Back in May 2023, on the way to the Stade de France, Beyoncé’s fans seemed on their way to dance at a giant nightclub − perfectly in sync with Renaissance, her album that celebrates club culture and its fringes. On Thursday, June 19, for the first of three concerts at the Saint-Denis arena, the crowd looked ready for a rodeo contest: Stetsons and cowboy boots were out in force, but also glitter, Afro and queer twists. Everything was in tune with the message of Cowboy Carter, the eighth studio album from a Texan artist that both claims and reinvents her roots.
Would the excitement be as palpable as it was during her last visit? Would it rival the Taylor Swift mania that swept Paris for Swift’s concerts at La Défense Arena in May 2024? Thanks to Cowboy Carter and the single “Texas Hold’Em,” Beyoncé became the first African-American artist to top the country charts. The album finally earned the record-breaking 35-time Grammy Award winner her first trophy in the album category, though sales lagged behind her previous release.
Was it because fans misunderstood this stylistic experiment? Or because the album − longer, and with a few lulls − had fewer hit singles? It is true that stadiums on this new tour, which kicked off in Los Angeles in late April, have sometimes struggled to fill up. And yet, at 8:55 pm a nearly full Stade de France − with 80,000 people in attendance − gave “Queen B” a hero’s welcome for the first act of a breathtaking three-hour show.
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