Beyoncé's Big Night

Beyoncé's big night: Superstar singer returns home and feels the love at high-energy show

There are a lot of bleary-eye Beyoncé fans this morning. The superstar singer brought The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour to her hometown Monday night and just about blew the roof off the Toyota Center with a high-energy, thrill-packed, two-hour show that lasted until almost midnight and left the sold-out crowd exhausted from a nearly non-stop sing-along dance marathon.

"I'm home," she said to deafening applause just before launching into her third song of the evening, "Flaws and All." "Houston means so much to me. No matter where I go, it's who I am. I hope I make you guys proud."

"I'm home," she said to deafening applause. "Houston means so much to me. No matter where I go, it's who I am. I hope I make you guys proud."

The singer has been on tour nearly non-stop since April, having already appeared in 47 European and U.S. cities on an extended jaunt that will last through December. Yet she made it seem like she was performing the show for the first time with an undisguised glee to be in front of a hometown crowd and a near-pathological desire to entertain.

Backed by an 11-piece female band, three back-up singers known as The Mamas, several female dancers and two male dancers called Les Twins, Beyoncé whipped through 24 songs — a mix of hip hop-tinged hits, female empowerment anthems and irresistible dance tunes (how can you not shake to "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)?") — and eight costume changes. She and the dancers almost never stopped moving (she should patent a workout program of knee bends and hair flips) and while some of the numbers were a little cheesy — as she sang "Diva," the dancers twirled around her with feather fans like a Busby Berkeley musical —they were almost always riveting.

The set-up of the show played to her strengths. The entire floor of the Toyota Center was general admission standing room only, so fans packed close to the main stage at one end and a secondary stage at the other end. Nothing kills a show faster than older people who have paid a lot for floor seats and never stand up (Eric Clapton's spring show was a prime example); that certainly wasn't a problem here as the enthusiasm of the crowd, mostly under 35 and a mosaic of Houston's diversity, provided an electric spark that seemed to energize the singer.

Toward the end of the show, she flew above the crowd like Peter Pan to the other stage even closer to the audience, where she sang three of her biggest hits, "Irreplaceable," Love on Top," and the Destiny's Child hit, "Survivor," and declared, "I love this part of the show because I'm close to you guys."

As a gift to her Houston audience, she threw in “Bow Down,” a chopped and screwed ode to her present success and her childhood in H-Town. It's the first time she has performed the song in concert.

She also positioned ecstatic fans near the stage for the closer, the hit "Halo," and waded among her admirers as she hit all the high notes.

While other singers might be loathe to play other performers' dance hits before they take to the stage, Beyoncé had no such worries. The audience grooved to songs by Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake and the whole side of the arena stood up and danced The Wobble as they waited for the singer to take the stage around 9:40 p.m. By the time she launched into her first song, "Run the World (Girls)," with all-out dance choreography, the audience was primed and ready to party.

And she didn't stop. Whether it was writhing atop a piano in a sequined blue catsuit and matching heels to the sensual song "1 + 1," channeling her Sasha Fiercest in a green leopard mini and shimmying like Tina Turner to "Why Don't You Love Me?" or adding a military cadence to a mashup of "If I Were a Boy" with The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony," Beyoncé commanded the crowd's attention.

By the time she got to "Halo," preceded by a Whitney Houston-worthy version of "I Will Always Love You," her voice was almost spent. But she wouldn't stop and closed the concert with a powerhouse vocal performance.

Earlier in the evening, she told the audience that she was so lucky to have their support. "I will never take it for granted," she vowed.

We believe her.

Beyonce commanded the stage like a true music superstar in her Houston concert.

Photo courtesy of Parkwood Entertainment

Beyonce commanded the stage like a true music superstar in her Houston concert.

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Movie Review

Billie Eilish takes fans behind the scenes in immersive 3D tour film

Photo by Henry Hwu/courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Billie Eilish in Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.

In 2021, at the tender age of 19, singer Billie Eilish was already the subject of a documentary, The World’s a Little Blurry. At that point, she had only released one album, so the film threatened to feel too early for such treatment. The ensuing five years have only made her a bigger star, though, so in many ways that movie now feels prescient for the person on display in the new concert documentary with the unwieldy title of Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D.

Directed by Eilish and blockbuster filmmaker James Cameron, the film takes viewers inside Eilish’s 2024-2025 tour in support of her latest album, 2023’s Hit Me Hard and Soft. Filmed mostly at her series of shows in Manchester, England, the movie is a showcase for Eilish’s music, but it also serves as a smaller exploration of the type of person she is, as well as the impact she has had on her legion of fans.

The draw of the film is the use of Cameron’s beloved 3D technology, which he has employed in each of the three Avatar films. Unlike in those films, where the 3D has the odd effect of making the visuals too realistic for their own good, the technique brings an intimacy to the large-scale show that underscores the unique bond the singer has with her supporters.

Eilish and Cameron go back and forth between performances at the concert to behind-the-scenes sequences, detailing the enormous effort it takes to put on a show like that and how Eilish spends her time getting ready for it. As in The World’s a Little Blurry, this film continues to portray the singer as down-to-Earth, someone who yearns to maintain the connection to her fans that she’s had since she released her first single, “Ocean Eyes,” 10 years ago.

And as the many emotional songs in Eilish’s concert playlist prove, the feeling from the crowd is mutual. While Eilish has multiple bangers like “Bad Guy,” “Therefore I Am,” and the Charli XCX collaboration “Guess,” it’s the sad songs like “Everything I Wanted,” “Happier Than Ever,” and the Oscar-winning Barbie anthem, “What Was I Made For?” that hit the hardest. The depth of feeling emanating from her many sobbing fans singing along to crushing songs cannot be understated.

For audiences of the film, though, it’s the breadth of camera angles and shot choices that make it truly dynamic. There are cameras everywhere, including in the crowd, inside a cube at the center of the stage that rises and descends, following Eilish as she traipses every inch of the long, rectangular stage, and even a small one Eilish uses to bring an extra personal touch to the in-arena screen. Combined, they capture the complete energy of the concert, something that is not always the case in a film of this type.

Eilish has almost as many movies — two — as she does albums — three — which borders on overkill for a singer of her age. But both her music and the movies show her to be a person who knows the responsibility of being a celebrity, someone who understands that her fans are the reason she’s famous at all. Her career may go up or down from here, but it’s clear she’s already made a huge impact on those who love her most.

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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft - The Tour Live in 3D opens in theaters on May 8.

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