What if Beyoncé had put her two latest releases, “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter,” out as a single project? It seems impossible on the face of it, given how there are no two albums quite so distinct from one another in anyone’s catalog. There’s no indication that this thought ever crossed the singer’s mind at the time. But she has said she was working on them simultaneously during the pandemic. Now, with her new road show, which opened Monday night at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium, the world gets to enjoy an extended what-if moment in which both projects really are conjoined as part of the same “era.” It’s a 2-hour-45-minute mashup of hardcore dance music and country/Americana leanings, in which neither primary genre has to say: “Don’t fence me in.” And it’s deliriously great, blurry, boundary-busting fun.
No one buying tickets for the Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour really had any concrete idea of what to expect, since Beyoncé is not the type to do interviews. The tour name alone guaranteed a decent emphasis on the Grammys’ latest album of the year winner, but would the whole thing be hoedown-themed, or would she give only lip service to “Cowboy Carter,” which isn’t exactly an easy fit with the rest of her catalogue? As it turns out, although “Renaissance” doesn’t turn up in the official tour title, Beyoncé really considers herself to be touring behind two albums. Even though her 2022 release already had its own international tour (and concert movie), it feels like she’s equally emphasizing both projects in this new tour, even if the pure math of the setlist suggests that “Cowboy Carter” is dominant. But doing the actual arithmetic on that becomes nearly impossible as the show progresses, since virtually every one of the 40-plus songs in the show involves some bleedover from other numbers, and almost none of the selections performed gets played through in its entirety without an interpolation popping in from elsewhere in her catalog. With musical surprises popping up within each number, you may feel the urge to grab hold of your head to keep it from spinning.
That is before even considering the visual spectacle, which has its own epic-mashup qualities over the nonstop course of nearly three hours; Beyoncé is not about to do that much aural genre-bending without providing an analog for the eyes. Really, this is not the most elaborately set-designed show veteran tourgoers have ever seen; Beyoncé isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel there, as she uses large-scale props only sparingly, and most of the production design is limited to elaborate use of the big screen. But a few setpieces along those lines go a long way, even if it’s not really what you’re coming to a Beyoncé show for.
As memorable moments of the physical production moments go, it’s perhaps a given that at some point, the star will rides a mechanical bull, and that its bucking will be built for comfort, not for speed, when she has her way with it during “Tyrant.” Also obligatory with nearly any modern stadium tour is putting the superstar in flight around the auditorium rim, and that happens in this show twice. The first time, singing “Daddy Lessons,” she’s seated in the cradle of an airborn neon horseshoe. In the second instance, for “16 Carriages,” she takes to the air again in a mockup of a convertible, with an American flag flying high off the bumper, as her carriage of choice. (If you’ve come to be nervous, as many have in modern times, about the folks who speed around with giant flags on their vehicles, Beyoncé provides a nice spin on that, in which everyone of every ideology or color can welcome that sight of someone rocking the stars and stripes on her ride for a few minutes.)
But it’s the couture that is inevitably the chief special effect. One dominant motif can be summed up as: Hope you like chaps. The country-themed fashion is recurring, to say the least, all the way through to the nearly climactic sight of the star in denim shorts and — no, really — a trucker cap. But rest assured that, however much the costuming might indulge in middle-American cosplay, there will be no mistaking this show for a CMT music-video bloc. There are at least as many costume changes during the three hours that feel like flashbacks to the high style of the Renaissance Tour … “Alien Superstar” redux. The most delicious costuming choices represent some kind of marriage of the two, like the glittery, impossibly skin-tight, silver bodysuit with a gigantic belt buckle that would give Garth an inferiority complex. Is there even a belt there to be buckled, on Beyoncé’s masterpiece of a Paris/Branson Fashion Week one-piece? Not really, but form can be forgiven for outpacing function in this instance.
One thing Beyoncé is not wearing on this tour: her heart on her sleeve. Razzle-dazzle with social themes as an undertone is the order of the day. The Beyoncé who once delivered some of the big ballads that are more the stock-in-trade of her closest diva equivalents is still in hibernation, surely to return someday, but not just yet. But it’d be wrong to say the tour lacks for emo moments — it’s just that most of them are implicitly packed into constant visual references to, or live usage of, family.
In particular, daughter Blue Ivy has so much more to do than she did on the Renaissance Tour. she practically deserves featured billing this time around. She first popped up seamlessly blending into the choreography of “America Has a Problem,” and just when you thought they’d maybe mistimed that cameo as too early a highlight in the show, it became apparent Blue Ivy would be coming back again and again, all the way through to the penultimate “Texas Hold ‘Em.” Blue Ivy can put her thumb in a denim belt loop with the best of them when the line-dance routine demands it. The best surprise came late in the show when her mom took a more extended costume-change break and the dancers in the cast were put to use freestyling during a recording of “Déjà Vu,” in what surely counted as one of the most enthusiastically queer moments of the show. There came Blue Ivy with her own impressive solo-dance bit, echoing the choreography established by her mom, and it became apparent that she must be one of the most self-disciplined 13-year-olds in America. No surprise that maybe the apple is not falling far from the tree.
For a sheer moment of loveliness, meanwhile, there was no beating the painterly tableau that was a striking climax to “Protector,” in which Beyoncé’s dancers formed a kind of tower of nurturing goddesses. There, at the bottom of this female monument, was the star cradling another daughter, 7-year-old Rumi… while herself being cradled by Blue Ivy. With this very rare still-life moment in a show that’s constantly bolting from one surprise to the next, the production wisely lets that touching image linger. (Beyoncé also reminds the audience who the younger daughter was named after, flashing a visual of a quote from the other Rumi: “I once had a thousand desires/But in my one desire to know you/All else melted away.”)
“Cowboy Carter,” as an album, was more about the wham-bam of it all than sensitive moments, per se. Its gentler side is represented by reserving “16 Carriages” almost to the end, and letting it play out longer than some of the more condensed numbers get to, with the star taking that leisurely cruise around SoFi. There aren’t many moments in the 160-minute running time that relaxed, but only the easily enervated will regret the show’s relentlessness. Just how over-the-top it will become is signaled early on, with “Ya Ya,” the most hyper-energized moment from “Cowboy Carter,” which anyone else might have saved for an encore. Beyoncé sits down at a keyboard, and quickly enough, the piano is on fire. Lest anyone think that this is not a deliberate homage to the legend of rock pyromaniac Jerry Lee Lewis, the singer let out what sure sounded like a couple of wildcat Jerry Lee trills.
Needless to say, Beyoncé is more concerned with paying tribute to Black forebears, particularly as it comes to roots music or country. Linda Martell’s speech from the “Cowboy Carter” album is played back, as her image is seen as part of a montage of musical heroes of color. The star doesn’t offer any speeches about these themes, or about the social statements that are embedded from the opening “American Requiem” to the closing “Amen.” That finale has Beyoncé, for her final costume change of the night, walking down the runway in a U.S. flag-themed gown with a long, long tail. It’s a patriotic image, but then, back on the stage, a giant bust of the Statue of Liberty’s head rolls out. Lady Liberty is all masked up, though — a visual twist with some ambiguity to it (is she prepared for a pandemic or a protest?), but clearly meant to suggest, as if her audience didn’t well know already, that the embrace of the stars and stripes hardly adds up to a nationalist statement.
Beyoncé’s attitude toward America is implicitly complicated, in other words — though not as complicated as the musical melange that keeps everyone’s bodies moving and heads doing 360s for three hours. It’s a beautiful complication, in which twanginess is constantly juxtaposed with house music and four-on-the-floor dance beats. On paper, this hybrid sounds like the kind of genre-mixing Frankensteinian creation that you might walk out on after hearing 10 minutes of Diplo doing it at Stagecoach. In Beyoncé’s realization, the mix of deeply urban and quasi-rustic styles keeps delivering in a way that makes weird sense and is never awkward. The show is exhausting, make no mistake. But if you love artists who trip out on muddying the waters of expectation, as this long night wraps up on the dot of 11 p.m. (or at least did on opening night at SoFi), her Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit Tour still leaves you wishing cowgirls didn’t need their sleep.
Tour dates:
COWBOY CARTER TOUR DATES:
COWBOY CARTER TOUR DATES:
April 28, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 01, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 04, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 07, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 09, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – SoFi Stadium
May 15, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
May 17, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
May 18, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
May 22, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 24, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 25, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 28, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
May 29, 2025 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium
June 05, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 07, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 10, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 12, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 14, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 16, 2025 – London, UK – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
June 19, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France
June 21, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France
June 22, 2025 – Paris, France – Stade de France
June 28, 2025 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium
June 29, 2025 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium
July 04, 2025 – Washington, D.C. – Northwest Stadium
July 07, 2025 – Washington, D.C. – Northwest Stadium
July 10, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
July 11, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
July 13, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
July 14, 2025 – Atlanta, GA – Mercedes-Benz Stadium
July 25, 2025 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium
July 26, 2025 – Las Vegas, NV – Allegiant Stadium
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