Cowboy Carter Is Stadium Status This should’ve been obvious but just in case it wasn’t, you can have a great time at this show even if Beyonce’s latest album isn’t your favorite. It’s not like her Christmas halftime show, which exclusively showcased the new music; the enduring hits you’re looking for are in full effect here. But the 40-song setlist did reaffirm the case for Cowboy Carter in a pretty effective and successful way. Maybe it’s because of how new and fresh they were—“This is the first time I’ve sang these songs,” she announced at one point—but some of the CC ballads were among the most exciting parts of the night.
Stirring performances of “Alligator Tears” or “Just for Fun” should send anyone who’s been sleeping on those tracks back for a revisit. “Ya Ya,” “Sweet Honey Buckin,” “Bodyguard” and “II Hands II Heaven” legitimately rang off, the latter so much so that I still can’t believe how early in the night it came up, much less that it’s not the show closer. For anyone who doubted the efficacy of some of CC’s more album-cut-esque tracks, the show presents a firm urge to reconsider, or, less charitably, that you may have had B fucked up.
She also made sure to showcase the album’s musical range, and how reductive it is to even simply call it “country.” She got in her Remmick bag and busted out an Irish line-dance for “Riiverdance,” went full Italian opera showcasing “Daughter” by itself towards the night’s end, and brought out “Flamenco” dancers for the eponymous ballad, quietly one of the best tracks on the project.
Do Not Sleep On “My House” Including a new song with the Renaissance movie was a nice touch but in retrospect maybe it deserved more. Co-written and co-produced by Beyoncé’s ace The-Dream, it’s a banger that deftly switches from Texas candy-paint turn-up (complete with B doing a Bun B flow) into a ballroom heater. Notably it stood out as the only non-CC song she performed at her NFL Christmas halftime show, but it absolutely rang off last night as if it was on the Renaissance album proper.
Been Country: Early in the show, B dropped “Formation” and sang its central mission statement—“Earned all this money, but they’ll never take the country out me”— twice for added emphasis. If that’s too subtle, then the trucker hat merch emblazoned with BNCNTRY (which she wore herself later in the show) should make the implication crystal clear: think of Cowboy Carter what you wil—but don’t call it a switch-up. (The setlist itself did try to emphasize this with some actual subtlety with deft, career-spanning sequencing placing key classics alongside the newer songs as a sort of sonic throughline.)
She also kept her Texas roots alive and well with an extended Attack of the 50 Foot Woman cutscene scored to fellow Lone Star native’s BigXThaPlug’s “The Largest.” When I interviewed him in January, X told me if Beyoncé was keyed in enough to the Texas rap scene to shout out That Mexican OT, “then I guarantee Beyoncé knows me.”
