Historically, I've had a rocky relationship with Beyoncé. As a child, Michelle Williams was my favourite Destiny's Child (having related heavily to Michelle's status as a perpetual third wheel), and it was only when Beyoncé released 4 did I begin to really enjoy her catalog. But the rhetoric around her in recent years has been really strong. People love to use hyperbole when discussing Beyoncé, and I hate exaggerated language more than anybody else in the entire world. So I've dissented: I've had my moments of "she's not infallible" and "she's not a literal queen" while also having moments of "Beyoncé is pretty great" and "Surfbordt. Surfbordt."
But if I had any doubts about Bey, they were dispelled when she released the tour de force that was Lemonade, and extinguished the moment she took the stage. Originally, this post was just supposed to be about our adventure. Our trip to Edmonton, eating soup dumplings, venturing different coffee shops, and gloriously finishing our day with Beyoncé.
To be honest, I don't even care about anything else anymore. I would burn a thousand soup dumplings for Beyoncé. That's how damn good she was -- every costume change, dance move, and note was so great that each song felt like when I finished my Bachelor's degree or when I got enough neopoints to buy a plushie paintbrush.
At the end of the day, I can't even express the feeling of watching Beyoncé from mere feet away. I can't even stomp my sausage fingers on this keyboard hard enough to tell you how good it was. All I have left is bittersweet nostalgia. Will anything compare to seeing Beyoncé belt Halo in the pouring rain? Or sexy dance to Naughty Girl up close? Or strut the way only Beyoncé can strut (i.e. like someone with a $500 million net worth and the sickest collection of leotards)?
So all I can do now is search aimlessly for a way to recapture the experience. I will probably spend hours watching grainy concert videos and eating gratuitous amounts of food to try and get back the happiness I once felt. I will probably gain a headache and 10 pounds in the process. And it won't work. It cannot be replicated. There is only one Queen Bey.
All photos taken on a Fuji X100T. Seats were acquired by selling our souls.