Onstage, Beyoncé had an all-female band Suga Mama, and the show used men only as dancers for the female audience as noted by Pareles ofThe New York Times.[5] The show included many references such as toJames Brown andDonna Summer[5] as well as routines inspired bySweet Charity[6] andMarilyn Monroe.[7] It opened in darkness with Beyoncé emerging through a hole in the stage amidst smoke, sparkles andpyrotechnics to perform "Crazy in Love" and a snippet ofGnarls Barkley's "Crazy" in a sparkling silver gown and walked to the front of the stage,[8][9][10] as fifteendisco balls hung from the ceiling.[8] Her background band started playing the music to thefunk song[5] and while singing, Beyoncé walked up a huge staircase which moved forward in two places where her all-female band and three backup singers were positioned. At the top of the staircase/mini-stage, she tore off the bottom of her dress and walked back down to the main stage.[9] Her three backup singers came down as well and did the "uh-oh" dance from the song with her.[9]
During "Freakum Dress" Beyoncé played anair guitar,[11] while the stage's stairs were lit green during "Green Light" which she performed with six female dancers.[9][12] She wore abelly-dancing outfit, includingharem pants,[7] while singing "Baby Boy". She descended the staircase holding an umbrella and was met by three guys wearingfatigues. A short section of thereggae classic "Murder She Wrote" was incorporated into "Baby Boy".[9] During "Beautiful Liar", Beyoncé sang into a microphone that fell from the ceiling and performed aShakira-styled dance similar to the song's music video; Shakira appeared on the video screen throughout the song.[13] "Naughty Girl" was also sung withDonna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" being incorporated and while performing she belly-danced on the song's beat.[6][9] "Me, Myself and I" was performed at a slowertempo than the original recording, after which Beyoncé sang "Dangerously in Love 2" with a snippet of "He Loves Me".[9] She cried during "Flaws and All" and showed her "imperfections" before being embraced by a dancer dressed as an angel.[8][14] During the performance of the song, she sang wide-eyed in a video close-up.[5] Beyoncé sang "Speechless" while seated on a sofa designed like a pair of lips.[15]
The intro to "Ring the Alarm" paid homage to the "Cell Block Tango" from the filmChicago, as women told of how they had been hurt by men and the performance saw Beyoncé wearing a red overcoat.[7][13] During the performance of "Suga Mama", Beyoncé performed apole dance.[8] Afterwards Beyoncé's duets withJay-Z – "Upgrade U" and "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" were performed. During "Get Me Bodied" she removed her robot costume to reveal black and yellow dress to emulate a bee and further led the crowd in a dance routine.[8][9] "Check on It" was preceded by an instrumental of "The Pink Panther Theme", during which the stairs were colored pink.[12] ADreamgirls segment was performed, incorporating the title song and "Listen" from the 2006 musical film in which Beyoncé starred in.[6] The final song on the tour's set list was "Irreplaceable"; it began with the audience singing the first verse to Beyoncé after she announced "I've been singing my heart out for over two hours. Now it's time for you to sing for me."[9][12] Between segments of the show, Suga Mama performed periodic instrumental interludes, with every member giving a solo so Beyoncé could change her costumes seven times.[9][12] The show included a ten-song Destiny's Child Medley which contained female solidarity-themed songs.[5][8] As the concert ended, Beyoncé was walking on the stage and pointing to individual fans saying "I see you!" and describing their clothes or the signs they held.[5]
The Beyoncé Experience Live was released in the United States on November 20, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on November 26.[16] The album was also released on theiTunes Store on November 19, 2007, in an audio edition titledThe Beyoncé Experience: Live Audio.[17] TheBlu-ray was released on November 18, 2008 simultaneously with Beyoncé's third studio album,I Am... Sasha Fierce.[18] In some countries, the live DVD was packed withIrreemplazable as a bonus disc.[19] Some of the concerts live version instrumentations were made available fordigital download on March 25, 2008, and included the songs from "Speechless" onward. Although it is credited asvarious artists, technically the album is performed by Beyoncé's tour band Suga Mama.[20][21]The Beyoncé Experience Live was shown at ninety-six cinemas across the United States on November 19, 2007, one day before its DVD release.[22]Black Entertainment Television (BET) broadcast the show onThanksgiving Day on November 22, 2007[23] and later on December 18 the same year.[24]On December 31, 2007The Beyoncé Experience Live was broadcast to members of theUnited States Army serving in theIraq War through AEG Network.[25] On December 31, 2008, European network3sat aired the concert in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[26]
Mark Deming of the websiteAllMusic commented that the album "captures her dazzling live act as she shines in a performance."[27] A writer ofMTV News commented that the album contained "more than two hours' worth of content in total".[28] Kurt Orzeck of the same publication commented that the DVD showcases a "huge" tour.[29] Scott Kara ofTime Out also praised the "thrilling, booty-shaking pizzazz" of the DVD adding that fans would feel "just like being there [on the concert]".[30] An editor of the websiteJam! graded the album with four out of five stars, calling it a spectacle. The editor further noted: "[It] has the giant stage, the massive lights, the troupe of dancers, the kickass all-girl band, the costume changes, the VIPs and more. But all of it can't pull focus from the incredible Ms. Knowles, who works it for two-plus hours, wailing and gyrating through a sweat-soaked show with nary a hair out of place."[31] Grading the album with three out of four stars, Chuck Arnold and Ivory Jeff Clinton fromPeople magazine wrote: "The elaborate production gets a bit overblown at times, but in this concert... the tireless diva is a veritable force of nature on high-energy numbers such as 'Crazy in Love' and 'Déjà Vu.'"[32]
For the week ending November 26, 2007,The Beyoncé Experience Live peaked at number two on theSpanish Music DVD Chart.[41] On December 1, 2007 the album debuted and peaked at number six on theBelgian Music DVD Chart,[42] and stayed at that position for the following two weeks,[43][44] and its last position was at number nine on December 22, 2007 before it fell out of the chart.[45] On theDutch Music DVD Chart,The Beyoncé Experience Live debuted at number three on December 1, 2007 and after almost a year of ascending and descending the chart, it became its peak position.[46] It appeared on the Dutch Music DVD year-end charts in 2008 and 2009 at numbers twenty-two and forty-eight, respectively.[47][48] On November 14, 2009,The Beyoncé Experience Live peaked at number twenty-five on theUK Music DVD Chart.[49] On September 21, 2009, the album peaked at number eight on theAustralian Music DVD Chart and was later certifieddouble platinum by theAustralian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).[50]
American performerNeal Medlyn re-enacted the film during his performance at theNew Museum in April 2008 together with dancers Will Rawls and Erick Montes. His performance was an hour long and titledThe Neal Medlyn Experience Live. He sang along to the DVD audio track, complete with word-for-word between-song patter and band introductions.[51]Booth Newspapers' Roger LeLeivre reviewed the re-enactment positively writing: "The event... was a hoot, and the audience loved every second of it. Medlyn has Beyoncé's signature, often spastic, moves down pat, down to each minute hand gesture and facial expression... Unlike adrag show, Medlyn does not try to convince anyone they are seeing Beyoncé. There wasn't much in the way of costumes (well, he did enter in a black wig, tube top and hot pants, but those bit the dust rather quickly), and why bother?".[51] He concluded that the length of the show was "perfect" as it "ended before the shtick wore out its welcome".[51] LeLeivre finished his review by writing, "It was a delicious pop-culture skewering, right down to the back-up dancers, with their over-the-top moves and expressions... Clearly it enhanced the 'experience,' if you had a passing acquaintance with Beyoncé's songs... but such knowledge was not a prerequisite to enjoying this homage".[51] Claudia La Rocco ofThe New York Times described his re-enactment as "absurdly faithful" and added that it wouldn't have been nearly as "smart or touching" without the dancing of Rawls and Montes.[52] She further put the performance in her list of the "richest" moments of 2008 and noted: "These astounding performers slipped between genders and among genres, enveloping Mr. Medlyn in utter fabulousness and proving just how sophisticated pop culture can be. Backup dancers everywhere should feel proud."[52]
^ab"Top Music Videos".Billboard. Vol. 120, no. 10. Prometheus Global Media. March 8, 2008. p. 58.Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. RetrievedMarch 27, 2012.
^ab"Music Video Sales".Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2008.Archived from the original on October 13, 2015. RetrievedApril 16, 2011.(subscription required)
^ab"Music Video Sales".Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2009.Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. RetrievedApril 16, 2011.(subscription required)
^ab"Music Video Sales".Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. 2010.Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. RetrievedApril 16, 2011.(subscription required)
^"Jaaroverzichten – DVD Music 2009" [Overview – DVD Music 2007]. Dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien. 2007.Archived from the original on October 27, 2013. RetrievedSeptember 10, 2013.
^"B'DAY～ザ・ビヨンセ・エクスペリエンス・ライヴ" [B'DAY ~The Beyoncé Experience Live] (in Japanese). Japan:Oricon. November 28, 2007.Archived from the original on November 12, 2022. RetrievedNovember 12, 2022.
