Disconcé: A Beyoncé Disco bringing grooves to 7th Street Entry
by Joel Swenson
March 16, 2023
To celebrate the release of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, last year, “Club Renaissance” events popped up in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. The mysterious Studio 54-esque disco parties offered lucky attendees the opportunity to dance to the album and rub elbows with A-List celebrities (including Queen Bey herself in some cases). This Saturday at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis gets its own chance to celebrate the Queen during Disconcé: A Beyoncé Disco.
“It’s going to be a vibe,” says Disconcé organizer and Gigi “DJ OMGIGI” Berry.
If Berry’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she’s something of a renaissance woman herself. Depending on the day, you can find her operating her South Minneapolis shop Gigi’s Flair Emporium, providing emotional support for drag queens and stage managers at Flip Phone events, DJing on KRSM, judging crop art at the Minnesota State Fair, or handling merch duties on tour with author and podcaster Nora McInerny.
Not many people can say that the first dance party they ever threw was at the legendary 7th Street Entry, but after Saturday’s event, Berry can. While she handled DJ duties at a similar Beyoncé disco party at the Amsterdam on New Year’s Eve, Flip Phone organized that event. With their blessing, Berry is handling all organization and planning for Disconcé (her first time) in addition to DJing it.
But don’t expect to only hear Beyoncé on Saturday. Berry plans to play a curated list that includes everything from dancehall to disco to R&B and songs across Beyoncé’s extensive catalog.
“Obviously, I'm playing Beyoncé,” she says. “But I'm also throwing some Donna Summer in there. I'm playing some Diana Ross. I'm playing some Janet. I'm playing women and artists who influenced Beyoncé. And I'm definitely playing Prince. It's all a part of the Beyoncé disco because her Renaissance era is so much more than just one sound.”
To give people an idea of what to expect, Berry created the Spotify playlist. It features all of the above artists as well as ABBA, Earth, Wind & Fire, Grace Jones, Dua Lipa, Selena, and Commodores, among many others. Berry says local artists like EHN JEY and SYM1 will also be in the mix. In addition to Berry’s DJing, Disconcé will feature performances from Latinx drag queens Lady Cummeal Cassadine, Priscilla Es Yuicy, and Cariño throughout the night.
With March being Women’s History Month and Beyoncé recently making history herself by smashing the record for most Grammy wins of all time, the timing for Disconcé is apt. For Berry, It’s also a significant opportunity to highlight Black, Latinx, and queer people creating comfortable spaces that haven’t historically existed.
“There aren’t a lot of queer Black women DJs in the cities,” she says. “I'm proud to put myself into more of these spaces so that people who look like me feel comfortable coming out to these events. It's just really nice to be a little bit of positivity for other people when you're trying to hold that same positivity for yourself.”
Disconcé starts at 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 18. Advanced tickets are available via AXS for $10 or at the door for $12. For more information and to purchase tickets to Disconcé, visit the First Avenue event page.