Beyonce's NZ show: What fans can expect

It's the concert Kiwi pop fans have been waiting for - and it sounds like we'll be getting a show we'll never forget.

Beyonce's heavily rumoured first solo New Zealand show has finally been confirmed for October 18 at Auckland's Vector Arena.

Overseas reviewers say The Mrs Carter World Tour - Beyonce's fourth solo tour that takes in 92 stops over eight months and doesn't end until December - is a spectacle that "does not disappoint".

"Leotards, sequins, amazing digital video backdrops, and some of the most impersonated dance moves on YouTube were what the fans paid to see and Beyonce did not disappoint," wrote reviewer Tiffany Poole from The Oklahoman of her July 5 show.

The two-hour show was "powerful and relentless" said Alexis Petridis of The Guardian about her recent Birmingham show.

The show's opening was something to behold, said Petridis.

"Openings to concerts come no more bombastic than that of Beyoncé's Mrs Carter tour. There are huge video screens offering moody footage of gothic architecture and the singer dressed conservatively for 18th-century France, sundry pyrotechnics, the unveiling of an 11-piece all-female band and an extended and portentous rumbling of timpani that eventually resolves itself into her 2011 hit single Run The World (Girls)."

The Hollywood Reporter reviewer Shirley Halperin said there were too many songs from Beyonce's lacklustre last album 4 for her liking, but admitted the show included "unequaled showmanship and those killer vocals".

The message of the show, concluded Daily Telegraph reviewer Louisa Peacock, "was that girls really do run the world. And she's taking them with her".

The only bad review seemed to come from Jim Harrington of the Mercury News, who sniffed of her July 2 show in San Jose: "Beyonce can do so much better.

"The first half of the set was almost entirely forgettable, as Beyoncé fed the crowd a steady diet of bland ballads and marginally interesting up-tempo numbers," he said.

" ... Things didn't improve much once Beyoncé finally got around to the so-called good stuff."

Perhaps he's just in the wrong demographic.

POTENTIAL SETLIST

(Taken from Beyonce's July 6 show at American Airlines Centre in Dallas, courtesy of Setlist.FM):

Run the World (Girls)
End of Time
Flaws and All
If I Were a Boy
Get Me Bodied
Baby Boy
Diva
Naughty Girl
Party
Freakum Dress
I Care
I Miss You
Schoolin' Life
Why Don't You Love Me
1+1
Irreplaceable
Love on Top
Survivor
Crazy in Love
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
Grown Woman

Encore:

I Will Always Love You
Halo

BEYONCE TICKET DETAILS

Fanclub pre-sales: Pre-registered on BeyHive Blog (Beyonce.com) 10am July 10 until 5pm July 11.
MasterCard holders: 2pm Fri July 12 until 5pm July 15 via livenation.co.nz.
My Live Nation members: 3pm July 16 until 11am July 17 vial livenation.co.nz.
Ticketmaster members: 2pm July 17 until 5pm July 18 via ticketmaster.co.nz.
General tickets on sale: 10am Friday July 19 via Ticketmaser.

* See this Thursday's TimeOut for an exclusive interview with Beyonce.

- nzherald.co.nz