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As the lights dimmed in Arrowhead stadium on the final night of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, the superstar prepared to drop a surprise announcement.
On the signature jumbo screens that towered behind her stage, a video rolled at the very end of the concert. While most aspects of the tour remained constant at each stop, it was the first time this particular video played in all 56 shows.
This was the official trailer to the highly-anticipated film RENAISSANCE: A film by Beyoncé.
Rumors of a concert-inspired movie swirled for days leading up to the final stop of the tour. At just after midnight central time, those rumors were confirmed – at the concert and on social media.
“When I am performing, I am nothing but free,” Beyoncé says as the trailer opens.
“The goal for this tour was to create a place where everyone is free. And no one is judged. Unique.”
“Start over, start fresh,” she continues, “create the new: that’s what the Renaissance is about.”
By dawn, the trailer had nearly 2 million likes on the artist’s personal page. Advance tickets are already selling in Regal, Cinemark and AMC theaters across the country.
The trailer marks the next chapter in the Renaissance saga; one that has defined a culture and captivated millions.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour breaks records across the globe
Over the course of 144 days, more than 2.2 million people packed stadiums across the globe to see the queen perform. The most lucrative world tour by a female artist ever, Beyoncé’s Renaissance grossed more than $500 million and added an estimated $4.6 billion boost to the US economy in less than five months.
The show broke records across the globe.
In Belgium’s King Baudouin Stadium, Beyoncé drew the highest attendance of any female artists this century. At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in England, Beyoncé was the first artist to ever sell out five consecutive shows. She smashed sale records stadiums in Nashville, Louisville, Detroit, New York City, Washington, D.C., Charlotte and Atlanta. In fact, Beyoncé became the first woman and first Black artist ever to headline a show in Charlotte’s Bank of America stadium.
Concerts became a place of unity, joy and acceptance
Despite these records, Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour became more than an economic powerhouse; it was a cultural phenomenon.
At each stadium, people across all lines of difference joined, clad in their best silver-inspired outfits: for one night, all members of the House of Chrome.
The show elevated queer and Black culture to new heights; celebrating both through song, music, fashion and dance.
The concerts became spaces of collective unity, joy and acceptance in a time where division and bigotry feel inescapable. In no other place would stadiums filled with 50,000 or 60,000 people fall completely silent at a moment’s notice in a community effort to win the famed “mute” challenge.
Each song at each stage in each city was a powerful and special moment captured in time. It was a piece of living history where those lucky enough to be in attendance walked away thinking to themselves “we were just a part of that”.
That, of course, was the superstar’s intent: to create an experience for people that would never leave them.
“At any point they could close their eyes and be right back there,” Beyoncé says about the Renaissance World Tour experience, “and take it with them.”
“I feel liberated,” she says, looking to the camera. “I have transitioned into a new animal.”
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