The Dream Setlist for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter World Tour

The lights cut out, all eyes are glued to the stage. Ambient sounds of horses galloping, guitars being tuned, and general chatter grow to a loud buzz before cutting out completely. Those sounds will play in tandem with video interludes comprised of footage from recent documentary footage, past Bey films, and the long-awaited visuals. At the end of the clip, a single blue spotlight shines on Beyoncé standing in front of a mic stand with her guitarist to her left. She’s wearing a Cowboy Carter sash and an eggshell white cowboy hat. Our rodeo queen has entered the building.

Under the blue spotlight, Beyoncé sings the intro to “Ameriican Requiem” completely a cappella. Her guitarist hits the first lick after the intro, and with each successive one, more lights flood the stage and illuminate a massive live band and orchestra dressed completely in white. Red, white and blue lights dance around the stadium as the giant lit-up star behind her pulses in time with the song’s grandest guitar strums. From there, Bey enters full rock goddess mode for the remainder of the song, driving home the thesis statement of Cowboy Carter.

At the end of “Ameriican Requiem” — yes, we’re doing the full song — the music starts transitioning to the first verse of “Freedom.” Released in 2016 and used as the official song for Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, it would be a bit shocking if we didn’t get “Freedom” in some way on the Cowboy Carter Tour. By the time Bey reaches the breakdown after the first chorus, her band starts interpolating the drums from Kendrick Lamar‘s “Euphoria,” a nod to the Compton MC’s feature on “Freedom.”

The “Euphoria” drums take us into a mashup of “Ring the Alarm” and “I’m That Girl,” songs that showcase two dominant moods in Bey’s catalog. If “Ring” is Bey in peak crash-out mode over an unfaithful man, “I’m That Girl” is a reminder to herself — and the world — that she’s simply incomparable. It’s an interesting narrative contrast that also appears second quarter of the Cowboy Carter tracklist. Furthermore, this mash-up highlights her OG Southern belle album (2006’s B’Day) and keeps Renaissance present.

Remember what we said about Bey rearranging her pre-Cowboy Carter catalog with a greater emphasis on country music? Think even bigger. Cowboy Carter is all about celebrating her Southern roots, so I expect all shades of that to be on full display on the tour. It’s been many years since Beyoncé has included “Why Don’t You Love Me” — an I Am… Sasha Fierce bonus track from 2010 — on a tour setlist, but now’s the time. She should especially hit her stanky, bluesy, funky, gospel-inflected Rock In Rio rendition — that’s exactly the style of vocal performance and live instrumentation the Cowboy Carter tour should feel like.

“16 Carriages” is an incredibly personal reflection on Bey’s journey through her life and career, so it’s a fitting closer to the first act of the tour. The Grammy-nominated song played when she went onstage to accept her album of the year trophy, and it’s one of the most brilliant country songs on Cowboy Carter.

After performing the rest of this act on the main stage, she’ll do “16 Carriages” — and the more intimate ballads on the set list — at the very edge of the B-stage with just two band members (a guitarist and a pianist) by her side.

After spending the first act taking unfaithful partners and countries to task, a video interlude highlighting Bey as a mother and, well, protector will play as she changes into her costume for the following act. The songs she’s recorded for each of her three kids — “Blue” (Blue Ivy), “Protector” (Rumi), “My Rose” (Sir) — will weave in and out of the instrumental for “Blackbiird,” her collaborations with rising Black country stars Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tiera Kennedy and Tanner Adell.

Cowboy Carter has a much richer lyrical narrative than Renaissance, so we want to honor that with this setlist. Here, Bey will deliver her most emotionally intense ballads, highlighting the often-fraught quest for love that courses through her catalog. When Beyoncé reemerges onstage, she’ll be dressed in the bloodstained custom couture she sings of in “Daughter.”

Bey will be back on the main stage for this one, with her and her backup dancers reliving the kooky, carefree vibe of the Pamela Anderson-honoring “Bodyguard” clip she shared for Halloween last year. This should be a fun, breezy moment that relies more on audience participation than on-stage production.

She then transitions into the first cover of the night, Dolly Parton’s timeless “Jolene.” Beyoncé’s version flips Parton’s original into a clear threat to any woman who dares get between Queen Bey and her man. It’s a rebuke of Lemonade’s Becky character, which is an opportune moment to fold in the ethereal original demo of “Sorry.” Throw in some of the “I Miss You” synths in the background, and you’re left with a spaced-out alt-country section that raises the stakes for a massive release in the following song.

Save a few shows on the Formation World Tour, Beyoncé doesn’t really perform “Irreplaceable” anymore. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but hopefully that changes with the Cowboy Carter Tour as it’s the perfect song for this trek. Bey can revive the country version of the song she did with Sugarland at the 2007 American Music Awards, or just rely on the song’s guitar base to anchor a massive stadium-wide singalong moment for the ages.

After spending “Jolene” warning Becky and “Irreplaceable” warning her man, it’s time for our damsel to look inward. Of course, that means going back to “Daddy Lessons” the song from which this whole chapter of Bey’s career spawned. She’ll do most of the song into the bridge (Formation World Tour line dance included) before making her way to the Bey stage and nailing the “Caro Mi Ben” section of “Daughter.” Back on the mainstage, a pair of contemporary dancers will literally act out the story of the song as Bey croons to the high heavens.

Both of these have had their fair share of iconic moments already, but who would turn down hearing Bey rip through some of her best ballads? The “Daughter” dancers will remain onstage with Bey still at the B-Stage. They’ll continue dancing in contemporary and lyrical styles to an arrangement that will pull more from country and Southern blues balladry than the rock opera feel of her recent renditions of “I Care.”

After admitting to the murder in “Daughter” and processing her conflicting emotions with “I Care” and “Resentment,” our damsel realizes that she only has herself in this world. Enter: “Me, Myself & I.” Queen Bey will sing her beloved 2003 ballad while walking up and down the stage, gathering the courage to fully step into her outlaw country era in the next act.

This video interlude will be a mixture of glamour shots and scenes of Beyoncé as an outlaw in the Wild West. “The Linda Martell Show” will tease the mixture of hip-hop and rock that will ground the forthcoming act, while “Say My Name” emphasizes that Bey is the main character of this narrative. “Loop the Sample,” an unreleased track teased during Renaissance World Tour interludes, will add a much-needed boost of bass to the arrangement before her “On the Run” hook transitions into Shaboozey’s “Spaghettii” outro.

In Act III, Beyoncé puts her dancing shoes on. Introduced by Ms. Martell’s rejection of the concept of genre, OUTLAW KNTRY will be comprised of Beyoncé’s best bad b—h anthems, with a heavy emphasis on her rap skills and rock ‘n’ roll tendencies.

After teasing the “Spaghettii” outro, we take it back to the beginning and let Bey spit her entire verse at the center of the main stage. Then, immediately after “Come get everything you came for,” she goes straight into her “Top Off” verse as the brass section accompanies her on the risers. During “Top Off” her dancers will make their way to the stage and get ready for the rest of the act.

It’s time to dance. What’s the point of being an outlaw if you’re not having a little fun breaking the rules? Ms. Martell already told us that “genres are a funny little concept,” so why not launch into a borderline senseless trap fantasia in the middle of your country tour? This is OUTLAW KNTRY, there are no rules.

We’ll keep the “7/11” twerk fest going with Renaissance’s “Church Girl,” which will be interspersed with a runway moment soundtracked by “Riiverdance.”

While we’re on the topic of booty, might as well bring out “Bootylicious” and amplify its sample of Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” to transition into a bit more of a rock feel. Her dancers will still be onstage hyping up the crowd, but her band members will have similar mobility during this section instead of being trapped on the risers. Instead, Bey will be on the risers, setting her up for a show-stopping moment with two forthcoming B’Day fan favorites.

You can trace much of Cowboy Carter back to B’Day, so it’s only right that we get full performances of two fan favorites from that album: “Freakum Dress” and “Green Light.” For these tracks, Bey and her dancers should recreate some of the blocking from both music videos: “Freakum Dress” gives her a chance to further highlight the Black queer influences she honored on Renaissance, while “Green Light” lets her get rockstar-level loose. Those two fiery, funky songs sit right in Bey’s sweet spot of funk rock and explosive vocals on uptempo tracks, and they’re the perfect way to transition into the hardest rock song in her catalog at the moment.

Come on, this one never gets old. Because “Don’t Hurt Yourself” is such a confrontational song, it’s the perfect closer for the OUTLAW KNTRY section. We get to see Bey reach the peak of her rock powers while driving home the point that she can master any genre and make it distinctly her own.

This will be another video interlude while Bey changes into a sheriff-inspired cowgirl fit for the next act. On the screens, a video of Bey arriving in a new town on horseback, keeping an eye on different “wanted” posters that feature the faces of different Cowboy Carter collaborators.

With this act, Cowboy Carter transitions from outlaw to sheriff, assuming yet another Western archetype. This section will showcase Beyoncé’s empowerment anthems with a heavy emphasis on Southern line dances, majorette choreography and HBCU marching band culture. Expect most of this to be performed on the main stage, with Bey leading her dancers around the B-stage whenever the choreography calls for it. As sheriff, she’s in total control here — and that’s what’s going to truly anchor anthems like “Schoolin Life” or “Break My Soul.”

Beyoncé may have wanted to nix “Diva” from the Renaissance World Tour setlist, but, thankfully, Blue Ivy got her together. Since her last trek, “Diva” experienced a viral moment on TikTok, so her 2009 hit has likely secured its spot on the Cowboy Carter Tour setlist.

Over the years, Bey has mixed “Diva” with contemporary hip-hop smashes like Future’s “F–k Up Some Commas” and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock.” This year, we’re pulling for Tyler, the Creator’s “Sticky,” whose brassy production is right on-brand for Bey’s overall sound — and the vision for the Sheriff Carter act.

“Formation” and “Run the World” are Beyoncé setlist staples, but she can breathe new life into them by mixing in a bit of the snares from 2022’s “America Has A Problem.”

Beyoncé’s staging of “My House” — a rap-house track she released in 2023 to celebrate the release of her Renaissance tour doc — at the Beyoncé Bowl was pitch-perfect. No notes. The only difference with the tour is that, hopefully, she performs the full song instead of an abridged version.

The last three selections were all relentlessly uptempo, so we’ll give Queen Bey a bit of a breather with this one. “Savage” — in whatever configuration she chooses — should always be present on a Bey setlist, but it would be cool to see her fuse it with Megan Thee Stallion’s “Bigger Than Texas” as a nod to their shared Houston roots and the city’s trademark chopped and screwed sound.

Now that we’ve brought the tempo down slightly, we’ll remain in that haunting, moody bag with a performance of “Tyrant” that runs from the beginning of the song to the end of the bridge. Instead of finishing out the Cowboy Carter track, Bey will then transition into the chorus and bridge of “6 Inch” after teasing the instrumental throughout “Tyrant.” From there, the “Please do not be alarmed” announcement from “Alien Superstar” drops and she performs an abridged version of the Renaissance fan fave.

When Renaissance dropped in 2022, the seamless transition between “Cuff It,” “Energy” and the Billboard Hot 100-topping “Break My Soul” briefly stopped the world. The same happened when Beyoncé flawlessly executed that album stretch at the Renaissance World Tour. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We’ll gladly let Queen Bey keep this section intact as is, but let’s really country-up the arrangement with some fiddles, banjos, and accordions. Take us from the nightclub to the hoedown, if you will.

With each new illustrious chapter of Beyoncé’s career, “Schoolin’ Life” only becomes more and more poignant. Between that fact AND her love for 4, “Schoolin’ Life” could be a great moment for Bey to slow things down a bit, deliver some killer vocals, and remind the crowd, that ultimately we are the captains of our fates in this life. Why be a damsel in distress when you could be a rollicking outlaw or damn-near omnipotent sheriff?

To close out this act, we’ll throw it all the way back to the beginning with “Crazy in Love” a staple in Bey’s live shows ever since it topped the Hot 100 back in 2023. For the Cowboy Carter version of “Crazy,” we’d love to see Bey mash up her classic with one from another trailblazing woman in country music: Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”

Of course, Bey will kill the classic “Crazy In Love” choreography while flanked by dancers on either side on the main stage, with explosive pyrotechnics signaling the end of this act.

To transition out of the Sheriff Carter act, Bey will air another video interlude soundtracked by “Donk” — an unreleased cut that went TikTok viral last year — “No Angel” and “Oh Louisiana.”

“No Angel” and “Donk” will foreshadow the bedroom setting of the next act, while “Oh Louisiana” stands as an overt nod to Cowboy Carter in a section that, admittedly, bears just one song from the album. In the video, Bey will be on horseback once again, but the “wanted” posters she stumbles on in this town all have her face on them. She’s no longer the sheriff, she’s the hangman — the most wanted criminal on that side of town.

Inspired by the “Hangman” in “Tyrant” that can steal anyone’s man, this act is all about Bey’s nastiest and most sensual odes to sex. She’ll explore the breadth of her catalog here, incorporating heavy blues and soul elements to truly capture the sticky warmth of her subject matter. Most of this act will be performed in front of a mic stand center stage, but by the time she gets to the end of “Desert Eagle,” be will be sat atop a giant inflatable white horse with mobile, robotic legs in the same stance as the bird on the Cowboy Carter album cover.

Yes, we’re doing the whole song. Yes, the dancers will hit Drea Kelly’s viral choreography. Bey will sing the first half of the song on the B stage before dimming the lights and making her way to the main stage for the second half. This will be one of the lengthier numbers in the show; we’re expecting Bey to spend at least a minute and a half ad-libbing at the end of the song.

The soulful funk of 2003’s “Be With You” will set the scene for the sultry bass-driven groove of “Desert Eagle,” as Bey doubles down on the explicit come-hither invitations that she alludes to across “II Hands.” It’s been ages since we’ve heard Bey body “Be With You” live, and this tour is as good a chance as any to make it happen.

We want the same “Rocket” staging as the Formation Tour (Bey enrapturing the stadium with just a mic stand and her voice), but this time we’re mashing it up with “Dance for You” and leaving time for an orgastic guitar solo and some lyrical interpolations from “Water,” an underrated track from 2019’s The Lion King: The Gift.

We won’t have Bey singing “Partition” but we’ll use bits of the instrumental to transition into “Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin,’” the second Shaboozey collaboration on Cowboy Carter. We’ll have her do the whole thing (and probably skip Boozey’s verse in the intro, sorry!), but the real feast is the “Buckiin’” section. There, Bey will bring back Parris Goebel’s Beyoncé Bowl choreography as her production team sets up a giant mechanical bull for the next song.

Beyoncé hasn’t performed “Suga Mama” since her 2007 Beyoncé Experience tour, and it’s high time this banger makes its return to her setlists. While it’s tempting to have her mix this with a Prince classic (The Purple One covered it back in the day), we’ll let Bey stay true to the original here and drive home the point that none of her recent genre experimentation is that new or foreign to her.

After finishing “Suga Mama” on the mechanical bull — a nod to the end of its official music video — Beyoncé will use the spoken intro of “Ya Ya” to make her way back to the center of the main stage. Like “My House,” we’ll gladly let Queen Bey keep the Beyoncé Bowl staging of her Grammy-nominated track — we just hope she’ll do the entire song to close out this act of the show.

To transition into the final full act of the show, Bey will air another video interlude focusing on her friendships (expect some cameos from Kelly, Solange, Michelle and Angie), Cowboy Carter studio footage, and clips of the album’s collaborators in their own star-making moments from 2024.

In the background, she’ll play a mix of two Sasha Fierce ballads (“Smash Into You” and “That’s Why You’re Beautiful”) and two Cowboy Carter ballads (“Flamenco” and “Just for Fun”) to highlight the throughline of heartstring-tugging soft rock-inspired ballads in her catalog.

For the final act of the Cowboy Carter Tour, all we’re looking for is good vibrations. As we close out the show, this section should feel like a massive summer family barbecue. Expect a stage that’s rarely empty, a lot of call-and-response audience participation, and a generally relaxed, laid-back feel that should register as a direct contrast to the Damsel in Distress act.

Bey will begin this act on the B-stage and by the end of “II Most Wanted,” she should be back on the main stage with the “Levii’s Jeans” Beyoncé Bowl truck on the right side of the stage.

“II Most Wanted” is the only individual Cowboy Carter song to win a Grammy (best country duo/group performance), so it definitely needs to be on the setlist. A true duet, this one will be a bit tricky to pull of without Miley there each night, so maybe Bey does the first verse, pre-chorus, and chorus before getting back to the main stage and climbing in the truck bed.

Again, no notes from Beyoncé Bowl. Perfect staging. If Bey and her team could figure out a way to simulate someone driving the truck onstage, that would be a dope addition too.

Coming out of “Levii’s Jeans,” Beyoncé should bring back the Dubai version of “Countdown” and then transition into a more zydeco-flavored arrangement of her acclaimed 4 track. She doesn’t need to do the full song, just the chorus, the first half of the first verse, and the pre-chorus.

To build in some rest time, “Countdown” should transition into a Homecoming-evoking “Party” arrangement that gives way to a few rounds of Cupid’s “Flex” line dance. At the first Formation World Tour show, Beyoncé brought two fans onstage to perform “Single Ladies” with her. We’re not sure how plausible that is now, but it would be a fun bit if Bey picked a few audience members to do the “Flex” line dance with her at each tour stop.

Reminiscent of the Renaissance World Tour, Bey should lead the stadium in a few a cappella rounds of “Love on Top” before belting out “Before I Let Go” and inviting a new batch of fans onstage. She gets to chart a brief history of line dances while belting out several tracks from her self-proclaimed favorite album.

Beyoncé hasn’t performed “Single Ladies” since she headlined Coachella in 2018, and the Cowboy Carter Tour is the perfect place for her to revive the Dirty South version of the song she used to do on the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour. If we don’t hear her say, “I’m from Houston, Texas, the Dirty South, and we get stanky, funky, nasty, and dirty like this,” she can keep it!

We want all of the growls and brassy theatrics and dramatics.

After the fireworks go off at the end of “Single Ladies,” the stage will go completely dark, and home videos of child Beyoncé on horseback lay on the screens. After the final clip plays, a banjo plays the opening notes of “Texas Hold ‘Em” as the lights begin to come up.

For the grand finale, Bey will pull out some of her biggest ballads. She enraptures the crowd with a rendition of “All Night” that’s reminiscent of her 2015 TIDAL X performance but with a greater emphasis on country instrumentation. This section, in theory, serves the same purpose as the Renaissance World Tour’s ballad section: a no-holds-barred showcase of Bey’s vocal virtuosity.

After “All Night,” Bey will dive into a shortened version of “XO” that’s mashed up with a cover of “Color Him Father,” a Linda Martell song that reached No. 22 on Hot Country Songs in 1969. Beyoncé is always one to honor the pioneers who paved the way for her, and since Ms. Martell doesn’t sing on Cowboy Carter, covering one of her signature songs is a beautiful way to pay tribute to the woman who put the first cracks in the glass ceiling Beyoncé shattered with her latest album.

“Halo” is another Beyoncé classic that she’s routinely avoided on recent tours, but it’s time for this one to make a comeback too. It’s a beautiful end to the show’s narrative, and it’s a timeless, beloved ballad that literally everyone knows. There’s also so much to explore in terms of re-envisioning the track as a country power ballad reminiscent of Faith Hill’s “Breathe.”

You didn’t seriously think we weren’t going to include “Texas Hold ‘Em,” right? Beyoncé’s historic country hit will close out the show, and, again, no notes on the Beyoncé Bowl staging or arrangement. We want it just like that for the Cowboy Carter Tour — otherworldly outro vocals, “Bang!” banner and all.

When it comes time for Queen Bey to list off her thank yous and wish us all a safe journey home, we think “Amen” is the obvious choice for a closer. The only issue is that it’s a bit too slow and somber of a song to come after “Texas Hold ‘Em.” How to fix that? Perhaps some kind of mix that fuses the lyrics of “Amen” with the sultry synths of “Summer Renaissance,” a callback to Renaissance that keeps the energy high as fans file out of whatever stadium Queen Bey reigned over for the night.