Beyoncé review – a hugely enjoyable concert that adds a ferocious potency to Cowboy Carter
It clearly hasn't escaped Beyoncé's notice that the meteorological omens auger ill for the first UK show of her Cowboy Carter tour. The weathermen are predicting a thunderstorm, the Tottenham Hotspur ground is noticeably lacking a roof, and she's no sooner arrived onstage than she's suggesting that the prospect of rain 'ain't gonna stop the party'.
The thunderstorm never comes, but a cynic might suggest the glowering skies, and a sudden downpour – through which the singer will be required to fly on a giant neon-lit horseshoe – act as a kind of metaphor for the fortunes of the Cowboy Carter tour. It's thus far attracted the usual laudatory reviews – such is the blanket critical acclaim for everything Beyoncé does, you rather get the feeling that were she spotted using a public convenience, there would be a spate of articles claiming she'd singlehandedly redefined going to the lavatory – but it has also been attended by news reports suggesting all is not well. There is talk of sluggish ticket sales and demands for refunds from fans who shelled out full whack for seats on release, only to see them going for vastly reduced prices as the gigs drew nearer. One headline-grabbing complaint noted that tickets for her LA show were now 'cheaper than a McDonald's Minecraft meal'.
Tonight, Spurs' stadium is visibly not sold out. Perhaps that has something to do with her country-inflected album of the same name. It certainly proved its point about its author's ability to master any musical style she set her mind to – it made her the first Black woman both to have a No 1 album on the US country charts and win a Grammy for best country album – but its actual sales were about half those of its predecessor, 2022's house music-themed Renaissance.
Whatever you paid for your tickets, you do get an awful lot of Cowboy Carter for your money. The album's contents take up almost half the set; the big hits, when they come, arrive in truncated form, as if she feels obliged to perform them and is keen to get them out of the way: Crazy In Love, If I Were A Boy, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).
And yet, that doesn't really matter. Events in America since Cowboy Carter's release have cast its contents in a noticeably different light: they sound less like an interesting stylistic detour and more like an act of protest, particularly given that Donald Trump recently called Beyoncé's support of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election 'illegal', making the evidence-free claim she'd received $11m to appear at a rally. For all the show's kitschy Nashville imagery – you're never far away from a pair of leather chaps, or a Stetson, a neon bar sign or a flying pink Cadillac - Beyoncé is clearly keen to frame them that way. Early on, she sings The Star Spangled Banner along to Jimi Hendrix's legendary feedback-strafed rendition of America's national anthem from the 1969 Woodstock festival, while the screens behind her flash up messages: NEVER ASK FOR SOMETHING THAT ALREADY BELONGS TO YOU; HISTORY CAN'T BE ERASED, before tearing into a ferocious version of Ya Ya. Later, her performance is interrupted by the sound of Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, one of a series of interpolations that delve deep into African American musical history: Chuck Berry and Sister Rosetta Tharpe stare down from the screens; Leadbelly's Looky Looky Yonder booms ominously from the speakers.
The contextualising works, adding an extra potency to a performance that's already pretty potent by default, Beyoncé's ability to sing and dance up a storm being a given. If an extended section of acoustic ballads causes the excitement level to dip a little – Protector features a cameo appearance from her seven-year-old daughter, Rumi – it's very swiftly restored. She performs Dolly Parton's Jolene as if it's a prelude to murder rather than a plea, and the songs from Renaissance – Thique, Cuff It, Alien Superstar – take on a punishing, relentless edge in their live incarnations.
You don't have to buy into some of the more hysterical claims made on Beyoncé's behalf by her most ardent supporters to find the show variously moving, powerful, relevant and hugely enjoyable, to think it casts the material from her most recent album in a different light and lends it more potency in the process - or, indeed, to think that those who chose to skip on buying tickets might have missed out.
Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter continues in London until 16 June
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