Wednesday, July 27, 2016

“The angry Beyonce is my favorite Beyoncé” – Sveriges Radio

What did you think of the concert?

– I find it hard to believe that one can see something better and more relevant than Beyonce right now. She stands at the peak of her career as she in recent years taken a clear step in a political and more musically challenging direction, which became very clear at Friends Arena yesterday. It was a nicely composed super show almost no dull moment and an incredible musical performance by Beyonce and her live band.

Yes, she has become more and more of a political artist. What was noticeable?

She seems very comfortable as a popular cultural symbol for the gräsrotsvåg that is gaining ground in the US right now, feminism and Black Lives Matter movement. And when she opened with the song “Formation” is about the right to organize themselves let the audience almost higher than the base.

The concert revolved a lot around Lemonade, her video album which was released in April this year and that is about betrayal, sadness and anger. An album where the anger is both personal and political.

Musically it was bombastic and sometimes outright war drums and the dancers resembled often soldiers marching dance steps and contributed to the feeling that everyone in the arena was part of a movement.

and this with sparkling smiles and cozy small talk seems far away. There was nothing fawning over her, but she carried the entire show with a hugely serious and repeated all the time the message about the relationship with yourself is the most important.

If I lose myself, I have lost everything, she said, that if you survived racism and sexism, you are a survivor, as an introduction to the old Destiny’s Child hit. And then she thanked her fans for letting her grow and develop.

What were the highlights did you think?

I must say that the angry Beyoncé is my favorite Beyoncé. So when she made the raging infidelity song “Dont hurt yourself” in cobra robe and queen throne and roared like a monster in microphone, so it was an adrenaline flowing both of fear and of happiness.

Then there is of course the voice. She sends falsetto at the ceiling, she growls with the deep soul voice. You never know where to go, but you know you absolutely do not need to worry. And while she is dancing or sitting down on his knees.

Was there anything you did not, or something less good?

This is perhaps the swearing in church, but I could have been without the Prince tribute. To just turn on the “Purple Rain” and walk off the stage and be gone for several minutes seemed odd considering the rest of the show which was very nicely built and took us seamlessly from one song to the other. And even though I am a huge Prince fan, so I missed not actually him right there and then, because I wanted the have Beyoncé.

Hear the full review from Kulturnytts broadcast in the clip above.

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