by: Alana Brown-Davis
The Cowboy Carter World Tour has officially come to a close this weekend. During her final show of the tour, in Las Vegas Beyonce made sure to bring out the big guns for the grand finale. In their first show together in seven years, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams joined Queen Bey onstage for a moment that definitely made the Bey Hive swarm. All clad in gold, the ladies strutted onto the stage while ‘Lose My Breath’ played. Introduced by Beyonce as “Destiny’s Child, b—!”, the trio performed a medley of their’ biggest hits.
In addition to the reunion, Beyonce brought out her husband Jay-Z to join her on their hit ‘Crazy in Love’. ‘Sweet Honey Buckin’ collaborator Shaboozey also joined her onstage. Throughout the tour, her firstborn daughter Blue Ivy accompanied her mother on the stage being perfectly in sync with her mother and background dancers.
The Cultural Impact of Beyonce and Cowboy Carter
The ‘II Hand II Heaven’ singer began her tenth concert series in late April, making stops across Europe and the US. ‘Cowboy Carter’ earned the most nominations at this year’s Grammy Awards with eleven across several genres. It is the third-most nominated album in Grammy history behind Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and Quincy Jones ‘The Dude’. At the Grammys, she won ‘Album of the Year’, ‘Best Country Duo/Pop Performance’, and ‘Best Country Album’.
According to Billboard Boxscore, the tour wrapped with with $407.6 million in box office sales and 1.6 million tickets sold over 32 shows. This statement from their recent article eloquently sums up the tours success. “The Cowboy Carter Tour consolidated the routing of Beyoncé’s previous tours to just seven American markets, plus London and Paris. In fewer cities, she played more shows, extending to four nights in Atlanta, five in Los Angeles and New York, and six in London. It’s rare for an artist to play so many shows at a single stadium on a single tour, and with more dates, she was able to sell more tickets and push higher grosses.”
With these numbers, Cowboy Carter has become the highest grossing country tour, breaking numerous stadium records. Beyonce has officially achieved two records in her nine-city tour–highest grossing Black artist of all time and highest grossing R&B artist of all time.