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Beyoncé debuts her Cowboy Carter Tour with a moving and masterful show at SoFi Stadium

April 29, 2025

With just one song left to sing, Beyoncé paused for one of the few times during her marathon show to thank the crowd for sharing this special night, the debut of the Cowboy Carter Tour, with her at SoFi Stadium on Monday.

“This is the first show and we shared it with y’all,” she said smiling happily with her dancers and and band behind her. “And you shared it with me. I’m so overwhelmed.”

Overwhelmed is in fact the best word to describe the experience of this new tour for everyone who was there for the first of five nights at the Inglewood stadium.

Overwhelmed by the performance and production. Overwhelmed by the passion Beyoncé poured into every detail of the show. Overwhelmed by the themes of American life and the Black experience within it.

Beyoncé opened her Cowboy Carter Tour at SoFi Stadium on Monday, April 28, 2025 with a show focused most on her 2024 album “Cowboy Carter” and 2022’s “Renaissance,” the first two releases in a planned trilogy. (Photo by Julian Dakdouk/Parkwood Entertainment)

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“Cowboy Carter,” which was released just over a year ago, is Beyoncé’s country album, though it really breaks down boundaries between genres as it creates a new kind of country. As with anything Beyoncé, it had meaning far beyond the beats and rhythms and lyrics and images it presented.

Country hasn’t always welcomed Black artists into the fold, though in recent years that’s started to change. Nine years ago, when Beyoncé performed “Daddy Lessons,” her first true country single, with the the Chicks at the Country Music Awards, the social media backlash stung deeply.

“Cowboy Carter,” despite earning Beyoncé her first Grammy for album of the year and best country album in February, also caught complaints from some in the country community that it wasn’t really country at all.

You can draw your own conclusions for the reasons behind that, as Beyoncé has publicly drawn her own. But on Monday, as the singer explored and celebrated what it means to be a Black American artist no matter the genre tag attached to the music one makes.

“Ameriican Requiem” and “Blackbiird,” the first two tracks on “Cowboy Carter,” also opened the show on Monday.

The first song serves as a mission statement of sorts, its lyrics describing Beyoncé’s roots in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama before she sings, “They used to say I spoke, ‘Too Country’ / And the rejection came, said I wasn’t, ‘Country ‘nough.’” The second is a rearrangement of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” which underscores the ’60s civil rights movement that inspired Paul McCartney’s lyrics.

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” a song heard in stadiums every Sunday each fall, and “Freedom,” a Black Power anthem, as the first act of the show made its points clearly.

This was a party, not a polemic, mind you. Beyoncé and her troupe of 25 or so dancers worked the stage all night in a variety of different Western-inspired costumes — I counted at least eight wardrobe changes for Beyoncé as the set, which scattered 36 songs over two hours and 45 minutes, unfolded.

The stage design incorporated a five-point star — think of it as a sheriff’s badge — with one point cutting a triangular slice into the massive video screen backdrop. Attached to it were ramps that formed a diamond shape that thrust across the floor, bringing Beyoncé and her backing crew closer to fans on the floor.

As the show shifted from the political themes of “America Has A Problem” and “Formation” to more personal topics in songs such as “Alligator Tears” and “Just For Fun” it continued to provide live debuts of many of the “Cowboy Carter” tracks, more than 20 of which were included in the set on Monday.

“This is my first time singing these songs,” Beyoncé said at the end of the latter. “So, so excited to sing them with y’all.”

Blue Ivy Carter, Beyoncé’s 13-year-old daughter with husband Jay-Z, appeared at points throughout the night as part of her mom’s dance crew. She’d done the same on several songs on the 2023 Renaissance Tour. Her little sister Rumi Carter, who turned 7 on Tuesday the day after the show, made her stage debut on Monday when the siblings joined their mother on “Protector,” a song about doing exactly what the title promises.

Between acts, as Beyoncé slipped off stage for wardrobe changes, the video screens filled with different Western-themed mini-movies: Beyoncé as a gunslinger in a spaghetti Western, Beyoncé as a giant character in “Attack of the 400-Foot Cowboy,” and more, many of which featured her smoking cigars or cigarettes for some reason. (Beyoncé as the Marlboro Woman maybe? The frequency of her smokes was noticeably odd.)

While the first half of the show at times felt almost somber given its themes and rhythms, the party atmosphere grew in the back half of the show as songs from 2022’s “Renaissance” album, the first of a planned trilogy of which “Cowboy Carter” is the middle, brought its disco and house beats to the forefront.

Act V saw the energy surge as Beyoncé returned to the stage for her cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” a performance that saw her sit upon a giant horseshoe lit with pink lights and fly around the stadium above the fans. A few song later, “Bodyguard,” one of the most danceable tracks on “Cowboy Carter” flowed into “Cuff It,” one of the most disco tracks on “Renaissance,” and suddenly the stadium felt like a dance party.

That act ended with “Daughter,” one of the single loveliest moments of the night. Partly that’s from the music: The ballad, which begins with lyrics about the bad lessons its title character learned from her father, eventually flows into “Caro Mio Ben,” an 18th century Italian aria, which saw Beyoncé show off her operatic chops. Part of its appeal also stemmed from her dress, a ballgown made with some kind of lighting incorporated which allowed its patterns and colors to shift as she sang.

The final run of the show included “Texas Hold ‘Em,” one of rowdiest country tunes on the new album, and “Crazy In Love,” along with “Diva,” done earlier in the show, among the few significantly older songs included.

“16 Carriages” saw Beyoncé aloft again, this time carried in a small red convertible around the arena’s heights as she sang, before “Amen” closed out the night with a prayerful country gospel feel.

“Amen” is also the final song on “Cowboy Carter,” and as she sang it dressed in a flowing gown with an American flag design, her dancers wearing flag-patterned outfits too, it brought the show full circle — requiem to closing prayer — with a message of redemption and atonement, and a plea for acknowledgement, respect and understanding, too.

Powerful stuff from one of our most powerful performers.

Beyoncé

When: Monday, April 28

Where: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood

More: Beyoncé returns to SoFi for shows on Thursday, May 1, Sunday, May 4, May 7 and May 9.

Beyoncé debuts her Cowboy Carter Tour with a moving and masterful show at SoFi Stadium Orange County Register

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Beyoncé debuts her Cowboy Carter Tour with a moving and masterful show at SoFi Stadium

Beyoncé

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