Americana Has a Problem: Cowboy Carter and the Country Renaissance

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Live Nation 

Image Description: Beyoncé belts onstage at the SoFi Stadium dressed in white leather fringe and cowboy boots.

Riding into the spring of 2025, night one of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour came at a cultural moment wrought with political discourse–with a fair share of debate centered around the singer herself. Fresh off of a historic win at the Grammys after finally securing the award for “Album of the Year,” Beyoncé was experiencing the highs of critical acclaim for the same project that many online users dragged her for, often with sexist and racist overtones. While she received backlash from some regarding her pivot into the country genre (with many people claiming she was not “Southern” enough or “authentically country” despite being from Houston, Texas), Beyoncé also faced a fair amount of skepticism for the intense “Americana” brand that she firmly grounded this era in. In a historical moment where the US government is actively facilitating the erosion of civil liberties, worsening global conflicts and humanitarian crises, increasing xenophobia and ICE raids, a steadily progressing climate crisis, and much more, the extreme marketing and aestheticization of American iconography can certainly be a problematic one in the context of contemporary US politics. (For further reading on the resurgence of “Americana” culture alongside conservative ideals, see Katelyn Lee’s excellent FEMPIRE piece, “Welcome, Americana! You Who Were Always Here.”) 

Thus, with this growing tension between American patriotism and the populations that American policies continue to exploit on both a domestic and international level, the decision to step into an “Americana-cowboy” aesthetic is not only questionable–it is inherently political. Yet, in her quintessentially unapologetic style, Beyoncé took this issue head on. 

The lyrics of her show-stopping “YA YA” number say it best: “You lookin’ for a new America?” 

Strutting onstage in an all-white, leather outfit complete with fringe, studs, and a tipped hat to match, Beyoncé met night one of her Cowboy Carter tour in the manner that every Western starts off with: in a stand-off. 

Photo Credit: Julian Dakdouk for Billboard

Image Description: Beyoncé stands onstage with a cowboy hat tipped over her brow.

Her nearly 3-hour performance spanned a massive production that simultaneously operated as a celebration and critique of American identity, as well as a dynamic exploration of musical and visual genre. Featuring a plethora of stripped-back sets and over-the-top short film transitions, Beyoncé’s deep dive into country music and cowboy culture functioned as both a love letter and a playful satirization of the classic Americana aesthetic. 

As she rapidly transitioned between patriotic anthems, news clips, and protest songs, Beyoncé incorporated a spectrum of political commentary that left audience members struggling to keep up. Her unexpected rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” was quickly cut off by “Freedom” (a track dedicated to Black women off of her 2016 Lemonade album), and “My House” faded into a sample from Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” (a Black liberation poem also referenced in Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 superbowl halftime show). Blurred out videos of white news anchors spitting out racially charged epithets such as “What is happening to country music? It’s making me sick” and “You got to make your mark like a dog in a dog walk park [sic]” in reference to Beyoncé were juxtaposed against archival footage of Black artists participating in country music from the genre’s inception. And of course, choreography that ranged from hip hop (featuring a viral nightly solo from Blue Ivy) to do-si-dos and voguing interludes showcased an impressive range of dance technique and queer, Black, and Southern representation throughout. For the most part, this remix of styles, culture, and messaging worked.

From the moment we entered SoFi stadium up until the final number of the show, there was a clear vision that was being executed in full. Starting with the concert-goers themselves, and continued by countless costume changes onstage, everyone was decked out in their best, sparkliest modern-cowboy looks: hats, boots, chaps, bedazzled and customized. There was even a man outside the venue offering for fans to take pictures riding an actual horse that he brought. Contemporary, unique, bold styling–none of it old-fashioned or conservative.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Live Nation, Copyright Parkwood Entertainment

Image Description: Beyoncé sits with daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter, surrounded by dancers.

It was extremely impressive to see how well Beyoncé had communicated her message to her fans, and how excellently they received it. The country renaissance was here, a call to both classic and new Americana with patriotic imagery combined with the glamorous and chic style that Beyoncé has always been known for. While there were some hit or miss moments (such as the massive American flag ballgown, or the American flag-clad flying car that was replaced mid-tour by a mechanical horse after a technical mishap), Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour nonetheless asserted itself as a surprising and subversive tour de force. 

Beyoncé’s so-called “reclamation of America” (a phrase displayed onscreen in the latter half of her 8-act show) was nothing short of ambitious, but also extremely successful. Using her massive platform, the pop star created a space for rupture and reflection in the American cultural sphere that is seldom seen on the mainstream level. Through her consistently top-notch artistry and bold political confrontations, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour repurposed traditional elements of patriotism to propose a new, more inclusive vision for the nation: one in which joy, diversity, and critique are at the forefront, rather than the sidelines of American identity.

FEM would like to thank Live Nation for the opportunity to cover this event.