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For night two, the superstar added classics to her setlist including ‚Single Ladies‘ and ‚Love on Top.‘
Beyoncé soared across SoFi Stadium in a giant neon horseshoe, and then again in a red convertible Cadillac. She mounted and rode a gleaming, mechanical golden bull — all the while belting tunes from Cowboy Carter and her decades-spanning discography.
A year after releasing Cowboy Carter, the album’s accompanying tour finally kicked off in Los Angeles this week, with thousands of fans decked out in spangles, sequins and cowboy hats as Bey delivered a spectacular three-hour country hoedown that married Sergio Leone-esque filmed interstitials to eye-popping choreography and pyrotechnics.
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After years of snubs in the major Grammy categories, Cowboy Carter finally nabbed Beyoncé the Grammy for album of the year after back in February, a moment immortalized in the meme-worthy image of a stiff-armed Beyoncé reacting in shock. That image gets its due in one of the evening’s many captivating photo montages that track the artist’s iconic career.
But there was nothing shocking about how naturally Beyoncé’s version of country music could be layered on top of the soulful foundation of her catalog to produce an electrifying live show, evoking everything from the irresistible kitsch of Elvis Presley in Las Vegas to her own history-making extravaganzas at Coachella and the Super Bowl.
The second show of the tour took place on Thursday night, with fans returning to SoFi, showing off their denim-clad country outfits in the parking lots, taking selfies, and taking free shots of Beyoncé’s signature whiskey SirDavis. Merchants used electric scooters to sail past security and parking enforcement to sell cowboy hats, bolo ties and other western trinkets to the tens of thousands of fans filling every seat in the stadium.
“Seeing Beyoncé is a major life event and seeing her tonight means the world because of the boundaries she continues to push,” one excited fan told THR ahead of the show.
Thursday’s show had a later start, with many clusters of fans filing in after 8 p.m. before the superstar began her rendition of her song “American Requiem.” Then, before diving into “Blackbird,” Beyoncé told the crowd, “This song is dedicated to all the wonderful women who came before, all the blackbirds before me.” Then, she transitioned into “Freedom” from 2016’s Lemonade album, which lit up the crowd (literally, with the crowds bracelets lighting up).
Beyoncé had exciting surprises in store for her Bey Hive at every turn: During “Ya Ya,” her piano was set on fire and a robotic arm poured her some of her SirDavis whiskey. Later on in the show, she invited her daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi on the stage, as well as her mom Tina Knowles, celebrating the fact that her mom’s memoir “Matriarch” hit the number one on The New York Times Best Sellers List.
Beyoncé is joined on stage by her mother Tina Knowles, Blue Ivy, and Rumi at the ‘COWBOY CARTER’ tour in LA. pic.twitter.com/AElwU1XF7c
And while Beyoncé’s setlist seemed solidified after night one, she threw a curveball to her night two crowd, switching up the order of songs and throwing in surprise hits like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On it), “Love on Top,” “Irreplaceable” and “If I Were a Boy” into the mix. She introduced tantalizing snippets from her early catalog including her work with Destiny’s Child; yes, fans were treated to a little tease of “Bills, Bills, Bills,” to which the crowd went wild. But that was, unfortunately, all. No Destiny’s Child surprise appearance like at 2018’s Coachella.
She also teased a bit of “II Most Wanted,” her song with Miley Cyrus of Cowboy Carter, which led many in the crowd to believe she might, just might, welcome Cyrus to the stage. But no, Beyoncé did not have any surprise guests during night two (save for her own family members).
Beyoncé was overcome by emotion frequently throughout the marathon performances, repeatedly thanking the Los Angeles crowd for allowing her to indulge in a deeply personal creative evolution. At times, she herself seemed awed at hearing many of the Cowboy Carter songs performed live for the first time. “That sounded really good,” she marveled after one of her powerfully voiced performances during night one — less a boast than a moment of genuine appreciation for all that goes into mounting a record and performance of this scale and caliber.
If there was an undercurrent to the tour thus far, it was one of American patriotism under duress, from the racially tinged montages of Fox News commentators complaining about Beyoncé’s foray into country music, to the massive, masked Statue of Liberty — evocations of Planet of the Apes and the remains of a crumbled civilization — that accompanied the show’s elegiac closer, “Amen.”
But Beyoncé — who draped herself, her dancers and the stage in Stars and Stripes for several sequences — knows no one showed up to Cowboy Carter to ruminate too deeply on the state of the union. They came to dance and sing and cheer to the music, moves and overwhelming aura Beyoncé — and, for three hours at least, to be reminded of what this country does best.
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