Bey is back! After a four-year hiatus, Beyoncé returned to the stage in theatrical fashion at the new Atlantis the Royal Resort in Palm Jumeriah, Dubai on Saturday evening.
A star-studded lineup of A-list celebrity guests, including Kendall Jenner, Halle Bailey, Letitia Wright and Liam Payne, were invited to the exclusive affair to witness Beyoncé’s hour-long performance.
Queen Bey appeared with her extravagant entourage of background dancers, and the 48-member troupe of the all-female Dubaian orchestra Firdaus. Beyoncé sang the night away with some of her greatest hits, such as “Crazy in Love,” “Halo” and “Drunk in Love.”
She also paid homage to the iconic Algerian singer Warda as her hit song “Batwanes Beek” played, and recreated her performance at President Obama’s 2015 inauguration, singing Etta James’s “At Last.” Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s 11-year-old daughter Blue Ivy also made an appearance with her mother on stage, along with the Lebanese dance group and winners of America’s Got Talent, Mayyas.
The rest of Beyoncé family was also in attendance, including Jay-Z, her parents Tina Knowles-Lawson and Matthew Knowles, and her 5-year-old twins Sir and Rumi Carter.
It wouldn’t be a Beyoncé concert without plenty of outfit changes (styled by KJ Moody) and eye-catching creations, like her jewels from Lorraine Schwartz which were worth over $7.5 million. (You read that right!)
For the carpet, she adorned a custom Dolce & Gabbana gold sequin gown with a plunging sweetheart neckline, a triangular torso cutout, and sheer, thigh-high paneling in the floor-length skirt. The award-winning songstress added a voluminous metallic gold cape that extended into a cascading train and accessorized with a gold clutch and dangling diamond earrings under her long glossy mermaid waves.
When she took to the stage, the Grammy-winning artist opened the show in a blindingly bright yellow floor-length shimmering custom gown with a sheer corset top, and two thigh-high slits in the skirt from Middle Eastern designer Rayan Al Sulaimani’s Dubai-based fashion label Atelier Zuhara. The dramatic, show-stopping ensemble came complete with a feather-embroidered train that extended above the singer’s head. For her jewelry, she wore Lorraine Schwartz diamond and green Colombian emerald fan earrings featuring over 100 carats of emeralds, with a 30-carat yellow diamond ring.
Next, Beyoncé changed into a crimson red couture custom bodysuit with a matching train, a gold embroidered corset and red opera gloves from Lebanese designer Nicolas Jebran, which he called a “milestone” on Instagram. Beyoncé completed the majestic look with a sunburst-style halo headpiece and more jewels from Lorraine Schwartz, including lace yellow gold 80-carat diamond earrings, with over 50-carats worth of pear-shaped diamonds in the center.
For her fashionable finale, Beyoncé changed into her third look of the night — a Barbie pink semi-sheer minidress from Ukrainian designer Ivan Frolov. With a gilded crystal plated bust, the frock was embroidered with gold and silver vertical sequined stripes. The superstar completed the stage-worthy look with matching pink thigh-high tights, coordinating opera gloves wrapped in shimmering embellishments and Lorraine Schwartz white diamond pyramid earrings featuring over 60 carats of white diamonds.
Frolov took to Instagram to express his gratitude and the struggle he’s had to remain creatively inspired during the war in his native Ukraine. “Each of us needs inspiration in our work, each of us cherishes our dreams. The day comes when the dream comes true, although at this moment you no longer dream about it as passionately as you once did. In my native country, the war, which takes the lives of Ukrainians every day, destroys the destinies and dreams of hundreds of thousands of people,” he wrote.
“Currently, the only dream that inspires me and gives me strength is the dream of the Victory of Ukraine. Creating an image for @beyonce was one of my most cherished dreams in the pre-war period, but it happens that it came true right now, at a time of severe trials for my country, thanks to the hard and painstaking work of the dedicated and creative, professional team of @frolovheart, at various points the world and in our native Kyiv, under shelling, and sometimes in the absence of light,” Frolov continued. “It’s an honor to work with professionals of the caliber of stylist @kjmoody and @vancegamble. Thank you! Thank you, Mrs. Carter, for choosing our image. Thank you that today the name of my country, strong, indomitable, and very beautiful, is again on the lips of all the world’s mass media!”
