Megan Thee Stallion's performance worth the wait at Beale Street Music Festival

Megan Thee Stallion's Saturday night performance at Beale Street Music Festival was supposed to have served as a climax to the second day of the concert event. But Mother Nature had other ideas, as thunderstorms and lightning strikes forced an evacuation of the Fairgrounds in Liberty Park around 10 p.m., shortly before the Texas rapper's headlining set was scheduled to begin.

After nearly a hour, the all clear came from Memphis in May officials, and festival-goers began returning to the Fairgrounds. What remained unclear was whether Megan Thee Stallion had bolted. For nearly an hour fans — both on site and online — were receiving mixed messages: that Megan had left the area, that the show was being canceled, or simply delayed.

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Finally, a little before midnight, Megan Thee Stallion sent out a tweet confirming her imminent return.

"Memphis hotties they just told me it was safe to perform again," she wrote, "my original outfit is DONE but I saw some of y’all drove a long way to see me so IM COMING RIGHT NOW."

As fans patiently waited at the foot of the Zyn Stage — occasionally breaking into "Megan! Megan!" chants — crew members and tech staff began hastily preparing for the her arrival.

When the clock struck midnight, Memphis in May President and CEO Jim Holt came out and addressed the crowd, asking for the audience's patience.

"Megan said she wasn't leaving Memphis without putting on a show for you," Holt said. "She's gonna be worth the damn wait. You know that."

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After another 45 minutes — and nearly two hours after her scheduled 10:45 p.m. set time — Megan Thee Stallion finally arrived to the screaming delight of a vocal, if predictably smaller than anticipated, contingent of fans.

"First of all, I just want to say thank you all so much for coming back," she said to cheers. "Y'all ready to have a good mother******* time? Are y'all ready to get lit?"

In contrast to the delays, confusion and uncertainty that had preceded it, Megan Thee Stallion's performance was definitive, and its impact immediate, as the crowd erupted and remained in a heightened state as she served up a succession of sharp, highly provocative hits — from "Freak Nasty" to "Sex Talk," "Eat It" to "WAP."

Her assured and energetic performance made clever use of a dazzling production aesthetic — lots of glittering lights, fog machine blasts and choreography.

If the most recent music fest in 2019 had served as a crowning Memphis moment for her contemporary Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion's performance felt just as definitive in 2022.

"B*****, we here now," she said. "We here."

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Megan Thee Stallion worth the wait at BSMF after Memphis storms