The list of performers that can sell a stadium show is small. The list of women that can? Barely a handful. Beyoncé’s Formation World Tour brought the R&B Queen to Edmonton for the first time since 2009. A massive undertaking for massive venues throughout the US. Edmonton was one of only 2 Canadian dates – she plays Toronto’s Rogers Centre May 25^th – and 40,000+ fans came from across Western Canada and beyond to experience one of the biggest stars on the planet live in person.

The staging drew your eye to the massive multi story video cube that broadcast video segments during costume changes, and ensure that even those at the far back of the second level got plenty of face time. Despite its massive size, it made the stadium seem more intimate. A ramp to a smaller stage midway down the field brought Beyoncé and her bevy of dancers closer to the audience. The tightly choreographed dance numbers were breath taking, although a set that was supposed to include water didn’t, possibly due to the cold weather that was settling in.

"This is the coldest show I’ve ever done," she said at the end of the night as the skies opened and a torrential downpour drenched everything. An outdoor concert May long weekend in Alberta could have resulted in snow, so in that regards we were lucky. Despite the rain Beyoncé soldiered on, as did the audience who were with her every step of the way. In some ways it seemed rushed – the show started earlier than other stops on the tour meaning a lot of people were still trickling in, and Beyoncé – typically talkative on this tour – left the banter to a minimum.

If there was one disappointment about the night, it was the set list. Those looking for a parade of hits instead got a show focusing primarily on the recently released Lemonade and previous recent albums Beyoncé and 4. Many of her iconic hits were nowhere to be seen. Songs like If I Were A Boy and most of the Destiny’s Child catalogue were nowhere to be found. The hits that were included like Crazy in Love and Survivor were snippets – around 90 seconds of the song before moving on, a trend that seems to be infiltrating pop concerts at an annoying rate. The audience explodes and then just as the momentum kicks in it’s the next song. Most shockingly, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) was not included, something I heard commented on by a few people post show. It can be frustrating to go to a show, especially one that had a top price range of $250 a ticket – and much higher for the VIP packages.

This is Beyoncé though, and when a show is as good as this one was, skipping the hits is forgivable. Her voice was strong, the dancing on point, and the message – of empowerment, of strength, of recovering from heartbreak (Lemonade is reportedly about her husband Jay-Z cheating on her) – male or female you could not feel anything but in awe of what was experienced. Even the new songs like Daddy Lessons, & Don’t Hurt Yourself were embraced by Beyhive fanatics who sang every word. By the time the night ended with a drenched Beyoncé singing Halo and seeming to be genuinely touched by the energy in the stadium, it was evident why she is a queen in the entertainment world.