THERE are pop divas. Then there is the force of nature that is Beyonce Knowles. Saturday’s date at the Echo Arena was the 30th show of her I Am… Sasha Fierce tour in almost as many days, but you’d never have guessed it.

The night began with high drama. Our first glimpse of the queen of R&B came after an almost unbearable build-up when she emerged in silhouette out of a thick cloud of dry ice.

In a gold leotard, stilettos and mane of billowing hair, she stood simply surveying the sea of fans before her before plunging into high octane Crazy In Love, in soaring voice and battery-powered shimmy. She powered through the Arabian-tinged Naughty Girl from Dangerously in Love and the brilliant Get Me Bodied. Tossing her head this way and that, she stalked and kicked her way around the stage with a huge sequinned bow accentuating her famous booty.

Then a billowing white robe against a screen of crashing waves and the strains of Smash Into You we were introduced to… well – whoever Sasha Fierce’s opposite number is. Sasha Softie? Anyway I’m less of a fan of hers. She’s more given to Leona-style power ballads than the blistering booty-shakers of B’Day. Audience reaction veered from need-an-ambulance hysteria to just euphoric.

In Ego an on-screen Beyonce flipped a coin with her own head on both sides. Who was she going to emerge as, Katie Price or Jor… Oops. Happily, she eventually emerged as a leopard robot, one of the most fabulous of the costumes.