The Formation World Tour

The Formation World Tour

Tour by Beyoncé
Promotional poster for the tour
Associated album	Lemonade
Start date	April 27, 2016 (2016-04-27)
End date	October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02)
Legs	2
Number of shows	32 in North America 17 in Europe 49 total
Box office	$61.5 million
Beyoncé concert chronology

The Formation World Tour is the seventh concert tour by American singer Beyoncé in support of her sixth studio album, Lemonade. The all-stadium tour was announced following her guest appearance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. The tour started on April 27, 2016 in Miami, Florida and concludes on October 2, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. The tour's title is in reference to Beyoncé's 2016 song "Formation".

The tours production and staging was described as being a "game-changer" for stadium concerts, and consisted of a 60 feet tall rotating LED box referred to as the 'Monolith', a treadmill runway and a secondary stage that stored and produced 2,000 gallons of water. The theme of the tour was described as following the same linear chapters to that of the tours supporting album Lemonade, with each rotation of the aforementioned 'Monolith' representing a new chapter of the show. The tour has currently received rave reviews from critics, commending Beyoncé for her performance and vocal abilities as well as the tours production.

Background and development

The tour was announced following Beyoncé's guest appearance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show.

On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé released "Formation" for free on the music streaming service TIDAL and its accompanying music video on her official YouTube. The following day on February 7, 2016, Beyoncé performed "Formation" during her guest appearance at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. Immediately after the performance, a commercial aired announcing The Formation World Tour, which kicks off in Miami on April 27, with the first pre-sales going on sale just two days after the announcement on February 9, 2016.

Leading up to the tour announcement, Beyoncé was praised and criticized over her new song and Black Panther-influenced costume for the Super Bowl halftime performance. As a result of this, the hashtags "#BoycottBeyonce" and "#IStandWithBeyonce" begun trending on social media platforms such as Twitter. A group of protesters also planned to stage an "anti-Beyoncé" rally outside of the NFL's headquarters in New York City on the day general sale of tickets went for sale. However, the planned rally was met with zero protesters and instead dozens of Beyoncé supporters who held a counter-protest. The tour's associated album Lemonade was released four days prior to the start of the tour. In a press release by Live Nation Entertainment following the tours announcement, it was revealed that The Formation World Tour would be supporting local United Way of America programs, as well as the Flint water crisis. In the same press release, Beyoncé's partnership with THX was announced, with the purpose of providing the highest level of audio quality at concerts for the duration of the tour. Following on from the aforementioned controversy over "Formation", The Miami Fraternal Order of Police were reported to be pushing for a national boycott of police officers working the security for the concert, ahead of the tour's opening night in Miami. Other police departments reportedly pushing to avoid the concert included Tampa, Nashville and Tennessee, however a Tampa police spokesperson stated that these 'boycotts' had been blown "way out of proportion".

Rehearsals for the tour took place at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, which was rented by Live Nation for $745,000. TSA board member Thomas Scott spoke on the large-scale production of the tour after seeing the stage during rehearsals, stating "that's one of the largest stages they ever put up, I don't think I've seen a stage that size". During the same rehearsal period, members of Beyoncé's team met with more than 20 Tampa leaders, including the Tampa Police Chief, for a private luncheon in Ybor City, in which they discussed ways to make Tampa a better city, resulting in Beyoncé making multiple financial pledges to certain initiatives.

Stage

The stage for the tour was described as "a game-changer for what can be achieved in a stadium touring environment. The entire collaboration from scenic, to structure, to mechanics was custom-made to create an epic experience for both Beyoncé and her fans". Designed by Es Devlin and engineered and built collaboratively by Stageco and Tait Towers, the tours stage features a centrepiece of a revolving 60 feet tall box, comprised of video screen walls. Known as the 'Monolith', Devlin spoke on the box stating of "wanting this to be the tallest object in the stadium, a piece of kinetic stadium architecture the equivalent of a seven-story, revolving LED building". Devlin also commented the box was perceived as "a giant 3D billboard, a huge LED armor within which Beyoncé is revealed as an all-too-human-scale, real-life figure" and noted that Beyoncé was heavily involved in the creative process of every inch of stages design. The rotations of the box were said to represent a new chapter of the show, in a similar chapter line to that of Lemonade. The box takes approximately 4 minutes to achieve one rotation.

The stage also consists of a runway, which also acts as a treadmill leading onto a B-stage that fills with a pool of water. The treadmill on the catwalk was designed to be waterproof in order to withstand unpredictable weather found in outdoor stadiums. The B-stage stores 2,000 gallons of water inside of it and takes approximately 10 minutes to fill up, which occurs without the audience even realising. The inspiration for the water within the B-stage was inspired by the tours supporting album Lemonade, in particularly the song "Forward", as the songs message is described as a turning point from anger to forgiveness. "The pool of water is the antithesis to the fire-spitting monolith; the most joyful, redemptive sequence of the show takes place here, from "Freedom" through to "Halo"", stated Devlin.

Fashion

Beyoncé worked with a variety of designers for her on-stage costumes during the tour. All styled by Beyoncé's stylist, Marni Senofonte, references of the tours costumes were compared to that of the wild west, the "antebellum south", Africa and BDSM. The opening outfit consisted of a Victorian-inspired look created by Dean and Dan Caten (DSQUARED²), complete with a crystal embroidered bustier and an oversized western style hat. The hats for Beyoncé and her dancers were made by Baron Hats. The outfit also included leather gloves and a "tattoo lace" bodysuit. Balmain too produced a Victorian themed floral white bodysuit, which contained hand-embroidered pearls, crystals and glass beads. The outfit was accompanied with matching suede boots. Peter Dundas of Roberto Cavalli produced an all over black crystal embroidered bodysuit for the tour, which also included gold metallic thread and accompanying knee high tiger print boots in a military style. Alessandro Michele working for Gucci designed a sequinned bodysuit for Beyoncé, incorporating a geometric print and a red mink fur coat. London based designer Atsuko Kudo designed and produced a more simple bodysuit for the tour, creating an all red latex outfit with shoulder pads and a ruffled neckline. Kudo also stated that in order to make the outfit, a life sized cast of Beyoncé was used in order to fit the latex accurately to her body. Beyoncé also requested to Kudo that the outfit was in sync with the antebellum theme which runs through the tours supporting album Lemonade]], which influence the inclusion of frills across the chest and scooping neckline. It was also noted how Beyoncé performed barefoot in water during one performance, whilst wearing a simple sequinned bodysuit. Beyoncé also sported a Givenchy haute couture by Riccardo Tisci bronze bodysuit, showing an exposed midriff.

During Beyoncé's hometown performance in Houston, Texas, Gucci provided another costume for Beyoncé: a custom bodysuit created with "ruched tulle and sequins and embellished with a black-beaded panther". Notable merchandise sold to fans during the tour included "Boycott Beyoncé" t-shirts, which were a nod to the aforementioned controversy Beyoncé received after her Super Bowl 50 halftime show.

Concert synopsis

Throughout the concert, a large, rotating LED screen is featured centre stage, projecting live images of Beyoncé and her twenty backup dancers to the audience. The concerts begins with Beyoncé performing "Formation", alongside her all female dancers shadowing her and performing a choreography. "Angry" red lighting and pyrotechnics are displayed as "Sorry", "Bow Down" and "Run the World (Girls)" are subsequently performed. "Baby Boy" and "Hold Up" are performed next, which then seamlessly transition into "Countdown". During this performance, Beyoncé and her dancers perform and walk down a catwalk leading to the middle of the crowd. Between sets and costume changes, video clips from Lemonade are projected onto the LED cube, as well as aerial dancers performing a choreography. Before performing "Me Myself and I" Beyoncé would often stop and talk to the crowd, speaking on the relationship she and the audience have with God and themselves. This act of the show was ended with a performance of "All Night" which Beyoncé stated was her favourite song from her aforementioned new album. "Don't Hurt Yourself" was performed with many interchangeable snippets of other songs including "Ring the Alarm" and "Independent Women". The next act consisted of Beyoncé and her dancers performing more up-tempo numbers, such as "Feeling Myself", "Yoncé", "Drunk in Love" and "Partition". Another costume change took place, and the show continued with Beyoncé and her dancers performing "Daddy Lessons" and "1+1". This was then followed by Beyoncé performing an a cappella rendition of "Love on Top", which was said to connect Beyoncé with her fans and break down the space between them.

The first of two tributes to Prince is seen as Beyoncé performs a rendition of "The Beautiful Ones". This is then followed by the large LED cube on stage lighting up in complete purple, as an original recording of "Purple Rain" is played to the audience. The stage is then seen to contain human sized boxes, in which Beyoncé and her dancers perform inside of, in sync to the 2014 remix of "Crazy in Love", which is then followed by "Naughty Girl". The final act of the show is performed in a large pool of water on the tours secondary stage. Here Beyoncé and her dancers perform a choreography and splash in the water to "Freedom", "Survivor", "End of Time" and the shows closing number, "Halo". During "Halo" Beyoncé sings alone, starting the performance on her knees in the pool of water. As the concert concludes, Beyoncé was described as standing on stage "drenched, hair sopping, makeup running and her exhausted body looking at once all but human".

Critical reception

Beyoncé performing bare footed in a shallow pool of water produced by the tours B-stage.

The opening night of the tour received rave reviews from critics. Hermione Hoby of The Guardian awarded the concert 5 stars, stating "She sounds, moves and looks like a goddess and most of us 'bow down' accordingly". Kelli Kennedy writing for the Associated Press noted that Beyoncé "slays at tour opening" and further commented "her commanding performance of "Freedom" served as reminder to the world that she 'breaks chains all by myself. I'm gonna keep running because a runner don't quit on herself'". Becky Randel of Billboard felt that emotion guided the mood for the evening and stated that "Bey was overcome when the audience knew all the lyrics to her new song, "Hold Up" and she often stopped to smile or nod at her exuberant BeyHive. Writing for Rolling Stone, Kat Bein said Beyoncé was "a prime example of entertainment and a vision of an artist at her apex" and later commented "the show was a visual feast as well as an emotional tour de force, packed with fireworks, confetti, rearranging stage designs and aerial dancers".

Other reviews from the North American leg of the tour included Melissa Ruggierie writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution online blog. Ruggierie praised Beyoncé's performance, particularly the strong vocals demonstrated in "1+1" and concluded "watching her command a stadium stage for two hours was another reminder of her limitless ambition". However, it was noted that Beyoncé did not speak to the crowd very often. After Beyoncé's hometown performance in Houston, Brandon Caldwell of the Houston Press introduced his article stating "Hours after the slaying, the wig snatching, the fitted snatching, the life getting, the boy byes and various curses of shock, amazement and confusion, I stood with a perplexed look on my face. How? How does Beyoncé do this? On this level? With this magnitude?". Lorraine Ali of the Los Angeles Times concluded her positive review of the Pasadena stop of the tour with "Soaking wet and sitting onstage alone, she left the audience with the closing number, "Halo". She’d been baptized and reborn into a less-perfect version of Queen Bey, allowing a more powerful Beyoncé to arise from that imperfection". Jim Harrington of the San Jose Mercury News began has article stating "there were so many moving parts -- a tremendous swirl of sharply choreographed dance routines, cool special effects, brilliant fireworks and other tactics for delighting tens of thousands", Harrington noted however that too many snippets of songs rather than their full versions were performed, feeling quality over quantity was missed. The first Canadian show of the tour in Edmonton was performed in cold and rainy conditions, with Beyoncé stating "Can you feel your fingers? I can’t feel mine" and "I have to say this is the coldest show I’ve ever done". Despite this, Sandra Sperounes of the Edmonton Journal commented "not even rain or bitter wind could stop our Ms. Flawless, our Survivor, our Queen Bey from dazzling an estimated 40,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium on a stormy Friday night." Sperounes concluded "the sun was nowhere to be found, but thanks to Bey’s brilliant set, the crowd left beaming with giddiness, girl power and generosity".

Commercial performance

Following the announcement of the tour, Beyoncé's website temporarily crashed, as a result of the post-Super Bowl advertisement. After the first round of North American ticket pre-sales, a second show at New York City's Citi Field was added to the itinerary, due to the high demand. During the first round of the European general sale, Beyoncé's performance at Amsterdam ArenA sold out within 20 minutes, prompting a waiting list to be opened and promoters attempting to organise a second show. Some Swedish fans were left unhappy due to the speed tickets sold out for the Friends Arena date of the tour, with complaints being made about the queueing system implemented by Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster apologised and stated "unfortunately, there were more who wanted tickets than what was available." The UK shows were met with huge commercial success, with all tickets being sold in under 30 minutes, including 90,000 tickets at London's Wembley Stadium. Many fans shared their displeasure online with not being able to secure tickets, and, as is usual with in-demand concert tours, many tickets found their way onto the secondary market place with a large markup on the original price. As a result of this, a second London show was added to the schedule, set for July 3, 2016. After the first round of dates for the North American general sale opened to the public, an additional show was added at Chicago's Soldier Field, due to the "overwhelming demand". Jesse Lawrence of Forbes reported that on the secondary market, tickets for The Formation World Tour were averaging at $432 before the tickets hit the general public. On May 5, 2016, a second wave of US dates were announced, including 7 new shows and a rescheduled date for the previously postponed Nashville show. After her performance in Minneapolis, it was announced that Beyoncé was the first female to headline a stadium show in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, held at TCF Bank Stadium.

On February 17, 2016, Live Nation gave a press release announcing that nearly 1 million tickets had already been sold for the tour in 48 hours, including sell-outs in Miami, Arlington, Pasadena, Toronto, Chicago, Foxborough, Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Sunderland, London, Manchester, Dublin, Amsterdam and Stockholm. Chairman of Live Nation Global Touring Arthur Fogel confirmed in an article with Billboard that The Formation World Tour had already exceeded $100 million in gross revenue, as well as stating that Nashville's Nissan Stadium date of the tour, which had gone on sale the day of the article, had already sold 33,000 tickets and grossed $4 million.

Setlist

This set list is representative of the show in Houston. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.

1. "Formation"
2. "Sorry"
3. "Kitty Kat" (Acapella version)
4. "Bow Down"
5. "Run the World (Girls)"
6. "Mine"
7. "Baby Boy"
8. "Hold Up"
9. "Countdown"
10. "Me, Myself & I"
11. "Runnin' (Lose It All)"
12. "All Night"
13. "Don't Hurt Yourself"
14. "Ring the Alarm" / "Independent Women"
15. "Diva"
16. "Flawless (Remix)"
17. "Feeling Myself"
18. "Yoncé"
19. "Drunk in Love"
20. "Rocket"
21. "Partition"
22. "Daddy Lessons"
23. "Love on Top" (Acapella version)
24. "1+1"
25. "The Beautiful Ones"
26. "Purple Rain" (Prince tribute) (Original recording)
27. "Crazy in Love (2014 remix)"
28. "Crazy in Love"
29. "Bootylicious"
30. "Naughty Girl"
31. "Party"
32. "Blow"
33. "Freedom"
34. "Survivor"
35. "End of Time" / Grown Woman
36. "Halo"

Notes

• During the opening night in Miami, Lil Wayne, Future, Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Yo Gotti and 2 Chainz joined DJ Khaled during the opening act.
• During the Tampa show, Kent Jones joined DJ Khaled during the opening act.
• During the Atlanta show, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, August Alsina, Yo Gotti, T.I., The Dream and Ludacris joined DJ Khaled during the opening act.
• During the Raleigh show, the stadium was evacuated during the middle of the concert after lighting had been spotted in the area. The show later resumed after almost an hour.
• During the Houston show, Slim Thug and Paul Wall joined DJ Khaled during the opening act.
• During the Pasadena show, Big Sean, Yo Gotti, Ne-Yo, Ty Dolla $ign, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Trey Songz, and Snoop Dogg joined DJ Khaled during the opening act.
• "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", Sweet Dreams and 7/11 were only performed only in Miami on April 27, 2016.

Shows

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening act, tickets sold, amount of available tickets, and gross revenue

Date	City	Country	Venue	Opening act	Attendance	Revenue
North America
April 27, 2016	Miami	United States	Marlins Park	DJ Khaled	36,656 / 36,656	$5,252,615
April 29, 2016	Tampa		Raymond James Stadium		40,818 / 40,818	$4,803,295
May 1, 2016	Atlanta		Georgia Dome		46,321 / 46,321	$5,801,725
May 3, 2016	Raleigh		Carter–Finley Stadium		38,292 / 38,292	$4,810,620
May 7, 2016	Houston		NRG Stadium		43,871 / 43,871	$6,412,280
May 9, 2016	Arlington		AT&T Stadium		42,235 / 42,235	$5,954,775
May 12, 2016	San Diego		Qualcomm Stadium		45,885 / 45,885	$6,028,115
May 14, 2016	Pasadena		Rose Bowl		55,736 / 55,736	$7,138,685
May 16, 2016	Santa Clara		Levi's Stadium		44,252 / 44,252	$6,201,845
May 18, 2016	Seattle		CenturyLink Field		46,529 / 46,529	$5,415,810
May 20, 2016	Edmonton	Canada	Commonwealth Stadium	N/A	39,299 / 39,299	$3,723,830
May 23, 2016	Minneapolis	United States	TCF Bank Stadium	DJ Drama	—	—
May 25, 2016	Toronto	Canada	Rogers Centre	DJ Scratch	—	—
May 27, 2016	Chicago	United States	Soldier Field	Rae Sremmurd	—	—
May 28, 2016				N/A
May 31, 2016	Pittsburgh		Heinz Field	Jermaine Dupri	—	—
June 3, 2016	Foxborough		Gillette Stadium	DJ Khaled	—	—
June 5, 2016	Philadelphia		Lincoln Financial Field		—	—
June 7, 2016	New York City		Citi Field		—	—
June 8, 2016
June 10, 2016	Baltimore		M&T Bank Stadium		—	—
June 12, 2016	Hershey		Hersheypark Stadium		—	—
June 14, 2016	Detroit		Ford Field		—	—
Europe
June 28, 2016	Sunderland	England	Stadium of Light	N/A	—	—
June 30, 2016	Cardiff	Wales	Principality Stadium		—	—
July 2, 2016	London	England	Wembley Stadium		—	—
July 3, 2016
July 5, 2016	Manchester		Emirates Old Trafford		—	—
July 7, 2016	Glasgow	Scotland	Hampden Park		—	—
July 9, 2016	Dublin	Ireland	Croke Park		—	—
July 12, 2016	Düsseldorf	Germany	Esprit Arena		—	—
July 14, 2016	Zürich	Switzerland	Letzigrund		—	—
July 16, 2016	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Amsterdam Arena		—	—
July 18, 2016	Milan	Italy	San Siro		—	—
July 21, 2016	Paris	France	Stade de France		—	—
July 24, 2016	Copenhagen	Denmark	Parken Stadium		—	—
July 26, 2016	Stockholm	Sweden	Friends Arena		—	—
July 29, 2016	Frankfurt	Germany	Commerzbank-Arena		—	—
July 31, 2016	Brussels	Belgium	King Baudouin Stadium		—	—
August 3, 2016	Barcelona	Spain	Estadi Olímpic		—	—
North America
September 7, 2016	East Rutherford	United States	MetLife Stadium	N/A	—	—
September 10, 2016	St. Louis		The Dome at America's Center		—	—
September 14, 2016	Los Angeles		Dodger Stadium		—	—
September 17, 2016	Santa Clara		Levi's Stadium		—	—
September 22, 2016	Houston		NRG Stadium		—	—
September 24, 2016	New Orleans		Mercedes-Benz Superdome		—	—
September 26, 2016	Atlanta		Georgia Dome		—	—
September 29, 2016	Philadelphia		Lincoln Financial Field		—	—
October 2, 2016	Nashville		Nissan Stadium		—	—
Total					479,894 / 479,894 (100%)	$61,543,595

External links

• "The Formation World Tour" YouTube