Beyonce Homecoming: Perfection is surprisingly boring, but perfection all the same.

Music review- Homecoming (2019)

Watching Beyonce at Coachella is mesmerising- the troop of dancers hitting every beat perfectly, Beyonce looking phenomenal while slaying choreography and perfect look after perfect look. It is clear that hours of rehearsal time and immense amounts of effort was put into the show. So, why on earth is this concert so boring? Because perfection just isn’t entertaining.

Before I move further with my argument I must state that what Beyonce did during her showcase for culture, politics and unity is out of this world. No one can suggest that she is not taking a stand and doing so many empowering and fantastic things for culture and politics. There are and should be more articles praising how empowering the performance is. A concert like Coachella is the perfect place for statements, but it is ultimately a show for entertainment; this review focuses solely on the show as a piece of entertainment not to belittle the concert but to add a perspective on the entertainment business.

The problem with perfection is the fact that there can only be one very limited scope to what is considered perfect. If an artist always painted perfect portraits, then the audience would get bored as after a couple they would all look the same. No matter how large the troop of dancers are that perfectly perform synchronised to the beat, it is so similar to the last troop that perfectly synchronised to the beat, it just starts to look the same. The hours of rehearsal offer perfect performances, and believe me Beyonce’s show is perfectly rehearsed, but is identical to any other concert of hers. In addition, after the first five minutes of “wow look at all these dancers perfectly synchronised” the rest of the show is just a rehash of these perfect five minutes that you end up wanting something more than perfect.

Every second of the show is rehearsed to the point that it feels manufactured. This is Beyonce’s niche. She is the perfect pop diva and embodies powerful perfection. Character and humanity is shown through flaws, mistakes and vulnerability not the kind of thing that fits with Beyonce’s brand. So, when you hear Beyonce roar on stage it is clear a board of people have sat and considered that this is the perfect roar to get the appropriate reaction from fans. This doesn’t make it any less mesmerising or powerful of a roar, but I could be watching anyone on stage. There is no character here, no personality, no interesting divulges from the norm- just a perfect pop star demonstrating how long they’ve rehearsed and how well they know their script.

When I go to a concert I want to see the artist bleed on stage (metaphorically of course). To see a pop star reveal themselves on stage vulnerably and authentically is much more shocking and entertaining in modern society than perfection. I want real people to make mistakes and discuss how they’ve grown from them. In the pop landscape nearly every artist has their perfect mask up indefinitely that it is exciting to see it slip and see behind the curtain we weren’t meant to see.

As an audience we’ve been shown perfection for so long that it’s strangely become rather boring. Homecoming is a slice of a perfect pop star at the top of their game, but a perfect pop star is not perfect entertainment.