Beyoncé 'I Am...' World Tour Concert Review

I will always speak the truth no matter what. And I'm about to speaketh da truffus now.

I don't go to many live shows because I like to spend my money on artists who I believe are worth seeing. I've seen Brandy [don't ask, that was a loooooooooong time ago], Linkin Park with Jay-Z, Mariah Carey [twice], New Kids on The Block, Prince and Beyoncé. Come September I'm going to see Coldplay with Jay-Z at Wembley Stadium.

Mariah is my favourite female artist, Linkin Park my favourite group and Prince my favourite male artist. I saw him at the same venue, London's O2, two years ago and the man was stellar. Just stellar. He's one of those artists if he's doing a show in Vegas or China it's well worth just going and making a vacation out of it. Who would top Prince in terms of entertainment value on stage? It would be hard to top Prince.

Although, Beyoncé topped him, and she trounced Mariah as far as live shows go. Now I've been a Mimi fan for close to 20 years. So you know I'm being unbiased if I'm saying Bey gave a better show than Mariah ever could.

Costumes, stage productions, dancers, vocal ability on stage all hands down beat Mariah. I can't even front. Yes my girl can hit high notes galore, but the power behind Bey's voice, I'll just have to stand up and give her her rightful props. Seriously.

Live, Mariah sounds as good as the album.
Live, Beyoncé sounds better than the album.

I have all of Mariah live concerts on DVD and VHS [as only true fans would] and the last one 'The Adventures of Mimi' WTF was that? I am STILL MAD about that DVD. I've watched it once and was disappointed as hell, never played it again. Vision of Love performed like what? Stage costumes looking like who? Listen and watch below and see why I'm vex. Mariah has lacked live vocally for some years now. I'll always give her comeback credit and being in the game for so long, and having broken as many records as she has, but after seeing Bey on Monday night, she has nothing to worry about with anyone coming to steal her shine.

It's not until a video montage of Destiny's Child and solo efforts are played that you realise the magnitude of what she's done musically in 12 years and still a few years shy of 30. It dawned on me that this girl literally is a global superstar. But you can't knock her hustle, cause she's doing it, and doing it well.

She strutted, she flew, she dipped, she twerked, she popped, she floated, she got crunk during the 2 hour show as well as delivering vocally on point. The vocals that really stood out for me was during 'Ava Maria' if you've seen the live show, you'll know what I'm talking about.

*Note to Mariah...bring that full voice back, cause the whispers ain't cutting it.

Bey has a very strong and confident voice. Her vocal ability seems effortless, and how she remembers all those dance moves during a show is beyond me.

She performed Single Ladies just like in the video, and came out to a Deja Vu/Crazy in Love medley doing the infamous booty shake dance to the "uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, na na na" parts and gave the crowd what they wanted and then some.

I knew I was going to be entertained at this concert, which is one of the main reasons I bought a ticket. After seeing her in a humble non-Sasha light on the X-Factor with Alexandra Burke in December I started to warm to her a little. I was not a 'hater' of Beyoncé's, I was just a truth talker on 'the forum' if she irked me I made my point clear. I take NONE of it back and won't. I still think after this tour she needs to take a break from the performing and albums for a minute cause too much Bey can be overkill and has been for the past decade or so.

But you know something, I can see why she won't siddown. Just for a second I wish I had pushy parents who forced me to dance and sing and become a huge superstar, because performing that show looked like a hell of a lot of fun. After seeing that would I like to be Bey for a day. I think I would. It was pure energy, even during the ballads.

I think you get the gist that I loved this show, and really do not think it'll be my last Beyoncé concert in my lifetime. I HAVE TO see her again live.

Whether you like her or not, [and I steered toward the 'not so much' side] seeing her live is one of those shows you have to see before she hits MJ status talking about an end of the road tour.

I was on the floor section in B1 and directly to my right I noticed her cousin/PA Angela Beyincé, I also noticed a former Top of the Pops dancer, and also Sade. Yep Sade was in the house. Now this woman needs a new look. Same tired ponytail, red lips and hoop earrings.

She's coming out with a new album this year. *YAWN* I can't stand Sade's music, Americans love her. I find her so, so dry, and her music is only good for background music after a dinner party, where you and your friends are at the coffee stage before calling it a night. The only songs I liked of hers were 'No Ordinary Love' and 'By Your Side.' I remember watching a concert of hers Live in San Francisco, standing there barefoot, looking gorgeous but just dull. Oh my days.

She did look beautiful and flawless, I'll give her that much. Hmmm...but I wonder if she's still wanted in Jamaica?

After all that, I gotta give Ms Knowles her props! A consummate professional and a great show 10/10.

And who woulda thought and from me of all people.

The Purple one Reigns yet again!

There were no words to describe Friday night’s performance of the smallest, yet mightiest king of all things musical. On this 21 night London run of sell out gigs of his greatest hits mixed with recent tracks from Musicology, 3121 and the latest release Planet Earth, Prince has said that this will be the last time the great classics will be performed live. For once something great has come to London, and don't we feel privileged that the Minneapolis native chose the UK for a 3 week stint and the final resting place for his classics to be heard.

Thank god someone actually turned this waste of space venue, the O2 arena ("the building formerly known as the Millennium Dome") into a great London concert venue which will certainly give Wembley Arena a run for it's money. We, the taxpayers, shelled out over £700 million to get this place built in the first place only to be left a defunct venue of pure non-interest as 'The Dome'. Only in the last month since it's official launch, Justin Timberlake & Timbaland, Barbara Streisand, Bon Jovi, soon to be the Rolling Stones, Elton John and now Prince has taken over and graced it's stage at the O2 and the IndigO2 for official after show parties, (one of which I have a ticket for next week on the 14^th, whether Prince decides to turn up and jam for a few tunes is another matter, if not, I’ll have a good old time just partying.) A once was lifeless space in Docklands being maintained and paid for by us, is now the home to some of the globes greatest talent in a classy and well put together venue.

Back on the to main man himself: Can somebody please tell me, how a man a smidgen shy of 50 years old, 5’2 in height, wears heels and make up and is sometimes (think back to his symbol and slave drawn on his face days) just a lil ‘out there’ crazy, be so overly sexy? Yes overly sexy! I just don’t get it, neither do a lot of men I suppose either. But his stage presence alone, the ability to sing, prance around on stage, and those overdrawn guitar riffs played with such ease. Put that all together with the mystery that surrounds the Purple one and I can see why. You don’t see height with this man, whereas you would with another. Whether deemed strange or weird. You just see musical genius. And that's exactly what he gave us on Friday night.

You really cannot begin to appreciate this man or his music until you see him live. Purple Rain came out way back in 1984 and has been deemed by many as one of the greatest songs ever written, not to sure if the movie will ever be hailed as great as the song, but it's definitely now a cult movie. It’s definitely #1 on my list and that’s saying something being a die-hard Mariah Carey fan. Of Purple Rain as you hear the infamous guitar riff that precedes the 10 minute version he delivered on Friday night, there were deafening screams, lighters and anything that lit (including cell phones) were in the air along with the harmonious crowd singing the infamous “woooh ooooh oooh ooh”, which doesn’t appear till ¾ of the way into the song, along with his guitar solo from beneath the symbol shaped stage before he rose to sing "I never meant to cause you any sorrow", I had to laugh to myself it was almost like a spiritual moment, it was the only way to describe it. Funnily enough reading on some Prince forums after the show, many others had described the performance of Purple Rain exactly the same way.

You can tell whether you loved Prince from the first day he appeared on the scene in the 70’s or you just got dragged along to the concert as you had nothing else better to do on a Friday night, the fans and hangers on alike would not have been satisfied with his electrifying concert performance until this infamous song, now 23 years old, had be performed.

If word is indeed true that, this concert is a farewell to the old material of Prince and he’s never to perform these classics again, then I’m glad that in my lifetime I was able to see one of the greatest artists ever lived to have performed them live, especially Purple Rain, you can’t get better than that alone! That's a moment within itself. - Naomi Miller

Friday's Playlist

01. Down By The Riverside
02. Satisfied
03. Cream
04. U Got The Look
05. Musicology
06. Play That Funky Music
07. Wonderful World
08. Joy In Repetition
09. Anotherloverholenyohead (feat. Rock Lobster)
10. Peach
11. Lolita
12. Black Sweat
13. Kiss
14. I Feel For You
15. Controversy (feat. Housequake chant)

Encore 1
16. Purple Rain

Encore 2
17. Crazy (feat. One Nation Under A Groove chant)
18. Let's Go Crazy

Encore 3
19. Take Me With U
20. Guitar.