This phrase and the picture it conjures illustrates the attitude of whites towards Chinese immigrants in late 19th century and early 20th century United States. Shortly after, Babin was on stage with Queen Bey winking at her, telling her how much she liked what she was wearing.Ungrammatical phrase uttered by the racist stereotype of the slant-eyed, buck-toothed Chinese laundryman, refusing to relinquish freshly laundered shirts to a white man, who has innocently and inadvertantly lost his claim ticket. Then she said Beyoncé needed to see her outfit. Then, Sunday happened.Īs she was walking around the stadium in her unique bodysuit, Babin was approached by a woman wearing a Beyoncé lanyard. On Saturday, she kept asking crew members about an upgrade. The thousands of BeyHive chat-room and social-media threads she read made her believe that if she dressed the part, she’d get the golden ticket.
She researched for months, knowing that a few rare upgrades had occurred in Europe. But Babin went to both shows on the weekend, dolled up in hopes of getting scouted. She was originally supposed to sit quite far back, too. Turns out, Babin had been upgraded to her seat much like I was. The view enjoyed by Globe reporter Temur Durrani during Beyonce's show. Eventually, I landed on the TikTok account of Chantal Babin, a woman I recalled seeing at the concert – I remembered her because of what she was wearing. I tried to find those other lucky ones, perhaps on the opposite side of the stage, where there was another, even smaller VIP booth. Surely, such upgrades happen often at large-scale events like this, and maybe they happened to people other than me that night. Live Nation did not respond to e-mails or calls. But in a brief statement, Goldstein said her team would pass at the opportunity to provide any comment beyond that. and plays its home games at the Rogers Centre, was glad I had a great experience. I reached out to the Rogers Centre, Toronto Blue Jays and Live Nation, which arranged the concert that day.Īndrea Goldstein, vice-president of communications for the Blue Jays, which is owned by Rogers Communications Inc. In an attempt to help me process the whole frenzy, I started digging further, as any Globe journalist would. After all, Beyoncé's album Renaissance, dedicated to her late uncle Johnny, is all about queer joy. This was the cleanest shirt on my laundry day, but also felt the most fitting to wear, with the pink, purple and blue bisexual flag colours on the front. It was just a pink bandana tied like a headband, a comfy pair of Nike shorts and sneakers, and a top I’d bought on sale. My outfit really wasn’t that fancy, especially compared to what others were all glitzed out in. It seemed everyone in that section had paid good money to be there. (The husband bought tickets and booked a hotel nearby for his wife’s birthday – good luck next year, buddy.) We had special cocktails at a dedicated bar, our own private bathrooms, a concierge to escort us around the stadium and an incredible view of the dazzling show, which critics have hailed as one of the best tours in history.īut I kept thinking the whole night: Am I the only one who got upgraded? And if so, why? The more people I talked to, the more elusive the answers became. I met people who travelled from small towns in Nigeria and Argentina, bigger cities like Washington and Paris, and sat next to a couple who made the short trip from Kitchener, Ont. These superfans call themselves the BeyHive, and I was watching the show with about 50 of them. They’ve been doing this throughout Beyoncé's Renaissance tour, which spent May and June in Europe before kicking off its North American leg in Toronto this past weekend. People pilgrimage from all over the world for a spot, booking seats months in advance. Tickets are valued at more than $4,000, with some selling for upwards of $8,000. The VIP section to which I was upgraded – the Pure/Honey On-Stage Riser – is no joke. Far too many strokes of serendipity had to occur for me to end up there.
And so, there I was for Beyoncé's second show the next night, hearing her tell me she liked my silly T-shirt, smiling directly at me throughout the night.
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