Beyonce, O2 Arena: Jay-Z joins Mrs Carter for duet - music review

The revamped Mrs Carter extravaganza was packed with ideas and proved Beyoncé is getting better and edgier with age
4 March 2014

Last April, Beyoncé’s Mrs Carter tour rolled into London for six O2 sell-outs. Almost a year later, the tour rumbles on and she’s returned for another six sell-outs with a show revamped since she released her self-titled fourth album in December.

Last night’s 100 minutes marked the halfway point in 2014’s residency. For all that music is a mere part of Brand Beyoncé, her battering-ram extravaganza was packed with ideas (a pointless cover of I Will Always Love You reminded us that not all of those ideas were good), packed with hits, but packed with percussion and much more hardcore than her softer gloopy ballad side threatens. The 32-year-old is getting better and edgier with age.

Wisely, she said little beyond some mildly bonkers greetings card blandness (“I want to leave my footsteps in the sands of time”). Instead, backed by an all-female band and a platoon of dancers, she squeezed herself into a succession of outfits, all seemingly designed to show off her almost superhuman thighs; she writhed as the mood took her (she sprawled across a piano to deliver 1+1) without being overtly sexual; she shook hands as she shimmied to the small stage during Irreplaceable and she snuck in a snippet of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall.

As he did on Friday and Saturday, Beyoncé’s husband Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter duetted on her finest musical moment, the genuinely out-there Drunk in Love, and the pair sizzled, although he failed to return for a severely truncated Crazy in Love. Even he, though, was eclipsed by the spectacular set-piece Why Don’t You Love Me? and the throbbing finale that was XO and Halo.

Those looking for a hint of the real Beyoncé Knowles-Carter might have been disappointed. Those looking for a wonderfully choreographed, magically lit and fiercely intelligent spectacle need look no further. She remains sensational.

Beyoncé plays O2 Arena, Mar 5-7, 0844 844 0444, theo2.co.uk

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