After weeks of speculation, Beyoncé has officially confirmed a world tour in support of Renaissance, scheduled to make stops in stadiums across the world in 2023.
The musician confirmed the tour will begin in Europe this May before landing in North America on July 8 with back-to-back nights at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The tour will make stops in Philadelphia, Nashville, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and more.
The Renaissance tour marks Beyoncé’s first extended stretch on the road since the On the Run tour, which made 48 stops across North America and Europe in 2018. Those shows were proceeded by the singer’s redefining Coachella performance, which arrived as the Netflix concert film Homecoming the following year.
Ahead of the Renaissance tour, Beyoncé performed her first headlining concert in four years at the grand reveal of Atlantis the Royal, a new luxury hotel in Dubai. Despite requesting that no footage be captured by the invite-only audience during the private event, nearly the entire show had been uploaded in varying quality across social platforms within hours.
The clips sparked multiple viral moments, the most notable being Beyoncé’s new vocal arrangements on familiar records, including “Drunk in Love” and “Countdown.” The private concert, notably, did not include any Renaissance tracks on the set list, even the chart-topping lead single “Break My Soul.”
The tour announcement arrives as a saving grace for a starved BeyHive, still yearning for any meaningful visual companion pieces to the singer’s acclaimed seventh studio album. If Beyoncé is heading on the road again, maybe the wait for the music videos she teased in the record release trailer won’t be too much longer.
In the meantime, the music itself is only getting better with time. Crowned Rolling Stone‘s top album of 2022, Renaissance bottled up the warm feeling of dancing through the summer days and nights for easy access even during the frigid winter season. The musical highlight of the year, the record celebrated Black and queer culture through all of its obscure samples and sounds, guest appearances from the likes of Grace Jones, and homages to decades of distinct dance club eras.
