2023 produced two great music works. One was Taylor Swift who took the music world by storm with her super successful Eras Tour and film and the other Beyoncé with her film ‘Renaissance – A Film by Beyoncé’. Both Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have cemented their status as joint queens of pop in 2023.

Both singers embarked on stadium tours so huge they created a buzz in world economies, and both closed 2023 with a movie.  Taylor Swift: the Eras Tour became the highest grossing concert movie of all time in October; and two months later Queen Bey’s Renaissance movie, also poised to create a hit all over.

Coincidence or what, or just keeping friendly terms, Beyoncé attended Swift’s LA premiere in October, while Taylor Swift returned the favour at Renaissance’s London premiere.

Where Swift’s movie faithfully replicated the live experience, Renaissance on the other hand gives us the “making of” as much as the performance.

Renaissance depicts the rebirth / rechristening of Beyoncé Giselle Knowles – Carter, from the group Destiny’s Child in Houston, Texas with humble beginnings to the current music solo diva she is. Beyoncé commands a fan base of over 1 billion. The live show itself was viewed worldwide by 2. 7 million people. She is currently rated as the 41^st most popular pop music artist and 16^th most popular contemporary artists worldwide and has been described as the most popular musician of the 20^th century from African – American descent. She also ranked 36^th in the Forbes World Most popular list.

The film accentuates the journey of Renaissance World Tour, from its inception, to the opening in Stockholm, Sweden, to the finale in Kansas City, Missouri. At 2 Hours 50 minutes, the movie is totally about Beyoncé as she single handled, conceptualized, produced, directed and acted in the film. Of course she has an entourage of her family, including, parents, Tina and Mathew, husband Jay Z, and children, Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir travelling along with her and supporting the star who has been awarded 32 Grammy awards.

Besides her family and friends, she is surrounded by musicians, choreographers, set designers, light and sound technicians, helicopter pilot, security and many more people as the majestic set takes shape and her live show takes off.

Even though the star is worth 800 million, we can see her onscreen behavior, that she is still down to earth, tending to her children, her staff’s personal needs and having a kind and reassuring word for all around her.

Every few songs, the music pauses and Beyoncé (who directs and narrates the movie) takes us behind the curtain. There are moments when we see her off duty. There’s a section on how her eldest daughter Blue became a dancer in the show. At the same time she even corrects her daughter when she comments on the media. We can see Beyoncé looking sternly at Blue Ivy as she is reprimanded in one of the shots as she is suggesting something irrelevant during a meeting with her staff.

The body hugging costumes are exclusively destined to show off the excellent contours of her body through a number of outfits amid a dazzle of color. Her dancers also sport some great figure hugging costumes that look great in every part of the movie. The dance moves are provocative, but not ugly or gory to the viewer. Infact it protrudes great self confidence and esteem to carry out those moves with class and élan in front of a million fans watching the live performance. And of course her voice still exudes brilliance every moment.

The film takes you back to where it all began returning to her roots in Houston’s Third Ward. The parking lot where she once performed as a teenager is now the landing pad for her helicopter as she flies in to perform at the stadium next to it.

She gets emotional during the segment segment on her late Uncle Johnny. She states, “Uncle Johnny made my dress.” Uncle Johnny was a gay family friend who turned her on to house music, and he really did make her dresses, by hand, when she was starting out with Destiny’s Child.

Flashbacks and videos show her early days as a child when she suffered a vocal injury when she was 12 that nearly ended her career; an onstage knee injury from 20 years ago for which she’s just had surgery, from which she recovered for the performance.

It’s her movie and Beyoncé is thankful to so many people in her life, from her parents to her dancers to guests like Diana Ross, who comes on stage at later part of the film, at the end of the song Love to Love You Baby, mixed with Naughty Girl.

As for the other songs, you have Dangerously in Love, Flaws and All, Formation among others,

It is a spectacular movie in terms of music, sound, live performance, stage settings audience reactions and participation. Her Renaissance album, which forms the bulk of the show, pays homage to 80s queer culture – ballroom flamboyance, early house, giant disco balls. Her team and Beyoncé has catered to Straight, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Asexual (LGBT), therefore she has a huge fan following and they all interact their love, expression and gyrate to her songs.

It is a must see for a Beyoncé fan and live performance as the movie can be rated as top notch for music connoisseurs and aficionados. To sum up, the movie not only showcases her incredible performances but also provides a deep dive into her creative process. It brilliantly captures the essence of balancing motherhood and a relentless passion for music and performing.

Rating: *****

By Verus Ferreira