Beyoncé made her solo debut twenty years ago, and in 2023 her RENAISSANCE album and tour has proved that if there’s a constant in our lives, it’s her. On the day after the closing of the RENAISSANCE Tour in Kansas City, Missouri on Oct. 1, we’d like to explore the influences behind the Houston artist’s seventh album and how she provided a stage for queer Black people to celebrate themselves.
Beyoncé 2016 Lemonade, combined and transformed a variety of genres like rock and R&B into new sounds. RENAISSANCE, six years later, is different. Beyoncé pivoted her R&B musical sensibilities into Chicago’s staple dance genres like House for the first time in her career. She also stepped into the soundscape of ballroom culture, the world of her Uncle Johnny.
Her uncle was a gay Black man, who used to hand sew Beyoncé’s ensembles alongside her mother and introduced the GRAMMY award winning artist to many of the genres found in RENAISSANCE. In the late 90s, her Uncle Johnny died due to complications with AIDS. But, he left a lasting influence on Beyoncé, who is now honoring his life by celebrating the lives of queer Black people today.
“When Renaissance came out last summer, I listened to it with all my friends that I met at SC [University of Southern California], a group of Black queer people and it was just life changing,” said Atieno Hope, a recent graduate of USC, who attended night one of Beyoncé’s stop at the SoFi Stadium on Sept. 1.
Hope and her friends attended the concert in silver, as Beyoncé requested for her birthday shows. The audience shined like stars in chrome-colored outfits that fused the metallic aspects of Afrofuturistic fashion with the old west, metaphorically embodying Beyoncé’s mixture of fantasy and reality throughout her album. Afterall, she’s the ALIEN SUPERSTAR and the CHURCH GIRL. The former is a song that empowers by looking up at the stars, while the latter does so by reassessing church values and lessons on female bodily autonomy.
“You just think about how she has been doing so well for so long,” Wynton Jones, a friend of Hope’s who also attended Beyoncé’s Inglewood concert, said. “… all the music and the visuals in the background, everything that was happening was so top notch.”
And it was so top notch not only because of Beyoncé’s amazing work ethic, but also because of her supporting team of dancers and queer talent that ranged from dancers to DJs.
“It’s just overwhelming to think about how much she has to work with…,” Jones said. “She just gave us so much and I think that’s why everybody has been saying that it has been life changing and like they’re never the same. They have post concert depression.”
Beyoncé provided an authentic experience and an escape for queer people across North America and Europe, which is a special feat in a world where corporate pride rarely stretches beyond a rainbow logo and empty promises and where politicians debate the right for queer people to exist, while simultaneously encroaching on the rights of Black and brown people.
Financially, the RENAISSANCE tour was one of the most successful tours ever by a woman, with the New York Times estimating that the tour generated $4.5 billion for the U.S. economy. Musically, the album won Best Dance/Electronic Music Album at the 2023 GRAMMYs and was arguably snubbed for the Album of the Year award. Culturally, her tour successfully established itself as an event that allowed everyone, especially queer Black people, to feel celebrated.
If you weren’t able to attend the RENAISSANCE tour, you can wear your most fabulous silver fashions to the silver screen from Dec. 1-3 to watch Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé. The film will feature concert footage and a behind the scenes look at the tour. Get your tickets here.
Beyoncé is a constant in our world with years and years of success behind her…and ahead. If the album spoke to you, send us a tweet.