Cowboy Carter Tour: Beyoncé, once again, proves she’s one of one

Beyoncé. Queen Bey… Mother, whatever you want to call the 35-time Grammy winner, we can all agree that nobody is doing it like she is. And just when you think Beyoncé can’t get any better, she raises the bar.

In her hotly anticipated return to the UK, Queen Bey brought the Cowboy Carter Tour to the nation’s capital on 5 June, opening her record-breaking six-show run at London’s 62,850-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – becoming the first act to schedule six shows at the venue on a single tour.

Whilst it’s no secret that I am an absolutely humungous Beyoncé fan (I was in her top 0.05% of listeners worldwide on Spotify in 2024), even I wasn’t ready for just how transformative this show would be. The Cowboy Carter Tour feels as enormous as it does intimate – a reclamation of country music’s deep ties to Blackness and its place within the fabric of American culture. If Renaissance was joy as resistance, Cowboy Carter is legacy as persistence.

The 40-song seven-act show runs to almost three hours, but never drags or feels ill-paced, and will keep you on your feet the whole time. Opening with ‘Ameriican Requiem’ and closing with ‘Amen’, the set mostly runs to Cowboy Carter’s tracklist, with a few nods to previous eras, most notably Renaissance, along the way.

Beyoncé somehow has a way of improving upon the perfection of her studio recordings in a live setting – a feat not many artists can accomplish – and she’s done it again, turning high-energy tracks like ‘Sweet Honey Buckiin’’, ‘Ya Ya’ and ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ into even bigger, stadium-shaking bangers. Not to mention the criminally underrated ‘Flamenco’, which was rightfully given more time to shine. And we can’t forget when the entire stadium ascended during the crescendo of ‘II Hands II Heaven’ (which was given the extended CD version treatment) – a collective out-of-body experience we felt like we’d been waiting our whole lives for.

This tour – as we’ve come to expect – is also a visual spectacle. Everything from the lights to the pyro to the giant screens is perfectly choreographed. There’s an LED dress, a piano that sets on fire, a robot bartender, a flying horseshoe, and even a golden mechanical bull. When Beyoncé isn’t onstage, fans are even treated to finely crafted mini-films that have us all asking “WHERE ARE THE VISUALS?!” The most exciting of the bunch sees the – more historic stats incoming – 30-time VMA winner reaching new heights (literally!) as a 400-foot glamazon interacting with some of her tour stops’ most iconic landmarks, followed later in the show by an incredibly heartwarming look back at the megastar’s almost three-decade-long career.

She may be one of one, but Beyoncé has some serious competition right now in the shape of her daughter (and manager) Blue Ivy Carter. After a handful of cameos during the Renaissance Tour, Blue is now a permanent fixture in Beyoncé’s dance troupe, and rightly so. She’s grown into an assured, capable performer who doesn’t look out of place amongst the pros she’s sharing the stage with, and more than holds her own in a tribute to her mother’s 2006 hit ‘Déjà Vu’. (Blue remains the only nepo baby I will ever root for.)

And if that wasn’t enough, the internet’s favourite IDGAF seven-year-old, Rumi Carter, joined her big sister and mum onstage once again for a heartfelt rendition of ‘Protector’ – a moment that had the entire stadium welling up.

That feeling of legacy extended beyond family, too, in what was surely a highlight for many queer fans in the stadium. Towards the end of the show, Beyoncé delivered a powerful tribute to her critically acclaimed Renaissance album. Inspired by ballroom culture, house music, and her late Uncle Johnny, Renaissance holds deep significance within the LGBTQ+ community. This penultimate act of the show – featuring archival footage of the 20th-century US ballroom scene, the Pride flag and a photo of Uncle Johnny – made one thing clear: Beyoncé hasn’t left Renaissance behind. Cowboy Carter continues the story, building on its themes of identity, resilience and the radical act of reclaiming space.

But the show wasn’t over yet. We even got our first “mute challenge” of the tour, with Beyoncé adding ‘Energy’ to the setlist. Sadly, the crowd – undoubtedly overwhelmed at the prospect of this new addition – was not mute.

After failing her, Beyoncé would’ve been well within her rights to stop the show right there, but she graciously took us to a higher plane with a finale that saw her soar above the crowd in a red Cadillac Eldorado, belting out ‘16 Carriages’, before closing the show with a transcendent, almost spiritual performance of ‘Amen’.

Whilst there’s no improving on the queer euphoria of the Renaissance Tour, the Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour doesn’t need to – it’s its own chaps-wearing, rhinestoned, boots-the-house-down beast, in a lane of its very own. The setlist is seamless, the vocals are flawless and the visuals are marvelous. Yeehaw!

GAY TIMES rating: ★★★★★

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour is in London until 16 June, before heading to Paris and back to the US later this summer. Find out more and grab your tickets here.

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