Culture

Renaissance World Tour: “Pride starts now” with Beyoncé’s queerest extravaganza ever

Sam Damshenas

Photos: Mason Poole for Live Nation

Beyoncé has just delivered her queerest show to date.

After paying homage to the Black and Brown LGBTQ+ pioneers of ballroom with her lauded seventh studio album, the pop icon continued to showcase her allyship during the opening night of the Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm, Sweden (10 May).

As the show began, rainbow colours were projected on the screen; resembling static bars that appear on a television when there’s no signal. It was, in fact, the groundbreaking Progress Pride Flag.

(Read our brief history on the queer term “mother!” because you’ll be hearing it a lot throughout this article.)

The aforementioned flag includes the six rainbow hues in Gilbert Baker’s original iconic design, but includes the trans colours and black and brown tones to better reflect the trans community, queer people of colour and to honour the lives of those who died from complications with AIDS.

The designer, Daniel Quasar, said their aim was to “shift focus and emphasise to what is important in our current community climate.”

Fans lauded the star for the inclusive message, with one Twitter user writing: “BEYONCÉ INCORPORATING THE PROGRESS PRIDE FLAG INTO HER STAGE IS A NEW LEVEL OF MOTHERING WOAH.”

Another wrote: “Beyonce’s concert is centered around black queer culture, the progressive pride flag is in fullscreen and the dancers are part of the ballroom/vogue scene, in this climate against the LGBTQ+ community? Mother has our back.”

As well as the Progress Pride Flag, Beyoncé made sure the Renaissance World Tour was her campest to date as she hosted “KNTY News” in a fierce bee costume, introduced Reneigh the disco horse and hosted a ball.

Not only that, the tour made another inclusive statement with gender-neutral bathrooms. That’s – what? – mother.

See how the queer Beyhive reacted to her queerest extravaganza to date below.

https://twitter.com/spiceeyysugar/status/1656330437973667841

https://twitter.com/B7Album/status/1656332605019521027

https://twitter.com/IAMGLUTEUS/status/1656382207580164100

The Renaissance World Tour will continue this May and June across Europe, including five sold-out shows at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It will then make its way through North America in July, August and September.

Led by the Big Freedia-assisted banger Break My Soul, which topped the Billboard Hot 100, Renaissance received universal critical acclaim for its carefree, club-ready nature.

As mentioned, the album is Beyoncé’s love letter to the LGBTQ+ community with tributes to the Black and LGBTQ+ pioneers of disco, funk, house music and ballroom and production from a plethora of queer artists and producers.

Cozy, which samples Ts Madison’s viral video Bitch I’m Black and features production from Honey Dijon, charted in the US top 40 – making them the first Black trans women in history to do so.

Ahead of its release, Beyoncé celebrated the various individuals who inspired the album. She praised her Uncle Jonny, who was gay and passed away due to complications with HIV/AIDS, describing him as her “godmother and the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and the culture that serve as as inspiration for this album”.

In the statement, the star continued to honour “all of the pioneers who originate culture, to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognised for far too long,” seemingly referencing queer icons who never achieved mainstream success due to their sexuality and/or gender identity.

The most acclaimed album of 2022, Renaissance received nine Grammy Award nominations and won four, making Beyoncé the most-awarded person in the ceremony’s history in the process.

Check out the remaining dates for the Renaissance World Tour below.

EUROPE

NORTH AMERICA

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