Beyoncé Jams in Jakarta

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 5, 2007 — -- Pop star Beyonce cruises by in a black car, led by police escort, through the crowded streets of north Jakarta. She's on her way to unleash "The Beyonce Experience" to a sold-out crowd in a largely conservative country and the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Beyonce arrives at the artist entrance of the Jakarta International Exhibition Center, Thursday, dressed in a sparkling white tank minidress. The multi-Grammy winner, who has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, whisks through the side door in full preparation mode — wearing headphones, covered with silver gems, isolating her from the whirlwind world of her entourage, crew, security and back-up dancers.

The venue, the Mangga Dua Square complex in the Indonesian capital, is brimming up with more than 5,000 amped-up fans — some wearing head scarves and others wearing miniskirts. The chatter of Bahasa, the local language, flows freely in the air.

Backstage, the green room is white. The space reserved for VIPs is lined with airy white curtains, soft lighting and is filled with cream-colored furnishings, including a white heart-shaped pillow. Chandeliers are installed on the ceiling.

With a little more than an hour before she is to go on stage, Beyonce appears from behind her hair and makeup area and casually takes a seat to talk to ABC News. She looks gorgeous.

"Is that too loud?" said Beyonce, a camera-savvy professional, referring to the volume of the conversation in the next room. It is. One of her people slips outside, a friendly "shhhh" followed by a closing door is heard and Beyonce laughs as she crunches through her cough drop before the interview begins. Her smile captivates the room.

We ask her how she communicates and bonds with audiences — in many cases over a language and cultural gap, not just in Jakarta, but throughout her world tour.

"Well every time I'm new in a country or a city, especially when they don't speak English, I'm always a little nervous because I don't know how they are going to respond. I don't know what to expect," she said. "It's really fascinating how music … goes so beyond the language and it's so universal and even if you don't know exactly what I'm saying. … We are so expressive. I think they can absolutely figure it out."

Beyonce has been on tour seemingly nonstop to support her last album, "B'Day," which was released Sept. 5, 2006, her 25th birthday. She has toured 80 cities since April.

"It's amazing how everyone knows all the lyrics, I still don't understand that," Beyonce said about the tour. "Just by their expressions, and their body language, and the way they're dancing. They know exactly what we're saying. It's so beautiful. It makes me really proud."

Beyonce has toured more than 80 cities since April, starting in Japan, then Australia, Europe, the United States, Africa and the Middle East, and now Asia. She next heads to Macau, Shanghai, the Philippines, Seoul, and finally ends her tour in Taiwan.

Experiencing the different cultures in each city is difficult because she jet-sets nearly every day, she says.

"It's a lot. It's hard. It definitely takes a toll on your body. You have to take a lot of vitamins. Everyone gets sick. We're on one plane together so one person coughs, we're all coughing. But we love what we do. And we're fortunate and we're blessed to see the world. I wouldn't trade it in," Beyonce said.

"Actually this leg of the tour, I've been going to some interesting and amazing places that I've never dreamt of going," she said as she lit up.

"One of my favorite places was Ethiopia. I have to say, my perception, preconceived perception from watching television in America was so wrong. It could not have been more wrong. When I got there, it was the most loving, warm, spirited place I have ever been. When we got off the plane, everyone was singing, they had food there, they had coffee. It was just a beautiful experience. And everyone was happy. It didn't matter if they were rich or if they were poor. Everyone was happy. I learned a lot from watching everyone in Ethiopia," she said.

"I went to Russia, I visited the Kremlin. I went to India, another one of my favorite places," she said holding up her henna-decorated hand. "We went to Gandhi's house — a place he lived for about 15 years. I bought some beautiful jewelry, I took some great pictures, I tried a lot of the curry food. And here in Indonesia I actually had a Halloween party. I know you guys don't celebrate Halloween so it was really hard trying to find a costume, but I found the one witch costume in Indonesia. It was a standard, black, with a big witch hat and I had my wart and my broomstick," she said with a laugh.

Just like one of the songs on her "B'Day" album, Beyonce is a "World Wide Woman" — on stage and off.

"I do a lot. I have a lot of partnerships with organizations that I believe in — that could be endorsements or charities. I have this survivor foundation where my mother and I collaborate and we help so many different charities" from supporting orphanages for children who have lost both their parents to HIV, to survivors from Katrina, to people with breast cancer. She also has a number of partnerships with the likes of Samsung, American Express and L'Oreal. "I'm a hardworking lady but I have a lot of passion in everything I do and that's how I make my decisions — whatever touches my heart, whatever makes me excited and passionate."

And what will she wear? "The great thing about this tour, one of the great things — we have female dancers and a female band and also male dancers, a lot of people involved," she said. "Great designers were so generous and they gave clothes for each segment on the show and I have about eight segments. Armani provided gowns and suits for not only myself, but for 30 people on the stage. Elie Saab, House of Dereon — which is my mother and mine's clothing line, so many people. Everything is just show stopping. It's very glitzy, very much so glam.."

As Beyonce tours the world sharing a piece of herself with her fans, it appears the worlds of her fans have had a sharing impact on her as well.

"I want to meet everybody. I want to see how people really live. That's been really fascinating. It makes my whole tour worth it. It's not just about the work. I'm having a great time and really learning life lessons. And seeing how the world is really not that big. We're all the same. We all have two ears, we all have two eyes, we all have one stomach, one heart and we're all the same."

At 9 p.m., the lights go out. Smoke starts to fill the stage. Spotlights flash on. Beyonce appears and asks the crowd now standing and cheering to greet her, "Ladies and gentleman. … Are you ready … to be entertained?"

Beyonce kicked off the show with "Crazy in Love." From the way the cheering crowd responded to her signature bootylicious moves, even if some of them did not know the lyrics, they figured it out, just as she predicted.