Inside Beyonce’s spectacular tour with state-of-the-art visuals and 3-hour concerts set to make her eye-watering amount

BEYONCE reminded the world why she is the 21st Century’s biggest superstar as she made her long-awaited return to touring.

The Break My Soul singer kicked off her 57-date Renaissance World Tour in Stockholm in a near three-hour spectacle, which is being dubbed one of the greatest pop shows ever.

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Aided by state-of-the-art visuals, she performed her greatest hits and the majority of her 2022 No1 album Renaissance in a huge 36-song set.

Beyonce will bring her solo tour — her first since 2016 — to the UK next week for stadium shows in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sunderland and London.

She started Wednesday night’s performance with Dangerously In Love 2, from her 2003 debut album, and continued with a string of ballads.

During the second song, Flaws And All, she appeared to be close to tears as fans screamed for her.

But in the show’s second act, she launched into upbeat hits from her most recent album, including Cozy, during which she danced between two giant robotic arms.

She wore nine different futuristic outfits designed by her, and was styled by Shinona Turini, who hand-picked the costumes.

They included an Alexander McQueen number, an iridescent minidress with knee-high boots and a custom Loewe bodysuit which featured black gloved arms wrapped around her.

At one point a white outfit was transformed into a colourful design after Beyonce was scanned with a UV light.

And during America Has A Problem, she dressed as a bee while posing as a TV news anchor.

During Black Parade and the remix of Megan Thee Stallion’s Savage, which she featured on in 2020, she rode a huge mirrored vehicle along the stage.

She went on to sing Drunk In Love on top of a disco ball.

Beyonce was also flanked by ultra-modern screens which featured specially filmed visuals.

She used the opportunity to address criticism of her not releasing any videos for the Renaissance album, despite it being ten months since the record came out.

As she changed costume, a voiceover said: “You asked for the visuals, you called for the queen. But the queen moves at her own pace.”

Her husband Jay-Z, her eldest daughter Blue Ivy and Swedish pop star Zara Larsson were among the familiar faces in the audience.

‘She is a perfectionist’

The tour — which includes five nights at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where she will perform to more than 300,000 people — is projected to gross £1.9billion by the time it ends in September.

That would mean it could earn even more than Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which kicked off in the US in March.

A source said: “Beyonce has poured millions into this show. It is one of the most expensive sets for a concert tour ever. She is a perfectionist.

“Beyonce has been rehearsing for more than three months and has spent the past five weeks away from home preparing.

“With all of that investment, she was determined to give it her all — and knows that fans will love it.”

Beyonce rented out the La Defense Arena in Paris last month for rehearsals and prepared for the past week in Stockholm’s Friends Arena, where she began her ­concerts on Wednesday.

On Tuesday it was revealed she had been practising until 2am to perfect her performance.

Her last solo jaunt was the Formation World Tour in 2016.

Since then she has performed a landmark Coachella headline set in 2018 and then a joint tour with Jay-Z later that year called On The Run II.

She gave her first performance in four years in January when she did a concert at the opening of a hotel in Dubai — but did not include any songs from her ­latest album in the setlist.

Fans are now hoping there could be even more songs added to her current set as the tour continues, after she teased that Renaissance would be part of a series of albums.

She is certainly pulling out all the stops to keep her audience entertained.

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EAGLE-eyed fans compared elements of Beyonce’s show to those by fellow star Kylie Minogue.

She performed seated on a life-size steed – as the Aussie star did in her 2011 Aphrodite: Les Folies tour.

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And Bey belted out hits clad in silver armour, similar to a robot-style outfit worn by the Spinning Around singer on the KylieFever2002 tour.

It wasn’t only Kylie who she appeared to take inspiration from.

At one point, a huge pair of splayed legs appeared on giant screens behind her, just like a famous set piece Geri Horner performed between at the Brit Awards in 2000.

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QUEEN Bey ended her show in style by levitating around the venue suspended by wires.

She took off on a mirror-plated horse – nicknamed Reneigh – during her final track Summer Renaissance, before leaving it to continue the song on her own, mid-air.

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For the stunt, she wore a silver bodysuit with a long cape, which was a custom design by Parisian brand Coperni.

One fan wrote on Twitter: “That was the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

“There is a reason why we call Beyonce the greatest entertainer of all time.

“She f***ing flew on a horse.”