Part vamp, part demure -- all Beyoncé

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/3/2009 (3518 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A few blocks west of the MTS Centre on Portage Avenue, where Beyoncé Knowles rocked the house on the third stop of her I Am... World Tour Saturday night, the Winnipeg Art Gallery houses a new exhibit documenting the cultural impact, the life, the exploitation and the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe.

In her lavishly produced show, Beyoncé conclusively demonstrated a lot has changed in the business of being a showbiz icon/sex symbol.

Like Monroe, Beyoncé is unearthly gorgeous, and not inclined to hide what used to be called curvaceousness in MM's day (but is known in Beyoncé-speak as bootylicious today.)

Like MM, she has yet to earn respect for her acting (although her portrayal of Etta James in the recently released Cadillac Records is as nice a work of showbiz melodrama acting as you'll see.)

The difference is that Knowles, at the age of 27, has ownership of her image, or rather images.

The tour is in support of the release, I Am ... Sasha Fierce double CD showcasing both demure and tough sides to her persona. (A lenticular poster that morphs between a sweet pink-swaddled innocent Beyoncé and her gold-clad alter-ego vamp Sasha went for $25 in the concourse.)

That split-personality motif bounces back and forth throughout the show, starting with the dramatically back-lit Beyoncé fiercely opening with Crazy in Love.

In Sasha-mode for songs such as Radio, Sweet Dreams, and Single Ladies (the latter performed, alas, after press time), Knowles is raw energy convincingly expressing a live hard/work hard ethos with every shimmy and nimble vocal trill.

She sports flimsy little Thierry Mugler designs that look like something Bob Mackie might have designed for a space movie in the 1970s.

But Beyoncé (favouring pure white bodysuits), showed feeling (if not always elegance) with more ballad-y numbers, including Halo, and a version of Ave Maria (interpolating Sarah McLachlan's Angel)

With a 10-piece all-female band, it was, in contrast to the Marilyn model, a vivid and knowing post-Spice Girls night of Girl Power. That might explain why the majority of the MTS Centre audience was female — including packs of girlfriends, moms and daughters.

The opening act was Canadian idol winner Eva Avila, 22, from Gatineau Que., who flexed her own nimble, rock chantuese voice backed by a tight five-piece band.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Beyoncé Knowles

MTS Centre

Saturday night, March 28, 2009

Attendance: approximately 7,500

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