end the night, Queen Bey was hoisted into the air above the teeming crowd to perform the final song of the album – Summer Renaissance.

As the singer left the stage, the screens behind her were lit up with an image of her mother and her late uncle Jonny, who introduced the star to the Black queer music that inspired much of the Renaissance album.

It was a fitting end to the show – before the release of Renaissance, Beyoncé had dedicated the album to her family.

Even if it was just for one evening, her Tottenham fans appeared to delight in their incorporation into the Carter-Knowles family (“I love you,” the singer told them).

The crowd danced fervently throughout the night, singing along in all the right places.

At one point Beyoncé said: “Definitely the loudest so far, am I going to get in trouble?”

And with the last of the five London shows set to take place this weekend, there’s every chance that Tottenham is only going to get louder.