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I Am… Tour
Official logo for Knowles' 2009/2010 tour
Tour by Beyoncé
Supporting album	I Am… Sasha Fierce
Start date	March 26, 2009
End date	February 18, 2010
Legs	8
Shows	47 in Europe 28 in North America 7 in Australia 12 in Asia 1 in Africa 9 in South America 104 in Total
Beyoncé tour chronology
The Beyoncé Experience (2007)	I Am… Tour (2009-2010)

I Am… Tour was the third concert tour by American singer–songwriter Beyoncé Knowles, in support of her third studio album, I Am… Sasha Fierce. The tour visited the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.^[1][2][3][4]

In 2009, the tour was nominated for "Eventful Fans' Choice Award" at the 6th Annual Billboard Touring Awards.^[5] It is estimated the tour grossed over $86 million in 93 concerts.^[6]

Background

In October 2008, Billboard magazine reported that Knowles would go on tour in the spring of 2009 to support her third studio album, I Am… Sasha Fierce.^[7] The tour dates for the European leg were released in December 2008. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Knowles stated: "I've been working on this tour for eight months [...] I've been rehearsing and trying to make sure I put my set list together. Right now I'm anxious and I can't sleep -- I'll be wanting to be at rehearsal. That's the only thing I can think about. But I can't wait."^[8] The tour kicked off in late-March 2009 with five rehearsal shows in North America. The tour officially commenced in late April 2009, at Arena Zagreb in Croatia. Due to the phenomenal demand, Sony Music announced Knowles will add additional dates in England, Asia and South America.

Thierry Mugler

After several years of retirement from the fashion industry, french designer Thierry Mugler will serve as the main costume designer for the tour. Knowles was attracted with his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala 2008, "Superheroes, Fashion and Fantasy", where several of his haute couture pieces were on display. He has conducted a 72-piece wardrobe for Knowles and her dancers and band for the tour. It was announced that Mugler's input will extend to a creative advisor role, as he will contribute to designing the whole show, from lighting to choreography.^[9]

Thierry Mugler design sketches for Knowles' tour

Mugler wanted to capture the "duality between being a woman and a warrior" and "understand these two sides with [his] own perception of both aspects" while creating the costumes for Knowles and using the words "Feminine. Free. Warrior. Fierce" as inspiration.^[10] He felt "Sasha Fierce is another aspect of Beyoncé's personality, she is Fierce on stage and Beyoncé in real life", stating, "Beyoncé is a very sophisticated 'stage animal', which means that she is truly instinctive. Beyoncé expresses herself through the two aspects of her personality. On stage, there is Sasha Fierce and there is Beyoncé in her truest self."

Several of the costumes both in the stage show and the video interludes include a few vintage couture pieces by Mugler as well as new ones made specifically for the young diva.

As creative advisor, Mugler stated "It was my responsibility to make Beyoncé's vision come true. There will be a lot of dramatization and metamorphosis on stage. Some very strong effects have been inspired directly by Beyoncé, and only she could make (them) happen on stage. I also was the AD (assistant director) for the Diva video shot especially for the show. I also gave input for various visual and creative aspects of the show." and wanted to send the message that, "The sense of mise-en-scène or using everything we get, like technology, lights, sets and costumes in order to sublimate the emotions and energy that we share and want to share with others."

Show Your Helping Hand

Promotional ad for Show Your Helping Hand

Knowles and her organization, "The Survivor Foundation", became the spokesperson for General Mills' Hamburger Helper campaign entitled, "Show Your Helping Hand". The campaign's mission is to provide more than 3.5 million meals to local food banks in North America. Knowles encouraged spectators to bring non-perishable foods to her North American concerts to be donated to the campaign. According to the campaign's official website, nearly three millions meals and over $50,000 have been donated. ^[11]

About the show

Donbass Arena Grand Opening Ceremony

As the grand opening of Donetsk's new sporting arena, the Donbass Arena drew near, it was announced by local organizers that Knowles' will perform as apart of her tour. The ceremony involved a dance production dedicated to Ukraine's miners. Local artists Natal'ya Mogilevskaya, Svetlana Loboda and Aliona Vinnitskaya performed Queen's "We Will Rock You". Afterwards, a speech by Victor Yushchenko, president of Ukraine was given. Knowles performed audience of nearly 45,000 ^[12][13]

São Paulo Record

Knowles' breaks her own record by selling out the Morumbi Stadium, with over 60,000 tickets.^[14]

I Am… Yours

While Knowles was on tour, she was asked to perform a Las Vegas residency-type show. Knowles and her team produced the shows in seven days. Entitled "I Am… Yours", Knowles performed a MTV Unplugged styled show, at the Encore Theater in Las Vegas. Knowles wanted these shows to be drastically different from her tour, stating it was not to be "the typical Beyonce experience". The August 2, 2009 show was recorded and later released as a DVD, audio CD and television special in late November 2009.^[2][15][16]

Concert synopsis

Knowles performing "Single Ladies" in Berlin.

"There will be a lot of dramatization and metamorphosis on stage. Some very strong effects have been inspired directly by Beyoncé, and only she could make (them) happen on stage" said lead costume provider and a creative advisor Thierry Mugler.^[10] The main stage is a simple stage, with a pop up set of stairs, a big LED background screen and glass risers for Knowles' band "Suga Mama" and her backup singers "The Mamas". There is also a smaller stage (The B-Stage) in the middle of the crowd where Knowles later performs.

The show starts with Knowles' silhouette appearing in the middle of the main stage singing the first verse of "Déjà Vu", the main stage is flooded in light revealing Knowles. She sings "Crazy in Love". She continues to perform "Naughty Girl", "Freakum Dress" and "Get Me Bodied".

Knowles performing "Ave Maria".

Knowles later emerges atop a flight of stairs singing "Smash Into You". Later, she performs "Ave Maria", adding an except from Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and Franz Schubert's Ave Maria". She continues on to sing "Broken-Hearted Girl". At the conclusion of the song, outtakes from Knowles' "If I Were a Boy" music video are shown before she appears to perform the aforementioned song. She includes an excerpt from Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" and Tupac Shakur's "California Love".

A video interlude directed by Melina Matsoukas is shown as excerpts from Knowles "Sweet Dreams" play in the background. This is a short introduction before Knowles performs "Diva", Beyoncé appears at the atop a flight of stairs with her backup dancers behind her. This is followed by another video interlude showing Knowles singing and dancing at the age of 5. Beyoncé then sings "Radio", "Me, Myself and I", Ego" and "Hello".

The show continues with a short medley performed by her backup singers, The Mamas, followed by another video interlude featuring a coin toss between Beyoncé and Sasha Fierce. Knowles then appears from under the stage. She is wrapped in a harness and taken up and over the audience where she performs "Baby Boy". She is then lowered to the B-Stage where she finishes the "Baby Boy" number with an excerpt from Dawn Penn's "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)" then continues with "Irreplaceable", "Check On It" and a medley of Destiny's Child hits. She then performs "Upgrade U" and "Video Phone". This is followed by a rendition of "Say My Name" where she interacts with one member of the audience, asking that person what his or her name is and then asks that person what her name is. As the song ends she runs through the audience to the main stage. Her backup dancers dance to excerpts of Destiny's Child's songs, as well as, "Beautiful Liar".

In the penultimate section of the show, Knowles appears in the middle of the stage as she sings "At Last", "Listen" and "Scared of Lonely". This is followed by a Youtube video interlude featuring imitations of the choreography for "Single Ladies" performed by fans. Beyoncé then sings "Single Ladies" with an interlude that contains excerpts from the Isley Brothers' "Shout". For the finale, she performs "Halo". She then goes to the top of her stairs and repeatedly says 'I am', awaiting the crowd to say it back, she then says 'I am... yours' and exits the stage.

Opening acts

Setlist

Additional notes

• During her performances in Edmonton and Saskatoon, Knowles performed "Flaws and All" as the final number. She performed "Halo" before "If I Were A Boy". Also, in Saskatoon, instead of singing the abbreviated version of "Déjà Vu", Knowles performed the song in its entirety.
• During her performance in Winnipeg she sang Happy Birthday to two of her band members (Kim Thompson and Tia Fuller) instead of "Flaws and All".
• In Spain, Argentina, Santiago, Chile and in Lima, Peru, Knowles performed parts of "Irreplaceable" in Spanish. While in Madrid and Lima, when performing "Hello", she said "Bueno" and "Hola" during the chorus sometimes in lieu of "Hello". She forgot the lyrics of the spanish version during her concert in Buenos Aires and Lima.
• At her concert in Rotterdam on May 2, Knowles walked off the stage right before "Naughty Girl" because her hair needed to be fixed. Later she came back on stage and continued performing. At the same concert the lights went wrong during her performance of "Diva". Knowles shouted "Lights!" while dancing. After a few seconds she then said "Somebody's gettin' fired!" along the beat of the song.
• At the concert on Mother's Day in Denmark, May 10, Knowles sang the final part of "Halo" for her mother as well as dedicating a rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings" to her. At the same concert Knowles did not fly during "Baby Boy" due to the venues restrictions.
• At the concert in Gothenburg on May 11, Knowles sang Happy Birthday to one of her background vocalists (Tiffany Riddick) during the finale after "Halo".
• During her concert in Zurich on May 16, Knowles performed "Flaws and All" after "Video Phone" to a boy named Tim.
• At the concerts in Paris, Birmingham, Chicago, Manchester and Melbourne children joined Knowles on stage whilst she performed "Halo".
• At certain concerts, Knowles performed select verses from Schubert's "Ave Maria" in Latin.
• At certain shows, Knowles sang Happy Birthday to her fans, after "Halo".
• During her performances in the Essence Music Festival, in the Summer Sonic Festival, in the Abu-Dhabi Grand Prix, in the F1 Rocks Singapore festival, in the opening ceremony of the Donbass Arena in Ukraine, in the Asian and South American leg of the tour, in Toronto and Port Ghalib, Knowles used a different stage set. The pop-up stairs were replaced with a simple plexiglass one and there was no flying part during "Baby Boy"). Songs were also cut from the setlist and there was no B-Stage in New Orleans, Toronto and Donetsk.
• During her performance in London (June 9, 2009), Knowles performed "One More Try" by George Michael. At the same performance, Michael joined Knowles on stage to perform a duet of "If I Were a Boy".
• During her performances in New York City, Jay Z performed with Knowles during "Crazy in Love" and "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)".
• During the performance in Philadelphia, Knowles performed "I Can't Help It", as a dedication to Michael Jackson.
• From the show in Atlanta on 1 July, just before the end of the show Knowles performs an emotional rendition of her song "Halo" to Michael Jackson.
• Knowles surprised the crowd by bringing Cubby (the guy who danced to her hit "Single Ladies" on YouTube) on stage to dance on 1 July in Atlanta.
• During her performance in Sydney (September 18, 2009), Knowles dedicated "Halo" to Chelsea James.
• During her performance in Seoul (October 20, 2009), Knowles performed "Honesty".
• During her performance in London (November 15, 2009), Knowles was joined onstage by Jay-Z for "Crazy in Love" and Kanye West for "Ego".
• During her performances in London, Dublin and Florianópolis, Knowles performed "Sweet Dreams" on the B-Stage.
• On the Asian and the second leg of her UK tour Knowles first sang "Forever Young", by Alphaville, and then later switched on to her tribute for Michael Jackson.
• During her performance in São Paulo (February 6, 2010), Knowles performed "Listen" a cappella on the B-stage. Also, she said "I want you guys to know that this is probably my biggest performance ever in history".
• During her performance in Port of Spain, Trinidad (February 18, 2010), Knowles performed "Check On It" to the riddim of the 2010 carnival smash "Palance" by JW & Blaze.

Tour dates

^ a This concert was a part of the Essence Music Festival.
^ b This concert was a part of the Summer Sonic Festival.
^ c This concert took part in the opening event of the Donbass Arena.
^ d This concert was a part of the F1 Rocks Singapore Festival.
^ e This concert was a part of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Festival.
^ f This concert was for winners of a UK competition held by Cadbury's Trident, the UK tour sponsor. The competition consisted of buying special packs of chewing gum and entering a draw with 1,000 tickets been given away every week. A total of 13,000 tickets were up for winners.

Cancelled dates:

• The concert in Mansfield, Massachusetts was canceled by the tour promoter. Live Nation cited the "production and logistical issues" of transporting the set and other equipment on a tight schedule for Knowles's "I Am ... " tour into the Comcast Center as the reason for the cancellation.^[49][50]
• The September 13 and September 20 shows in Brisbane and Sydney, respectively, were canceled due to her hectic shedule including a performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City on September 12. The September 12 show in Brisbane was rescheduled to September 20.^{[citation needed]}
• The October 25 show in Kuala Lumpur was cancelled. The organizer of the event said that a new date for the concert will be announced soon. ^[51]
• Performances in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic were cancelled before tickets went on sale. ^[52]

Box office score data

Critical response

The opening leg of Knowles' third tour received generally positive reviews from critics.

Mike Ross of the Edmonton Sun gave her performance at Rexall Place 4.5 out of 5 stars stating, "Beyonce can sing traditional R&B if she wants. She proved it late last night - wailing on the Etta James classic "At Last", which she performed for the inauguration of U.S president Barack Obama".^[65] Stephanie Classen of The Star Phoenix remarked, "Beyonce doesn't really need the bells and whistles of a big stadium show, but it sure makes for an unforgettable concert. And as she says in the song Ego, "I walk like this 'cuz I can back it up."^[17] Additional praise was received from Randall King of the Winnipeg Free Press. He gave a 4 out 5 to Knowles performance at the MTS Centre, saying, "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".^[66] Alice Jones of The Independent writes, "Watching Beyoncé sing and strut her stuff can feel at best overawing, at worst, alienating. She takes her role as entertainer so seriously she's almost too good."^[67] The New York Times writes, "there is a breathtaking elegance in her acute desire to entertain".^[68] Renee Michelle Harris of the South Florida Times writes, Knowles "owns the stage with her trademark swagger and intensity... showcasing her powerful vocals without missing a note, often while engaged in vigorous, perfectly executed dance moves...no one, not Britney, not Ciara and not Rihanna can offer what she does—a complete package of voice, moves and presence."^[69] This was echoed by Lorraine Schwartz of The Examiner, who wrote, "In less than a year, I've seen Madonna, Britney and Beyoncé... [Beyoncé] was by far the best of all three."^[70] Francois Marchand of the Edmonton Journal was not impressed with the performance, stating, "If Beyonce's first outing on her I Am tour was no major disappointment, it was still a somewhat muddled affair, one that didn't clear up where the line between Beyonce and her "alter ego" Sasha Fierce is drawn."^[71]

Broadcasts and recordings

• All of the Las Vegas shows were recorded and released as the I Am... Yours Live CD and DVD.

• Parts of the show in Vancouver on March 31 were recorded and have been used for commercial use, as well as photos from the show used in the official tour book and other promotional items.

• Two songs from the show in New Orleans: "If I Were A Boy" and "Single Ladies" were recorded and show on TV One as a part of the Essence Music Festival.

• Five songs from the show in Donetsk, Ukraine: "Crazy In Love", "Freakum Dress", "Get Me Bodied", "Smash Into You" and "Broken-Hearted Girl" were recorded professionally and shown on TRK Ukraina as part of their footage of the Donbass Arena opening.

• "Crazy In Love" was professionally recorded at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic for the Czech news-website tn.cz and is available for streaming.

• "Crazy In Love" and "Single Ladies" was professionally recorded at the Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka, Japan and used to promote Knowles' Japanese tour.

• "Crazy In Love" and "Naughty Girl" were professionally recorded at the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix F1 Rocks event in Singapore for Channel HD 5 Live coverage.

• "Crazy In Love", "Naughty Girl" and "Freakum Dress" were recorded and streamed live on the internet from the show in Beijing, China.

• "Crazy In Love" was recorded professionally and shown on Frecuencia Latina from the show in Lima, Peru at the Explanada del Estadio Monumental.

• It was announced that her three concerts at the London's O2 Arena, in November 14, 15 and 16, were filmed for a future DVD release.^[72]

Personnel

References

External links

• Official website

Beyoncé Knowles Discography · Videography · Songs · Awards · Tours Studio albums Dangerously in Love (2003) · B'Day (2006) · I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008) Mixtapes Speak My Mind · Irreemplazable · Above and Beyoncé Other Albums Beyoncé Karaoke Hits, Vol. I Video compilations Live at Wembley · BET Presents Beyoncé · Beyoncé The Ultimate Performer · B'Day Anthology · The Beyoncé Experience Live · I Am... Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas Tours Dangerously in Love Tour · The Beyoncé Experience · I Am… Tour Notable concerts 46664 · Verizon Ladies First Tour · I Am... Yours  · Hope for Haiti Now Films Carmen: A Hip Hopera · Austin Powers in Goldmember · The Fighting Temptations · The Pink Panther · Dreamgirls · Cadillac Records · Obsessed Retail House of Deréon · Heat Related topics Destiny's Child · Jay-Z · Mathew Knowles · Solange Knowles · Suga Mama Beyoncé Knowles portal