Selena Gomez And Beyoncé Concert Showdown In Toronto: Both Win

The jury is out on the Selena Gomez and Beyoncé concert contest last Wednesday in Toronto. It was traffic-stopping competition between the two divas that ended in a tie, based on two separate reports. Beyoncé was performing according to her original schedule at the Rogers Arena. For Selena, however, it was an entirely different matter.

Air Canada Center had to cancel Selena Gomez’s Revival concert on a Sunday in order to accommodate a sudden change in the NBA’s play schedule, due to the second win by the Toronto Raptors against the Cleveland Cavaliers. To cut a long story short, Selena had to move her concert to Wednesday on very short notice.

.@Hammeronair: Toronto is going to be busy tonight! @SelenaGomez @Beyonce, @Raptors & @TorontoMarlies are in action! pic.twitter.com/oQ0wlVLenY

— Z103.5 (@Z1035Toronto) May 25, 2016

As fate would have it, such a change would have caught the inexperienced flat-footed. But not Selena, who likes to look at every situation constructively. She accepted the challenge of performing in Toronto on the exact same night as Beyoncé. This decision definitely caused Toronto traffic to swell downtown, as the two concert stadiums happen to be close to each other.

However, it looks like the Selena Gomez gambit paid off. According to Toronto Sun, “Selena Gomez packs a punch in Toronto. ”

“Packed to the rafters,” Toronto Sun adds.

“And what a fun night it was at the hangar. Alas, there were no Justin Bieber sightings, no ripped up marriage proposal signs and no other miscellaneous tabloid fodder. Just a 23-year-old singer who showcased some powerful vocals and a genuine likeability.”

Our initial assessment was that Gomez’s Achilles Heel would be weak vocals, after reading some concert reviews of previous Revival performances. However, this would simply be not the case for Selena’s Toronto audience, with whom she appears to have a special bond.

Selena told the crowd: “I wish I could live here.”

As Toronto Sun would explain in its report, Selena Gomez has a long history with Toronto, having performed in the Canadian city many times when she was very young. As a young Disney star, Gomez started performing when she was barely 13 years old. Well, she is now 23 years old, so that familiarity must certainly count for something.

The source would also say that Selena’s dancers would multitask very well and never miss a beat. In fact, not a single mishap was observed. One of only two criticisms was that the segment where Gomez started her repertoire of newer songs would elicit a few yawns. However, the source explained it could well be due to Wednesday being a school night.

An awkward moment was reported when Selena’s dancers would start groping each other as the performer sang “Hands to Myself.” That is, awkward from the point of view of the parents who were with their children in the packed arena.

Now, what about Beyoncé’s performance at the Rogers Arena? Here’s CBC’s official assessment.

“More than 53,000 Beyoncé fans get in formation at Rogers Center under guidance of their queen.”

CBC describes Beyoncé’s audience as follows.

“Women, men, and children from backgrounds as varied as those that make up the city itself went nuts when the first image of Queen Bey popped up on a 60-foot-tall, rotating LED box and continued to do so for the full two-hour show.”

Like Selena, Beyoncé also has a lot of history with Toronto’s concert-loving crowds, dating back to her Destiny’s Child days. It’s amazing how the two performers matched each other when it comes to important parameters for judging a critical performance. Even with regards to exchanging niceties with the audience, it looks almost as if Selena and Beyoncé had a conference call prior to their performances. For oddly enough, they seemed to mirror each other, even when the two superstars were in two separate arenas.

Here’s more on Beyoncé‘s performance from the source:

“She thanked her fans profusely throughout the show, and at one point even stopped to wish someone in the audience happy birthday. More than once, Beyoncé looked around the stadium with a smile on her face, shaking her head — almost as if she couldn’t believe that this is really her job.”

With the randomness of the situation, it is so amazing how both Beyoncé and Selena Gomez managed to exceed the key requirements or expectations from their individual performances. And so, the only thing we can conclude, barring conspiracy theories, is that the end result certainly justifies the means.

[Photo by Daniela Vesco/AP Images]