Have you noticed the swarm of cowboy hat-clad fans storming the Overground recently? The Beyhive are in town. They’re here for Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album tour. Her pivot to country music has been globally praised and is it surprising given everything she’s touched in the past three decades has practically turned to gold? But despite that, there’s a fly in the ointment.
None of the six nights at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for Beyonce’s first country music album have sold out. And, whilst handing out tickets to families in need is a noble cause, let us not pretend this was anything other than a desperate attempt to get bums on seats. Conversely, her Renaissance World Tour two years ago sold out five nights at the same stadium.
It would be nice to be able to blame this on dynamic pricing, plus the fact that the cheapest ticket price has jumped around 27 percent compared to last time. But is price the problem when it comes to filling stadiums?
Taylor Swift had no problem rallying almost 1.2 million fans to concerts around the UK, with Wembley Stadium selling out eight times over during her Eras tour in 2024. Famously, parents shared TikToks of gifting their children £25k tickets just to see Tay Tay on stage.
If we’re defining success by ticket sales, then Taylor takes the prize. However, it’s Beyonce who is asking the real questions
And therein lies the problem. Swapping beaded friendship bracelets at a concert should tell you everything you need to know about Taylor Swift’s audience; the majority of her audience are young, still living at home, or must have too much time and money on their hands to be making handicrafts. To put it frankly, Mummy and Daddy’s money isn’t paying for Beyonce tickets. The majority of Swifties are just from a different generation; coincidentally a generation that is not worried about mortgages, catastrophic renting prices, and bills.
Nobody, except Kanye West, enjoys pitting these two Queens against each other. But when one is selling out every concert, and the other is handing them out for free, the comparison is inevitable. Even more so when a ticket to either could set you back your monthly salary.
If we’re defining success by ticket sales, then Taylor takes the prize. However, it’s Beyonce who is asking the real questions, pushing boundaries, challenging social norms, and making songs that narrate her experience of Black womanhood. It’s just unfortunate that ignorance has prevailed, with the masses preferring to listen to a compendium of catchy but uninspired songs about insipid men and “shaking it off”.
As for the older members of Gen Z, it’s just a shame that they are too blinded by Charli XCX to appreciate a great when they see one (myself included). But Beyonce doesn’t need to find a new fanbase in a new generation, or return with sell out tours. For more than 30 years, she’s had royal status. She was the Taylor Swift of her time. She’s performed with the likes of Prince and Tina Turner, won more Grammys than any other artist, revolutionised what it means to be a ‘Single Lady’, and sold more than 617,000 copies of her self-titled album in just three days in 2013. Maybe Taylor’s snatched the crown, but Beyonce hasn’t lost it for lack of talent; her Beyhive is simply on a sabbatical.
Niva Yadav is an editorial apprentice for The Standard
