Beyonce's alter ego spoils the show
September 21, 2009
If there was a goddess among mortals she need not have an alter ego.
Beyonce Knowles, the American glamour songstress, with vocal stylings to rival Aretha and Whitney, was scheduled to grace Brisbane last night. Instead, a manufactured figment of her imagination arrived at the Entertainment Centre.
Sasha Fierce, Knowles' new stage persona, sauntered before the crowd in a haze of smoke - the wind machine seizing the first curl, spotlight catching her crystal-corsetted body - thus beginning a long and disappointingly laboured illusion.
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Fans were underwhelmed early by an uninspired "welcome, welcome welcome" so much so the audience had to be encouraged to scream before she declared: "Now I think y'all ready to dance."
They didn't. Not for a while, anyway.
Fierce, borne of the smash hit Crazy In Love was initially well received by the nearly all-female crowd, but the story of her creation - an evolutionary tale of the Texan-born singer's ascent to the summit of pop charts worldwide - was an unnecessary distraction from her otherwise mesmerising vocal stylings.
Had Beyonce shown up as Beyonce, all would have been satisfied.
Powerful ballads like Broken Hearted Girl and If I Were A Boy had loyal fans spellbound and showcased her soaring vocal prowess.
But those hoping the pop star would revel - or at least dip - in everything bootylicious were disappointed when Sasha Fierce - in a chrome Thierry Mugler leopard print bikini - kept coming back to interrupt.
Strange video clips telling the tale of her polar personas and the transformation from hometown girl to robo cougar Fierce punctuated the two-hour show and were lost on an audience preferring to let loose to a montage of Destiny's Child hits.
An over-reliance on video clips for smash hits performed on a minimal stage was another letdown.
The singer spoke intermittently, telling the audience her "special purpose" in life was to "empower women."
"We all have that voice inside. We have to come together. We have to support each other," she told the audience before a brief performance by backup trio The Mammas derailed her feminist preaching.
"Drop to your knees," they encouraged the young crowd.
"Arch your back girl/Shake it like that/ Alley cat."
When the songstress re-emerged and the heavy bass subsided, allowing Beyonce's voice to resonate loud and clear for the first few bars of Me, Meself and I, one longed for a 1930s cabaret lounge, where her smooth tones could be appreciated fully.
More video clips of the triple-platinum singer as a pre-schooler performing in her Houston lounge room cemented the singer's image of herself as a soul prodigy.
A montage of YouTube clips of fans mimicking her tricky dance moves to All The Single Ladies revived the audience, reminding them of her worldwide reach.
Beyonce bears the mane of Diana, the pins of Tina and the vocals of Aretha, but her own personality was absent in favour of manufactured fantasy.
Another redemption came with a rendition of the soul classic At Last performed to a backdrop of images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and US President Barack Obama. The robomask left spinning in her wake, she finally found her own, bringing the screaming crowd to their feet.
Hot
The soul glamazon is even more stunning in the flesh.
Not
Support act Flo Rida, flat out on a massage table during the headline act, while a posse of his flunkies kept watch.
Source: www.newslib.com
