Mrs Carter took the edge over Jay Z in the duo's On The Run tour, says James Hall
Co-headlining shows don’t get any bigger than this. Although they have been a couple for 12 years, married for six and have regularly collaborated on record, Jay Z and Beyoncé have not toured together until now. Described by Rolling Stone as “far and away” the summer’s hottest ticket, the king of hip-hop and the queen of pop’s On The Run North American stadium jaunt will see them play to 850,000 people over 19 dates.
The tour has been subjected to relentless scrutiny; some reports have suggested that ticket sales have been sluggish, while others have claimed that all is not rosy between Mr and Mrs Carter. On the morning of Sunday night’s New Orleans concert, the New York Post wrote that a split is imminent and that the couple have taken a marriage counselor on the road with them. Amid all this excitement, it’s fair to say that the prospect of this show was spicier than a bowl of Louisiana gumbo.
The couple wisely eschewed the tired co-headlining formula of each party playing a truncated set on their own before joining together for a rousing finale. Rather, the two-and-a-half hour concert played like a mixtape, with Beyoncé and Jay Z duetting, guesting on each other’s tracks or taking the stage individually for a song or two before handing over to the other. Not only did this result in a varied and thrilling show, but it also removed the need for an awkward backstage conversation between the Carters about who would go first, something one imagines would be a problem for a couple who’ve sold 300 million records between them.
They opened with the duet ’03 Bonnie and Clyde before Beyoncé had the stage to herself for Upgrade U and Crazy in Love. During the latter Jay Z returned, then did Show Me What You Got. And so the tag-team evening continued, with both performers as slick and inscrutable as the other. The very-nearly-full Superdome lapped it up, displaying moves so often lacking at UK mega-gigs.
The couple’s whole “gangsters on the run” shtick - played out between songs in expensively-made black and white videos - was a little grating given that they are two of the most successful businesspeople in America. Beyoncé endorses L’Oreal and H&M, hardly signifiers of a crooked lifestyle. And the tour will gross around $100 million. At up to $300 a ticket, this is as corporate as it gets.
So who won in this game of musical Mr and Mrs? I’m sorry Mr Carter, but your wife edged it.
While Jay Z’s repertoire had a brooding intensity and swagger, Beyoncé’s songbook had a breadth that his didn’t. Her voice was exceptional, battering the dome’s rafters. Visually she also had certain built-in advantages. Jay Z rapped alone during his songs, the emphasis being on his impressive flows. Beyoncé, meanwhile, had a troupe of up to 10 dancers and - there’s no other way to put this - a regularly-deployed and wiggled posterior. On Drunk in Love she spun around on a chair in a big-sleeved black lace number coupled with knee-high leather boots, like Stevie Nicks meets Catwoman.
About two-thirds of the way through the show something extraordinary happened. As if responding to speculation about their marriage, Beyoncé sang an emotional rendition of Lauren Hill’s Ex-Factor, one of the great break-up songs of recent decades. Immediately afterwards, Jay Z performed Song Cry accompanied by a video of his wife in a wedding dress being gunned down. Beyoncé then appeared in an actual wedding dress for Resentment (sample lyric: “Loving you was easy once upon a time”). This was either a nasty break-up being played out in public or a knowing piece of grand theatre.
The last song, Young Forever, was accompanied by a video montage of the Carters’ child Blue Ivy. The couple watched, beaming, before walking arm in arm offstage. It was impossible to unpick what had just happened. It was just another element in an occasionally perplexing but always electrifying evening.
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