Local fans moved sexy songstress Beyonce to tears during her I AM concert at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Thursday. Overwhelmed by the love showered on her, as well as her dancers, by the crowd, towards the end of her performance, the superstar become emotional. As her dancers threw a bucket of confetti around her, and as fireworks lit the sky, she said: “You all are going to make me cry, I love you.” T&T was Beyonce’s last stop on her concert tour, which, she said, made her visit and performance a special one. “Thank you for having me, it is such a blessing to share this moment with you all,” she told the dazzled crowd. The tour, in support of her 2008 album, I AM...Sasha Fierce, was ranked by Billboard’s Hot Tour rankings chart as number one.

Before the packed venue, the superstar delivered a performance that was not only scintillating, but was near perfection. The mouths of men hung open, with some even crying and reaching out to touch Beyonce while the women mimicked her moves and screamed her name. “She’s so beautiful, gorgeous, I love her,” a middle-aged Australian man shouted. Beyonce started her performance at exactly 8.23 pm. Backed by her all-girl band, dancers and singers, she sent the crowd wild when she belted out her first song, Crazy In Love. Then changing from a seductive sequinned gold bathing suit with a bunny-bow to an angelic white bathing suit with a cape, she did Smash Into You, against the backdrop of the ocean. During this song there was a slight glitch that cut off the sound system for about two seconds, but Beyonce was not distracted by this, and continued singing. Then, in less than a minute she transformed into an image of an angel, complete with a veil to render Ave Maria.

She changed outfits more than five times as she performed some of her other popular hits like Diva, Ego, Hello, Single Ladies, Beautiful Nightmare Check On It, Broken Hearted Girl, If I Were A Boy, Halo and Smash Into You. But the climax of the show was when the songstress appeared on a stage in the middle of the crowd and “palanced” to the sound of JW and Blaze’s Soca Monarch and Road March hit. She caught her fans offguard in the middle of performing Check Up On It. “Jump, jump,” she told the crowd. Palance began playing in the background and as the crowd screamed and jumped as she and her dancers did the signature “palance” dance. The superstar’s performance was prefaced by a smashing performance by soca star Machel Montano and the HD Family. Dressed in silver, Montano, along with his band and dancers, demonstrated T&T’s star quality for about one hour.

A surprise performance by soca queen Destra Garcia sent the crowd into frenzy. The two hit the stage together to perform It’s Carnival. “Machel and I have not performed together of about five years,” Destra said, after her performance. “It feels great to perform with Machel...he actually called me a few days ago and I agreed to sing.” There was rumour that Destra broke her contractual agreement with Digicel when she performed at the show, which was put on by bmobile, Digicel’s fierce rival. However, TSTT’s manager media and corporate communications Graeme Suite said he did not see Destra’s performance as a problem. Digicel’s communication’s manager Penny Gomez said she did not wish to comment on the issue. “Any contractual arrangement we have with endorsees we will not discuss it in the public domain,” she said. Meanwhile, the show attracted the likes of politicians, soca stars, and other prominent people, including Alison Hinds, Jah Cure, Beenie Man, Kees Dieffenthaller, Ravi B, Tim Gopeesingh, Minister of Information Kennedy Swaratsingh, Fay Ann Lyons-Alvarez, Bunji Garlin, Hasely Crawford, Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan and attorney Ian Brooks. After the show, Beyonce and her entourage partied at Zen Nightclub with a host of celebrities like Montano, Brian Lara, Dwight Yorke, Busy Signal and TSTT executives.

By Leah Sorias