Live Review: Beyoncé

Thursday's gig was the kind of show that – regardless of what you think of Beyoncé's music – presents the Mrs Carter World Tour as a world-class pop performance. It feels like the night started when an impromptu drag performance from a diva in the crowd started the screams from around the stadium. With the audience really hyped up the true Queen emerged on stage kicking off proceedings with Run The World (Girls). She set an impressive pace backing it up with If I Were A Boy, followed by some oldies with Baby Boy and Naughty Girl and eventually moving back to more recent hits with Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) and Halo. Songs were sampled and mashed up together with her Highness belting and shaking it solidly for over 90 minutes. How anyone consistently manages to sing that well while retaining that level of coordination is impressive – let alone in stilettos and a leotard.

With two stages, several massive screens, glitter cannons and some sort of giant flying fox, the show's production created a pretty immersive experience. Sure it's not intimate, but with several thousand other screaming fans in the room no one's expecting it to be. Instead you're washed over with a wall of sound, light and film – and suddenly the 32-year-old from Houston feels like she's a 100-foot woman.

On top of what made it into the show it's pretty staggering to think of the sheer volume of songs, videos, shoots and performances Beyoncé's put out into the world in the last couple of years. Oh yeah, and she had a kid too. There's obviously a machine/epic team of collaborators, designers, stylists, performers and musicians collaborating to make it happen but you do get the impression Mrs Carter is definitely the woman steering the ship.   

It was just one of those shows that left you feeling upbeat and optimistic. Watching a performer who so graciously shares the stage with her dancers and band (in their own right pretty freakin' talented), but also an artist that makes you, the audience, feel as though you're taking a walk in her shoes with world domination on your to-do list feels fantastic. Attempting the Single Ladies dance in half a square metre of space probably looks terrible – but God, doing it at a Beyoncé concert feels fucking amazing. Even the stoic reviewer to our left managed to unglue himself from his note-pad to get up for a shuffle and thrust by the end of it.

Regardless of whatever you're into, you've got to admit anyone able to defy the laws of gravity and fashion in a blue sequined jumpsuit on a 100-metre zip lead through clouds of gold glitter is bringing something pretty special to a gig. All hail the Queen.