“Can you hear me?” Beyoncé sang during the opening notes of “Ameriican Requiem.” “Do you feel me?”
The ensuing yells from the crowd at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Thursday night illustrated just why Beyoncé’s tours are primed for stadiums; they bring an energy that can hardly be contained. Thursday’s performance kicked off the global superstar’s first night of her Cowboy Carter tour four-day stop in Atlanta. It’s been two years since the city was graced with her presence where liberation, self-love, and renaissance ringed true amid a flurry of sparkles and futuristic aesthetics.
Now Beyoncé has ventured more deeply into her country music roots — a journey that finally brought her the coveted Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys — and has slipped firmly into the role of a genre-bending artist.
The stadium was filled with cowboy hats galore, boots to the ground, and ever-present folding fans as the crowd danced, shimmied, and sashayed to hits from Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album. For nearly three hours, the singer-songwriter took her fans through an impressive setlist of 40 songs and 10 acts, from her latest album to hits from her previous eight studio albums.
It was a nonstop blitz of music, inventive interpolations and mixes, choreography (and hairography), seamless production, and storytelling made more poignant by visuals and historical archives…