Beyoncé kicks off highly-anticipated 'Cowboy Carter' tour in Los Angeles

Beyoncé opened her Cowboy Carter world tour Monday night with the first of five shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium: a characteristically elaborate pop spectacle peppered with cowboy hats, Levi's jeans and thousands of fans from around the world. 

Kicking off a year and change after the release of Beyoncé’s country-inspired ‘Cowboy Carter’ LP — which finally earned the singer a Grammy award for Album of the Year this past February after four previous losses — the new road show features virtually all of the music from ‘Cowboy Carter’         yet also looks back over Beyoncé’s sizable catalog, in particular 2022’s clubby “Renaissance,” which spawned a blockbuster world tour of its own.

Monday’s show, which lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, began as “Cowboy Carter” does, with renditions of Beyoncé’s churchy “Ameriican Requiem” and the Beatles’ “Blackbird”; then she sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a giant video screen behind her flashed a message: “Never ask permission for something that already belongs to you.”

Beyoncé, dressed in fringed white cow-wrangler garb, did a bit of her song “Freedom” before segueing into “Ya Ya,” during which her 13-year-old daughter Blue Ivy was among her large crew of dancers. “Ya Ya” ended with the singer sitting in a throne as a giant robot arm poured her a drink.

After a costume change, the show’s second act began with “America Has a Problem,” which Beyoncé sang at a news podium festooned with microphones, then zoomed through “Spaghettii,” “Formation,” “My House” and “Diva.” 

Act III opened with relatively low-key versions of “Alliigator Tears” and “Just for Fun” before a tender reading of “Protector,” for which another of Beyoncé’s children — 7-year-old Rumi —excitedly appeared onstage, waved frantically at the crowd, smiled broadly and gave her mom a cute hug.

For “Desert Eagle,” Beyoncé wore a bedazzled bodysuit that she kept on for “Riiverdance,” “II Hands II Heaven” and “Sweet Honey Buckiin’” — a dance-heavy portion of the show that again prominently featured daughter Blue Ivy.

After a New Orleans-accented rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” the singer strapped onto an enormous neon horseshoe and sang “Daddy Lessons” as the horseshoe flew around the stadium. 

A funky “Bodyguard” and a snippet of “II Most Wanted” then gave way to an ecstatic “Cuff It,” which Beyoncé performed on a small secondary stage near the rear of the venue. 

She rode the horseshoe back to the main stage and did “Tyrant” astride a golden mechanical bull accompanied by two bull heads on swiveling robot arms.

At about the two-hour mark, Beyoncé said, “Welcome back to the Renaissance, y’all,” which led into versions of “I’m That Girl,” “Cozy” and “Alien Superstar,” as well as a western-tinged take on the ballroom battle that Beyoncé’s dancers undertook every night on the Renaissance tour.

The concert ended with “16 Carriages,” a bluesy ballad about her life in show business that she sang from inside a flying convertible, and “Cowboy Carter’s” closer, “Amen,” for which she wore a fluffy stars-and-stripes gown.

The show marked Beyoncé's first of 32 stadium shows on her nine-city tour that will span the U.S. and Europe with the grand finale taking place in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium on July 26.

Beyoncé last visited SoFi Stadium when she brought her Renaissance World Tour to the venue. She played three sold-out nights at the venue in September 2023, highlights of which included a surprise appearance by Diana Ross who led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to Beyoncé.