It would be after 11 p.m. Sunday night before the moment many of the guests of the 19th Annual Essence Music Festival had been waiting would arrive.
Anticipation for Beyoncé’s headlining performance at Essence would be building for three days. Just about every shop or restaurant was blasting some selection from her catalogue of hits. Her face was plastered throughout downtown on billboards and newspapers.
Local television highlighted the concert as a huge element of their festival coverage during morning and evening news segments. And it was probably no coincidence that “The Fighting Temptations” aired on BET that morning as well.
Beyoncé will get plenty of the credit for record-breaking Essence Festival attendance numbers – more than half-a-million (an estimated 540,000) according to Essence.
Those who didn’t attend the “Mrs. Carter Tour” closing are dying to know if her performance was worth the hype. The truth is, it depends on who is asked.
The Beyhive (Beyoncé’s hardcore fans) will naturally offer a resounding yes. But the thousands of music lovers who make an annual commitment to take part in the weekend of concerts and festivities felt differently for most of the night.
Technical difficulties pushed the show back about thirty minutes. But Beyoncé emerged with all of the bells and whistles of a sold-out world tour when she introduced herself to the crowd by way of “Run the World (Girls)” – pyro, lighting, video, intense choreography, smoke etc.
But the Mrs. Carter show obviously isn’t those who simply dance along when “Single Ladies” comes on the radio or have a casual relationship with the singer/actress/pop culture phenomenon.
Beyoncé found out the hard way Sunday night.
Not long after show started, a vast majority of the audience took to their seats – and stayed there; which is far from typical at a Beyoncé show.
In all fairness to the masses, the masses could have lived without the poetical video interludes (which bought her time during the nine or so wardrobe changes) – or their storylines that illustrated everything from personal evolution and discovering one’s inner queen to the power of feminine seduction.
They came to hear good music and viewed personal videos – regardless of how they seemed to connect in a special way with “the hive” – as nothing more than an interruption of the musical flow.
During the performance Beyoncé gave her all, and then some, in every aspect –vocals, choreography and overall energy. She didn’t seem to be at 100 percent, but Beyoncé at 85 percent is 200 percent when judged against her contemporaries.
No one watching could hold anything against Beyoncé with respect to her showmanship – and the caliber at which she offer pristine vocals and simultaneously nail choreography combinations with the same precision as her dance team and not so much as take an extra breath.
Because of her stage prowess, usually all it takes is one live performance from Beyoncé to carry an individual from indifference to fandom.
But the set list was working against her with the Essence Festival audience Sunday night.
“Me, Myself and I,” “Déjà Vu,” “Dangerously In Love,” “Ego” and a slew of hits that that have been in heavy rotation on urban adult contemporary radio (whose listeners are the core of Essence Festival audiences) were absent from the set list.
They sat unmoved through pop radio hits like “If I Were A Boy” and her new music offering “Grown Woman.”
In hindsight, a technically scaled down experience with a set list modified to cater to the audience’s musical taste would have made all of the difference.
She saw so herself when the entire Superdome erupted when she jumped into songs like “Crazy in Love” and “Love On Top.”
“It took me a while to warm y’all up, but thanks for getting up out your seats,” Beyoncé said. “I appreciate you for that.”