Beyoncé brought superstardom to Wales when she took to the stage in Cardiff on Thursday evening for the first date on her Renaissance world tour.
The hitmaker, 41, ensured she kicked off her UK dates with an almighty bang as she stormed the city’s Principality Stadium with a slew of megahits and a host of incredible ensembles for the heaving audience of 74,000 fans.
Her full setlist boasted a host of her smash hits, including Formation, Run The World (Girls) and Love on Top, with the show opening with an atmosphere shattering mash-up of Dangerously In Love, Flaws And All and 1+1.
Her looks comprised a host of incredible numbers, including glittering catsuits and epic metallic corsets and barely-there mini dresses by a slew of designers including Alexander McQueen, Loewe and David Koma.
Proving a stage spectacular takes hard work, it has been reported that Beyonce travels with a body double who steps in during rehearsals to show the star what her dances look like from an audience perspective.
Incredible: Beyoncé brought superstardom to Wales when she took to the stage in Cardiff on Thursday evening for the first date on her Renaissance world tour
Stunner: The hitmaker, 41, ensured she kicked off her UK dates with an almighty bang as she stormed the city’s Principality Stadium with a slew of megahits and a host of incredible ensembles for the heaving audience of 74,000 fans
Impressive: She showed off her impeccable dance moves while belting out 40 of her greatest hits on stage
Pole position! She was working the pole in her dazzling ensemble
Following her opening medley, the superstar slipped into a version of Mary J Blige’s hit I Care/I’m Goin’ Down, before going on to perform I’m That Girl, Cozy and a medley of Alien Superstar/Sweet Dreams.
Amid her epic 36-song setlist, Beyonce also performed the likes of Haunted, Diva, Crazy In Love, Drunk In Love, Black Parade and Partition. She closed the jam-packed show with her popular tracks Blow and Summer Renaissance.
After fans voicing fury over her failure to release videos to accompany her Renaissance album – which was released 10 months ago – she used the opportunities to reference the lack of videos.
I’m bzzzzy: She then changed into a very different outfit as Beyonce was seen wearing a sexy bumble bee costume with a matching helmet with huge antennae
Hit: Beyonce released Renaissance, her seventh studio album containing the hit track Break My Soul, in July 2022
A voiceover in the stadium said: ‘You asked for the visuals, you called for the Queen. But the Queen moves at her own pace.’
Beyoncé stunned in nine incredible outfits, including a glitzy black and silver jumpsuit as she wowed the crowds in the sensational ensemble.
For one look, she slipped into a sparkling jumpsuit with hands across it with red nails to match her own gloves, giving the illusion her jumpsuit was completely sheer.
Quirky: Beyonce then changed into a bizarre colourful block costume that she struggled to walk in
Hey there! She emerged from a silk bed
Beaming: She sported a flawless makeup look while flashing a smile
She wore her honey tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a typically glowing makeup look.
She then changed into a very different outfit as Beyonce was seen wearing a sexy bumble bee costume with a matching helmet with huge antennae.
She sported a pair of heeled over the knee boots as she put on a very eye-catching display while standing in front of a desk alongside her dancers.
As well as her outfits, the show was not short of props – including a vast disco ball, a pole for dancing and a bizarre buggy.
Insiders told The Sun that the star employs a body double to show her what the concert looks like from an audience perspective in auditions.
Stunning: She flashed her curvaceous bottom in the revealing ensemble
The source said: ‘Beyonce is known for her attention to detail and the Renaissance tour is no different. She has a body double travelling with her to each venue so Beyonce can see how the show looks from the audience’s perspective…
‘Beyonce likes to sit in front of the stage and watch the show as it runs through the technical rehearsals. It is a huge production and is three hours long, so Beyonce wants to make sure everything is right…
‘As she watches, Beyonce looks at anything that may need to be tweaked or moved around. She takes notes and makes sure anything that she notices is changed if it doesn’t quite work.’
Following her Cardiff show, Beyonce is set to take to the stage at Edinburgh’s BT Murrayfield Stadium on May 20, before heading to Sunderland on May 23 to perform at the Stadium of Light.
She will then head across to France to perform at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on May 26, before heading back to London for a string of shows.
Beyonce will take to the state at Tottenham’s Hotspur Stadium for five dates across the end of May and the start of June, before jetting back to Europe for more shows.
The star kicked off her Renaissance world tour in Stockholm, Sweden, earlier this month and proved her show was worth the wait as she nailed a spectacular concert.
Her Renaissance world tour could out-earn Taylor Swift ‘s phenomenally successful Eras Tour by a whopping $600million, Forbes has revealed.
The Crazy In Love hitmaker has kicked off her first solo tour in seven years, with the star set to do battle with Taylor’s 52 date concert tour, which broke Ticketmaster records with single day sales of two million.
But Beyonce’s 41 date tour , which ends in North America in September, could gross between $275million and $2.57billion from tickets alone – which smashes The Eras Tour’s $1.9billion projection.
Billionaire Beyonce could make nearly $2.2billion from the tour, $600million more than the $1.6billion Taylor could earn.
The estimates are based on projected high numbers of fans buying tickets and high average ticket prices of around $700, the publication reports.
VIP packages for the tour range from $3757 to $5000.
Quirky: Beyonce then changed into a bizarre colourful block costume that she struggled to walk in
Hitting the streets: Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z was seen in the UK at the same time – yet he was in the English capital at Oswald’s Members Club
Stepping out: He was showing off his trendy style as he hit the club
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