My Beyonce experience

By Erika Tapalla
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer

I’M not much of a Beyonce fan, or an avid R&B/pop listener for that matter, so when I was asked to cover the concert, I was completely nonchalant about it. Upon discovering we were seated miles away from the actual platform and being nearsighted, I was so convinced my buttocks would just be warming up the uncomfortable plastic seat since I’d just be sitting there partly listening and mostly SMS-ing. Plus, the horrendous opening act by a local character named “Picasso” made me cringe as he rapped about God knows what, cause all I understood were “uhs,” “yeahs,” and the rest of whatever he said were so brilliantly slurred that when he said: “This is my last song,” I actually heard people cheer.

Minutes later, I saw the screen light up and standing in the middle of the stage, dressed in a tiny sparkly silver dress was the same figure we have come to recognize as Beyonce. She looked mighty fine and remarkably hot, and the moment she bellowed that she was there to entertain, the crowd screamed and jumped from their seats, which by then, they were already standing on. But that’s them. INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania, Strategic Edge account executive Rica Oquias and I ditched our seats and migrated closer to the screen in high hopes of at least getting a peek of Beyonce.

Standing in the middle of the open field, only seconds into her hit single, “Crazy in Love,” I lost regard for anything whatsoever and quickly joined the euphoria that contaminated every human being within the vicinity. She was utterly phenomenal and massively mesmerizing with her bodacious physique — which by the way was insanely fit as no fat jiggled when she rocked her signature body thumps, commonly and locally known as the “ocho ocho.”

Singing approximately 15 songs including a fiery old school medley of songs she sung with Destiny’s Child, Beyonce only left the stage for about six costume changes only to come back to further intoxicate the crowd with the no-lip-synching-pure-singing-and-dancing Beyonce Experience. In the times she was backstage slipping onto her super sultry outfits, her all-female band, and dancers grazed the stage with stupefying solos that touched upon a quarter of the spectrum of performing arts: breaking beats with the drummer, a classical remix of the “Flight of the Bumblebee” by her pianist, a pop-R&B improvisation by her other pianist, a sexy jazz piece by her saxophonist, a rock jam with her bassist; not to mention modern ballet, contemporary jazz, and back-breaking hip-hop dance numbers.

I abused my vocal chords with excessive yelling by the time she sung her finale, “Irreplaceable,” but I have no regrets being caught up and participating in the Beyonce Experience. The best part is, anyone of any age, any gender, and of any music genre fan, will definitely admire and appreciate for her heartfelt passion for entertaining, and her performance for its captivating variety. From an apathetic person, I am now a fan “ready for her jelly.”

Editor’s note: Photo courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer