Beyonce ruled with her Renaissance Tour in September at AT&T Stadium
Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Shania, Queen and more highlighted North Texas’ 2023 concert schedule
RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
This year of concerts brought all the divas to the DFW yard. Well, almost all of them. Last minute cancelations and tour rescheduling kept some pop queens away, which was disappointing. But they are on their way in 2024.
Nonetheless, two of the biggest music stars of all time brought their huge tours to town, and we’re still shaking from them.
For a queer year of concerts, these divas did us right (save for a couple). So let’s just do a quick roster check: This year, the concert gods brought us Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, Queen with Adam Lambert, Janelle Monae, Sam Smith and Doja Cat.
Madonna was slated to perform but she postponed her tour due to illness.
Pink ruffled the most feathers by canceling her concert on the day of her show at Globe Life Field in September, rescheduling for November and then cancelling that one. She’s supposed to be here next November.
Divas and more, here are this year’s concert highlights:
April
Pop megastar Taylor Swift graced DFW with her presence when the record-breaking Eras Tour came to Arlington this spring. She became the first artist to play AT&T Stadium for three nights in a row, and if anyone was going to fill that big-ass place, it was Taylor. Her tour even bled into the arts scene when The Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Collection, presented by the HELP Center for LGBT Health, opened in June at the Arlington Museum of Art.
July
Shania Twain reclaimed her country-pop throne with her Queen of Me Tour that stopped in Dallas at Dos Equis. Her show was super queer inclusive, with nods to a lesbian fan who wrote Twain about her mother and a slew of same-sex couples on stage during her ballads. Plus, her cubby backup dancer and singer was certainly living their best life onstage. She returned in October with a performance at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
September
Seriously, is Arlington the concert capital now? By the time the city probably recovered from Swift, the juggernaut that is Beyonce showed up with her Renaissance Tour at AT&T Stadium. The lengthy concert was an Afro-futuristic landscape of Bey’s hits, techno wonders, Blue Ivy’s stage presence, astounding visuals and a flying disco ball horse. It was enough to make us forget she started the concert an hour-and-a-half late.
Just before Bey, Sam Smith dropped into Fort Worth at Dickies Arena with their Gloria Tour. Smith delivered a surprisingly charming performance amid a gorgeously massive set and gender-bending costume changes. Smith’s striptease moment also served some bearish sexiness to a roaring audience.
November
For two nights, Queen and Adam Lambert brought classic rock hits to an appreciative audience at American Airlines Center with the Rhapsody Tour. On day one, the packed house was on the rollercoaster ride of Lambert’s showmanship and the band’s stalwart rock presence. This was the day after the Rangers won the World Series, so when Brian May came out in a Texas Rangers jersey, the raucous audience lost it even more.
December
By the skin of its teeth, the Turtle Creek Chorale made the cutoff for the 2023 list by delivering a magnificent holiday concert to sold out crowds at the Meyerson just last week. Sing for Joy: A Celtic Holiday Celebration wasn’t just a concert, it was a transcendent experience that showed TCC seemingly aiming higher than ever before. The concert literally had everything: guest choirs, special guests Skyland and vocalist Chloe Agnew, dancing Turtles, bagpipes — but mostly it had the biggest heart.
