Beyoncé has just released a trailer for her new film, Renaissance, which invites fans behind the scenes of the wild ride of her record-breaking world tour.
The two-minute trailer shows both sides of the tour, and both sides of Beyoncé: there are private moments where the singer is warming up with her dancers and cuddling her children, and then she is on the move, reflecting what is about to happen, and stunning crowds with her all guns blazing performances.
“When I am performing, I am nothing but free,” narrates Beyoncé over clips of her getting ready for a show. “The goal for this tour was to create a place where everyone is free. And no one is judged.
“Start over, start fresh. Create the new. That’s what the Renaissance is about,” she says as the trailer shows excited fans in the humongous crowds, all dressed up to the nines for the occasion, waiting for her appearance on stage.
The Renaissance World Tour, which started in Stockholm in May and concluded yesterday in Kansas, is the highest-grossing tour by any Black artist ever, having made over $461 million so far. It had 56 stops – including five in London – and cemented Beyoncé as one of the world’s greatest performers: she performed back-to-back hits for between two and a half and three hours.
“The Renaissance show itself was an enthralling, dizzying display of spectacle – with references to the cyborgs of science fiction, the philosophy of time, and the linguistics of ballroom,” said the Standard in May. “The latter, explicitly pioneered by Black queer people, is one of the major sonic influences of the Renaissance album.”
Costumes had been made in collaboration with Alexander McQueen, Balmain, Thierry Mugler, Courrèges and Loewe; the show included massive choreographed set pieces, with world’s most famous vogue dancers taking to the stage at points throughout the concert.
There was a giant sparkling horse and a truck, and the set list encorporated old classics, such as Dangerously in Love 2 and Crazy in Love and new hits from her 2022 dance album Renaissance, such as Cuff It and Cozy. The show was attended by celebrities around the world, and saw her daughter Blue Ivy join her on stage.
It was, objectively, a total blast: Beyoncé is an artist who is the best in the world at her craft – who knows what her fans want, and knows how to give it to them.
The new film, which will be released in cinemas on December 1, promises to capture some of the magic of the performances, while also lifting the curtain on the work that went on behind the scenes to bring the show together. The film has been made by Beyoncé, and will include her private reflections and thoughts both as the tour is being created and as it is happening.
“I feel liberated,” says Beyoncé speaking to the camera as the trailer comes to a close. “I have transitioned into a new animal.”
