Live review

Beyoncé, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London: She brings all the bells, whistles & Stetsons to London leg of her ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour

Split into seven separate acts and featuring 40 songs and many snippets aside, her show is entertainment on a massive scale.

Words: Sarah Jamieson
Photos: Parkwood Entertainment
14th June 2025

To try and pretend that Beyoncé is anything other than one of the world’s greatest performers would be futile, and the anticipatory energy that buzzes through Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tonight provides more than enough proof. While much has been said about ticket sales and empty seats ahead of this evening - her first date in a record-breaking six-show run at the venue - in truth, by the time the icon emerges centre stage for her opening ‘AMERIICAN REQUIEM’, those vacancies are impossible to notice, such is the gravitas of her star power.

Unsurprisingly (for a tour titled the ‘COWBOY CARTER’ tour), proceedings come heavily built around her eighth, Grammy-winning opus, with the show packing in all the bells, whistles, neon signs and Stetsons to match. It’s also, by all accounts, an near-exact replica of her recent run of dates in the US; again, usual for a stadium show of this scale, but with its Americana iconography and stars-and-stripes regalia, it hits a little different in front of a UK audience.

Throughout, Beyoncé flirts with subverting the US-centric cliches that haunt her most recent record and its reception - whether through dedicating ‘Blackbird’ to those influential Black artists who paved the way before her; weaving in Jimi Hendrix’s infamous Woodstock performance to her version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’; or blaring Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’ through the stadium’s speakers mid-set. But, in light of the current political climate, it’s impossible not to feel that she could push the dial even further: a screen-high message of “Never ask permission for something that already belongs to you” garners many an excitable scream from fans, but feels too artsy and vague (even in this context) to really punch.

Beyoncé, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

At large, though, this is entertainment on a gigantic scale. Split into seven separate acts and featuring 40 songs and many snippets aside (sometimes an inspired feat, sometimes massively frustrating), the songs come thick and fast, Beyoncé's energy unfaltering throughout. It’s her ‘REVOLUTION’ section that stands out most, with ‘AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM’ firing on all cylinders as she stands, clad in an outfit embossed with garish newspaper headlines, all while conducting her writhing dance troupe from from behind a conference podium. A shortened ‘Formation’ midway through rapidly reminds us of her phenomenal prowess as a multi-hyphenate performer (who could, after all, forget the sheer power of her 2016 Super Bowl show?), before the back-to-back stomp of ‘MY HOUSE’ into 2008’s ‘Diva’ feels about like an empowering battle cry.

Elsewhere, her ‘TEASE’ section does just that. Ushered in by a hefty, rooting-tooting rendition of ‘TEXAS HOLD ‘EM’, she introduces some of her most notable hits (‘Crazy In Love’, ‘Single Ladies’, ‘If I Were A Boy’) in a dizzying, almost surreal succession. They’re greeted with delirious delight from the crowd, only to be cut short just as they get going, in a move that feels rather disappointing: this may be the ‘COWBOY CARTER’ tour but it’s not a revelation to suggest that a little more time celebrating her back catalogue wouldn’t go amiss.

Granted, tonight is still hugely impressive; packing in many camp moments (who, five years ago, ever dreamed Bey would fly around a North London stadium on a neon horseshoe singing ‘Jolene’?) as it does pitch-perfect vocals and impressive costume changes. It’s just a shame that, while tonight undoubtedly sits within the gold standard of pop shows, its scale is so ambitious and grand - the setlist so bulging - that it's almost too much to take in, and not as harmonious a display as we might've come to expect from an artist so exceptional.

Tags: Beyoncé, Reviews, Live Reviews