Last week, Beyoncé came to Houston to do one thing: slay. The first thing she said to the crowd upon strutting out of the massive LED-lit box atop her stage was “Repeat after me. I came to slay. I will slay tonight.” And that she did. And for at least one night, Beyoncé made every person in the crowd feel like they could, too.
The setlist was clearly well thought-out. Beyoncé sang almost all of her new hits off the album "Lemonade," while images from the hour-long video played in gigantic shadows behind her on the box-screen. Thrown into the mix, though, were many of her older hits, including "Blow," "Crazy in Love," and "Bootylicious." Although always looking fierce, Beyoncé alternated between the persona of a fun, playful teenager singing her favorite songs, and a revenge-seeking woman who had just been scorned by her (cheating?) husband. Songs like "Don’t Hurt Yourself" and "Sorry" received the most applause from the audience as Beyoncé put her middle fingers up and waved “boy bye,” adding to the swirling rumors regarding Jay-Z and a cheating scandal. Before the concert, random cries of “F*** Jay-Z!” could be heard among concertgoers.
Beyoncé fans, especially those from her hometown Houston, are fiercely loyal to say the least. All of the “Boycott Beyoncé” shirts were sold out before the concert even started. NRG park was packed even before Beyoncé's opening act, DJ Khaled, came on. Two Houston rappers, Paul Wall and Slim Thug, were guests of the social media tycoon (“They don’t want you to win”) DJ, which caused the whole stadium to erupt into cheers for “H-Town.” Before eventually coming onstage at about 9:15 p.m., Beyoncé taunted the crowd with commercials for her new fitness fashion line, Ivy Park, and trailers from her new album video, "Lemonade." After each short video, massive screams erupted all over the stadium, only to be followed by groans as another commercial (featuring a 2-D Beyonce) appeared on the screens. But from the moment that Beyoncé appeared on stage to the beat of “Formation” until the very last moment on stage after “Halo,” whence she proclaimed, “Now I’m gonna get myself some good ol’ food,” Beyoncé was a ball of energy, fierceness and godliness. Unlike most popstars who seem all too real in person, reminding the crowd that they too are normal people who are starstruck by the number of people who came to see them perform, Beyoncé was unphased by the sold-out NRG stadium. She looked even more beautiful in person than she does in the media and sang into the microphone so casually yet so powerfully.
The best moment of the concert came when she sang "Freedom," as she and her dancers (spoiler!) splashed away in a small pool of water at the end of the catwalk of her stage. Showering the crowd with water in time to the music, Sea-World-style, Beyoncé and her crew imparted the passion of the song to the crowd through both dance and song. Even fitting in a tribute to Prince, Beyoncé used every moment of her two-hour show to make a statement, whether that statement was “You can’t touch this,” “I slay,” “Everyone is beautiful,” or “Every person is important.” After seeing Beyoncé give everything she had for the city of Houston, I think every single person in NRG Stadium felt important.
