Queen B generates buzz over Saturday show
September 22, 2016
Anyone crazy in love with Beyoncé has been anxiously awaiting the Queen’s return to New Orleans.
Beyoncé will perform in New Orleans for the first time since 2014 on Sept. 24 for her Formation World Tour. The tour’s associated album, “Lemonade,” Beyoncé’s most critically acclaimed yet, sold 485,000 copies in its first week. The tour is entirely arena-based, and the New Orleans concert will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Beyoncé’s initial tour dates for the Formation Tour did not include New Orleans, something many fans and critics were shocked by due to her self-professed connection to the city, and the fact that the “Formation” music video was largely New Orleans-themed, though filmed entirely in Los Angeles. The Sept. 24 date was added after the initial tour announcements.
Her mother, Tina Knowles, is of Creole ancestry, and Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, own a home in New Orleans, which is how many justify her frequent references to the state and New Orleans. Others criticize her for her recreation of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, an event she was largely unaffected by, in the “Formation” video. The video features the singer lying on a New Orleans Police Department car in the middle of post-Katrina flooding.
At the MTV Video Music Awards this year, Beyoncé won best female video for the controversial video. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated the award to “the people of New Orleans.”
Many lauded Beyoncé for reminding the nation that much remains to be accomplished post-Katrina, and that many neighborhoods are still suffering after the 2005 hurricane. Others criticized the singer for neglecting to call attention to the flooding that, at the time of the Video Music Awards, had just devastated much of Louisiana, though it did not affect New Orleans.
Whether you think Beyoncé is appropriating New Orleans culture, or you think Queen Bey can do no wrong, she is sure to put on quite a powerful performance on Saturday — because she slays.
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