Between a surprise appearance from Jay-Z in Paris, Blue Ivy’s routinely show-stealing “Déjà Vu” dance breaks, and an impromptu mid-air “tippin’ on 44s” moment in Houston, Beyoncé‘s record-smashing Cowboy Carter Tour has been filled with viral moments. Nonetheless, Queen Bey pulled out all the stops for her July 4 show at Maryland’s Northwest Stadium, just outside of Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital.
In its Grammy-winning exploration and illumination of the oft-obfuscated Black roots of American country music (and early rock ‘n’ roll), Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter LP found the music icon squaring her personal catharsis (the album was largely made in response to her negative experience at the 2016 CMA Awards) with a look at how the recording industry mirrors the exploitation and discardment of Black minds and lives in America at large.
On Independence Day, Beyoncé entered the stage with her rousing Cowboy Carter opener, “Ameriican Requiem”; introduced by backup dancers doused in blue, the 35-time Grammy-winner’s vocals reverberated across the stadium. The song, something of a funeral march for an antiquated version of America, set a resiliently optimistic tone for the rest of the night. Between performing the entire Cowboy Carter LP, weaving in classic hits from across her nearly 30-year-strong catalog and incorporating recent hits from Black Southern stars like GloRilla (“TGIF”) and BigXthaPlug (“The Biggest”), Beyoncé crafted a sacred space for Black Americans (and those belonging to the country’s most mistreated groups) to host their own emotionally complex acknowledgement of the nation’s birthday.
Here are the seven best moments of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour on July 4 in Washington, D.C.
