Beyoncé showed out for her native Houston with her highly anticipated NFL halftime performance during the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans football game on Christmas Day. For her first live televised performance in four years, dubbed “ Beyoncé Bowl,” the singer put on a meticulously confected and executed show, enlisting Post Malone, Shaboozey and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter to debut tracks from “Cowboy Carter” for the first time in a live setting.
As always, a bespoke Beyoncé performance is shrouded in mystery. There were rumors that it would be a staggering 20-minute epic; Stan accounts were circulating old photos of Miley Cyrus claiming she was in Houston for the game; and Beyoncé herself cashed in on poking fun at the potential buffering issues that plagued the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson Netflix fight last month. But it instead was a masterful tour of choice cuts from her sprawling opus, which released earlier this year.
It’s a challenge to top even your most arresting performances, yet Beyoncé repeatedly manages to outdo herself. The performance began with a pre-recorded segment where Beyoncé, decked in a white fur coat with a matching cowboy hat, rode in on a white horse to the tune of “16 Carriages,” making her way through the stadium and dismounting before launching into “Blackbiird,” where she was joined by Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer. She transitioned to a live setting on the field, ripping through “Y.