NEWS
Beyoncé‘s ‘Cowboy Carter’ tour has become the highest-grossing country tour ever.
The 32-show run wrapped up on Saturday (July 26) in Las Vegas with a surprise Destiny’s Child Reunion.
Now, it’s been revealed that the trek grossed $407.6million (£305.5million) with 1.6 million tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore.
In making over $400million, the tour has reached a feat that no other country tour ever has, per Pollstar. Bey is also the first American artist to have two separate tours gross over $400 million, with her 2023 ‘Renaissance‘ trek – previously named one of the highest-grossing tours of all time – amassing $579million (£434million) across 56 shows.
The ‘Cowboy Carter’ run is also the shortest tour to ever reach the figure, with its closest competitors lagging far behind. Those include her own previous tour (56 dates), The Rolling Stones’ 2017 – 2021 No Filter Tour (58 dates), and Metallica’s ongoing M72 World Tour (60 so far).
This time around, Bey performed in only nine cities, choosing to play mini-residencies in the likes of Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta, London and Las Vegas. It was a different approach to the ‘Renaissance’ run, which saw her play 39 cities in 17 countries.
Other surprise guests included Jay-Z, who made a special appearance in Atlanta for ‘Crazy In Love’, followed by solo performances of his own tracks ‘Public Service Announcement’ and ‘I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)’. It came after he previously joined her in France in June, marking their first time sharing a stage in seven years.
Before that, Beyoncé surprised fans once again in Paris, by bringing out Miley Cyrus to perform their collaboration ‘II Most Wanted’ together for the first time.
Beyoncé’s first London date at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier this month earned her a glowing five-star review, with Nick Levine writing for NME: “As a performer, she remains pretty much flawless – who else can sing from a bucking mechanical bull without missing a note? And as a creator of stadium spectacle, she keeps getting better. No one leaving this show will be removing their cowboy hat on the ride home.”
In other news, hard drives containing unreleased music from Beyoncé were reportedly stolen out of a rental car during the tour stop in Atlanta.
According to CNN, the vehicle in question was rented by Beyoncé’s choreographer Christopher Grant, who had arrived in Atlanta early to prep for the singer’s mini-residency.
NEWS
Celebrated playwright and comedian Ben Elton has approached Noel Gallagher about creating an “Oasis jukebox musical”.
The two recently crossed paths at the Queen Budapest premiere at London’s BFI Imax. During their conversation, the We Will Rock You writer expressed his interest in building a stage production around Oasis’ songs.
The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column reported that the guitarist laughed and pointed him towards his brother Liam, saying: “You better ask our kid.”
Someone close to Liam suggested casting the singer would be a challenge, claiming no actor could "match" his "swagger".
Built around Queen’s songs, We Will Rock You enjoyed an impressive run, becoming the Dominion Theatre’s longest running musical and earning a place among the West End’s longest running productions. It also received the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Popular Show.
Interest in Oasis remains enormous, with 11 million people signing up for the Oasis Live ’27 ticket ballot.
After the Live Forever band returned to touring last year for the first time in 16 years, their famous rivalry with Blur became the subject of a stage comedy.
In The Battle, Gavin and Stacey actor Mathew Horne portrayed Andy Ross, the Britpop music executive who found himself in the middle of one of British music’s most memorable feuds.
He said: “This play is right in the sweet spot of my teenage cultural experience. I’m thrilled to be exploring this iconic era in music on stage with such a talented creative team involved.”
The production revisited August 1995, when Blur and Oasis went head to head by releasing Country House and Roll With It on the same day, each hoping to reach Number One.
Blur secured the victory with sales of 274,000 copies, compared with 216,000 for Oasis.
That chart contest fuelled years of public jabs between members of both groups, although relations have become less hostile over time.
A UK tour had been planned for the production, but its remaining performances were cancelled following the Birmingham and Manchester engagements in February and March this year.
Oasis Live ’27 begins on May 21 at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, with 42 concerts scheduled, including a record six performances at Knebworth.
