“It’s more than a concert,” says Beyoncé near the beginning of her sprawling concert movie “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.” “It’s a culture, it’s a state of mind, it’s a release, it’s a fantasy come true.”
For fans who were able to catch the record-breaking Renaissance World Tour before its conclusion in early October, they know that all too well. Throughout the trek, Beyoncé created a community among her admirers — affectionately known as the Beyhive — for a tour that ended up becoming a coup for the superstar, finishing as the highest-grossing tour by a Black artist and the eighth-highest-grossing tour of all time. In the end, she made $579 million worldwide.
It’s easy to see why. Beyoncé handled the production with precision and care, spending a painstaking four years putting together the aural spectacular and battling a knee injury that required surgery in the run-up to the tour’s start. She describes the tour as a “machine” and goes into detail on how it came to life, from the women in harnesses who built the screens panel by panel to the nurses, editors, tailors, choreographers, catering, and more who ensured it went smoothly.
To put it into perspective, she goes into detail about the brick-by-brick process to architect the stages. “In order to perform as many times as we perform, we have three stages,” she says. “As one is getting set up, the other two stages are traveling to the next city and getting built.”
The show itself had a runtime of over three hours, which unfortunately for fans means that “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” couldn’t include every song she performed along the way. Likely cut for time to make space for the vignettes where Beyoncé describes her family life and allowing her daughter Blue Ivy Carter to perform, the movie goes light on songs from “4,” dropping “1+1,” “I Care,” “Rather Die Young” and “Love on Top,” as well as her Rose Royce cover of “I’m Going Down.” Some fans speculated after the premiere that her rendition of Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” got the chop, but she does include a brief rendition of it as she speaks of how the late singer’s death impacted her.
Otherwise, though, there’s plenty for fans to feast on, as the film includes the rest of the setlist from the tour. In the end, audiences will have their fair share of Beyoncé, with a glimpse into what it takes to pull off such a big production.
Check out the full setlist for the film:
“Dangerously in Love 2”
“Flaws and All”
“I’m That Girl”
“Cozy”
“Alien Superstar”
“Lift Off”
“Cuff It”
“Energy”
“Break My Soul + The Queens Remix”
“Formation”
“Diva”
“Run the World (Girls)”
“My Power”
“Black Parade”
“Savage” with Megan Thee Stallion
“Partition”
“Church Girl”
“Get Me Bodied”
“Before I Let Go”
“Crazy in Love”
“River Deep, Mountain High”
“Love Hangover (Diana Ross Intermission)”
“Plastic Off the Sofa”
“Virgo’s Groove”
“Naughty Girl + Love to Love You Baby”
“Move”
“Heated”
“Kitty Kat”
“Thique”
“All Up in Your Mind”
“Drunk in Love”
“America Has a Problem” with Kendrick Lamar
“Pure/Honey”
“Summer Renaissance”
