The energy was electric as crowds adorned in chrome and cowboy hats gathered at the Caesars Superdome on Wednesday, Sept. 27, to attend the New Orleanian leg of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. 

Initially the final date, Wednesday’s concert was the second-to-last of 56 shows in the tour. It preceded the Kansas City, Missouri show, which was rescheduled from Sept. 18 to Oct. 1. 

“RENAISSANCE,” Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 following its release on July 9, 2022. The tour, which boasts a three-hour long set of elaborate visuals and costumes, began on May 10 in Stockholm, Sweden. It has attracted fans and celebrities alike, with global superstars such as Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Frank Ocean and Paul McCartney all making appearances to attend the show. Forbes estimates the tour will gross as high as $2.4 billion, surpassing Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” by over $500 million.

With Beyoncé’s long career and numerous accolades, it is no surprise that fans showed up in hordes. The Superdome was flooded with lines of thousands to enter, delaying the initial 8 p.m. start time for over an hour and a half to 9:40 p.m. 

Beyoncé opened with the title track to her debut solo album, “Dangerously In Love,” and warmly addressed the crowd as she rose to the stage: “New Orleans, I love you, I love you.” She commanded the stage in a neon yellow-green dress, kicking off the show with a spellbinding assertion of her vocal prowess. 

After a few more of the love ballads characteristic of Beyoncé’s early solo career, such as “Flaws and All” and “1+1,” the show transitioned to the genre-bending disco, house and pop tracks of “RENAISSANCE.”

It was evident that every detail in the “Renaissance World Tour” — from the futuristic, glamourous visuals to the choreography, artful set design and costuming — was meticulously curated to execute Beyoncé’s vision of “RENAISSANCE,” an album with a concept she described as “a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom.” 

The show was most certainly such a place, embodying an invigoration of the spirit. It was also an ode to the Black and queer communities who pioneered the house and ballroom movements “RENAISSANCE” was so heavily inspired by. Overall, the Renaissance tour was a celebration of love, life and the freedom of expression.

Another element that brought the Superdome show to life was Beyoncé’s ties to Louisiana.

In “Formation,” Beyoncé proudly declares, “My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana / You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma.” Beyoncé’s Louisiana Creole ancestry comes from her mother’s side, as Knowles-Lawson’s parents hailed from Iberia and Vermilion parishes and were of mixed French, African, Native American and Spanish descent. In a 2020 podcast interview with Heather Thompson, Knowles-Lawson explains that “Beyoncé” was her maiden name; however, family members often spell the name “Beyincé” or “Boyancé” as a result of initial misspellings on clerical documents.

To the crowd’s excitement on Wednesday’s show, Beyoncé shouted out her heritage during “Formation” by repeating “momma Louisiana” a few extra times. 

However, Beyoncé’s New Orleanian affiliations do not end there: she has performed in the Superdome more than half a dozen times. Additionally, two tracks on Renaissance, “BREAK MY SOUL” and “ENERGY,” sample “Explode” by Big Freedia, the New Orleans musician who is known for bringing bounce music to the mainstream. 

Freedia was in attendance on Wednesday’s show and even received a shoutout from Queen B, but was not invited onstage to perform alongside her.

The energy from the crowd was strong the whole time, but lit up during anthems such as “Love on Top” and “MY POWER,” which featured a dancing appearance from Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy.

The night finished as Beyoncé was lifted from a glittering horse into the air to glide around the stadium and wish the concert attendees farewell. “Y’all know I love y’all,” she told the thousands of adoring fans, “This place is a second home for me.”