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LIVE: BEYONCÉ (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London)
Verdict: Queen Bey earns her Spurs
Rating:
The stetsons and sequins were out in force last night as Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter tour rolled into London amid a blizzard of pyrotechnics.
Opening her six-night residency at a damp Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Texan superstar was in her element.
Two years ago, on her Renaissance tour, she turned stadiums into giant nightclubs. Last night, she converted one into the world’s most high-tech rodeo, complete with a chrome-coated mechanical bucking bronco.
As the singer’s first UK concert since 2024’s country-leaning Cowboy Carter album, this was a case of Queen Bey, 43, giving a predominantly female crowd her soulful take on Nashville while not forgetting to keep fans dancing with her biggest pop hits, most of which were sung straight back at her.
Split into a series of different acts, plus an encore, the night was a masterpiece of tightly-choreographed theatrics and LED effects, with Beyonce’s supple, fiery voice and stagecraft front and centre.
The show centred on last year’s Grammy-winning album, which itself felt like the recorded version of a Western-themed stage musical.
‘We won’t let the rain stop us,’ said Beyonce, who arrived onstage in cowgirl chaps, accompanied by an energetic dance troupe.
She sang a folky version of The Beatles’ Blackbird before turning The Star-Spangled Banner into a power ballad.
Other Cowboy Carter highlights included country-soul number Levii's Jeans (her spelling), the fiddle-led hoedown Texas Hold ‘Em, a cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene and slinky country-rocker Bodyguard.
She sang power ballad 16 Carriages while suspended in mid-air at the wheel of a moving pink Cadillac.
Reflecting the scope of her ‘musical gumbo’, she also dug into 2022’s Renaissance LP, a more familiar mix of disco, funk and house, and sung the older hits Crazy In Love and Single Ladies as a roof-raising dance-pop medley.
There had been talk beforehand of sluggish ticket sales – and some seats for this 62,000-capacity gig were still available online yesterday afternoon, sparking speculation that high prices were keeping fans away.
I spotted a few empty seats, but reports of the demise of Beyonce’s pulling power seem to have been greatly exaggerated.
With the evening broken up by video interludes to allow for costume changes, momentum was sometimes lost.
Such a tightly-scripted show also left little room for looseness, but there were still plenty of moments when she ad-libbed magnificently and let her vocals soar operatically.
The Cowboy Carter tour has gone down well in the singer’s homeland. But impressing US fans at Chicago’s Soldier Field is one thing.
Could Beyonce cut it on a chilly Thursday night in London? On this exuberant showing in Tottenham, she’s earned her Spurs.
Beyonce’s London residency continues until June 16