By Suban Abdulla
LONDON (Reuters) -Singer Beyonce brought the “Rodeo Chitlin Circuit” to London as she kicked off the European leg of her “Cowboy Carter” tour, paying homage to Black contributions to country music in a nearly three hour show.
The “Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin Circuit” tour honours both Black performers, some of whom are featured on her Cowboy Carter album, as well as the venues known as the Chitlin Circuit that provided safe spaces for Black performers in the shadows of the Jim Crow segregation period.
Beyonce, wearing an all-white bejewelled bodysuit with fringed chaps, opened Thursday night’s show with “Ameriican Requiem” which explores themes of saying “goodbye to what has been” – the deep-rooted talons of racism within country music – and finding a new way forward.
She followed it up with a rendition of “Blackbiird” – a Beatles song that Paul McCartney said was inspired by the civil rights movement in the southern United States – featuring emerging Black women in country music.
Beyonce has spoken candidly about not feeling welcomed in the country genre despite her Texan roots, after she recently became the first Black woman to win best country album at the 2025 Grammy awards.
Naila Keleta-Mae, a Canada Research Chair in race, gender, and performance, said Beyonce was bringing a “very specific aspect” of American culture to Europe.
In deciding to perform only in London and Paris, Keleta-Mae said Beyonce had picked two cities with deep connections to Black culture, pointing to the Notting Hill carnival in the British capital and the history of the Harlem Renaissance in Paris.
On stage, Beyonce rode a mechanical bull and flew around the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in a car and giant horseshoe, belting out a medley of new and old songs across genres, uniting people from all ages and backgrounds.
Fans from all over the world, wearing Western-inspired outfits, descended on the capital for the opening night of the record six show run.
Carlos, 28, who arrived from Mexico, said that the “unsafe political situation in the U.S.” prompted him to travel to London to see Beyonce.
Ashley Brown, a 36-year-old educator from Dallas, Texas said Beyonce was the first artist she had ever travelled out of state to see.
The tour spurred a jump in sales of Beyonce-related items in May, according to data from e-commerce platform Shopify, with cowboy hats increasing by 288% from a year ago.
The singer shared the stage with her two daughters Blue Ivy, 13, who danced on several songs, while her seven-year-old daughter Rumi Carter joined the pair as Beyonce performed the lullaby “Protector”.
After finishing in London, the 43-year-old will perform three shows in Paris, one of which falls on Juneteenth – a holiday that marks the end of slavery in the U.S.
(Reporting by Suban Abdulla; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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