Review: Beyonce Fierce: Beyonce at Rod Laver Arena. Rod Laver Arena, October 22 The little girl as princess is a relic. In Beyonce's world there's only one kind of royal worth being, apparently, and that's Queen. If we were ever in any doubt of where this church singer from Houston, who first flamed into the public's consciousness as a teenager in a '90s girl group, saw herself in pop's pecking order, it was allayed the moment the curtain emblazoned with her personal crest fell to the stage. As a powder-faced Beyonce Knowles-Carter, cinched and winched into a regal corset, moodily moved across huge video screens her crinoline-clad dancers and all-female band emerged with the bombast levels turned up and the woman herself rising from the floor in full hair-fan diva stance. The natural progression to all this hype, of course, was her ode to female power Run the World (Girls), the bassline crunch and Diplo-styled synths providing the sonic backdrop to the first of her tightly choreographed songs and perhaps even more impressive hair flicking. The crowd, already electrified by the mere sight of the now crumpled curtain, were by this point a trilling mass of (mostly female) voices and stomping feet. But whereas Beyonce's onstage queen was decidedly gilt-edged, elsewhere in her two hour-long set she espoused a more humble kind of royalty. Through some quasi-philosophical video segues the packed Rod Laver Arena saw glimpses of a Beyonce in burnished tiara and tattered tutu against the mantra "remember who you are and who you were born to be" or, much later, as a mum to Blue Ivy, charity fundraiser and casual acquaintance of Barack Obama. Other times she was her old alter ego, Sasha Fierce - all crunk and attitude in the underrated Diva or commanding soul revivalist in the mega-hit Single Ladies. Indeed her chameleonic qualities were evident throughout as she gave a nod to some of pop and RnB's greatest names including Tina Turner and Michael Jackson (could that briefest of Human Nature refrains also have come from SWV?) and even channelled more Whitney than Dolly in a rendition of I Will Always Love You, morphing that song into her emotional, endearing set-closer Halo. By the end of her first Australian show we'd seen her as a Vegas showgirl (Party), a seductress (Naughty Girl), a flying glitter bomb (Irreplaceable, Love on Top) until finally she was a playsuit-rocking riot of colour, animal print pram and all (Grown Woman). And it's in this last bit where the latest Beyonce narrative becomes clear. Her global tour may be called the Mrs Carter Show but she's grown up, definitely in charge and, while she's been many things in her decade-long solo career, for now at least, Beyonce still rules. Beyonce plays Rod Laver Arena October 23, 25 and 26; Sydney's All Phones Arena October 31 and November 1, 2 and 3. Tickets through ticketek.com.au