Even though she has been in the limelight for nearly 20 years, we hardly knew Beyoncé — until this year.
Her public life, videos and performances had been manicured and airbrushed to immaculate, golden-hair perfection. Then last month, Queen Bey, 34, dropped "Lemonade" — a powerfully raw hourlong movie and the album of the same name, her most personal, vulnerable and revealing statement. As she rhapsodized about infidelity, anger, forgiveness and black womanhood, we finally got to know the real Beyoncé.
Now she has transformed "Lemonade" to the concert stage, and, on Monday night at TCF Bank Stadium, she delivered her fiercest, most personal and most satisfying Twin Cities performance yet.
Not only is Bey the first woman to headline a Twin Cities stadium concert — Madonna tried in 1987 but ticket sales dictated that the show be moved to an arena — but she did it with aplomb, pizazz and an unrelenting attitude.
On previous tours she seemed to be trying to recreate the vibe of her forever-captivating videos. But on her current Formation World Tour, she is more concerned with revealing her personality — and all of the emotions in her complicated life — than with bedazzling her audience with mere spectacle.
To be sure, the staging was magnificent — from a seven-story-high, revolving video cube that resembled a monolith, to the precision choreography with 20 dancers on an L-shaped runway. But from the moment Beyoncé hit the stage, it was clear that she came to discuss her bittersweet life as detailed in "Lemonade."
Queen Bey announced her arrival with "Formation," the song she introduced at the Super Bowl in February. But this time the costumes and vibe this time were more bolero than Black Panther.
"If you know who you are and where you came from, say 'I slay,' " she implored after the opening number.
