Beyonce brings daughters on stage but keeps son hidden at Cowboy Carter Tour debut amid sales crisis

Beyoncé returned to the stage on Monday night to kick off her Cowboy Carter Tour at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California — and she had help from some special guests.

The 43-year-old songstress was joined on stage by her daughters Blue Ivy, 13, and Rumi, seven.

The hitmaker — who kicked off her tour just over year and a half after she wrapped up her whirlwind Renaissance World Tour — notably didn’t bring out Rumi’s twin brother Sir Carter after making efforts to keep him out of the spotlight.

Despite hopes for a series of triumphs, Beyoncé has been beset by fears that she’s rushing into a ‘flop’ tour, after she has reportedly struggled to sell tickets for her upcoming shows despite winning her first-ever Grammy for Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter.

Earlier on Monday, there more than 3,000 seats still available at SoFi Stadium, according to seating maps from Ticketmaster.

However, less than 650 of those seats appeared to have been original tickets, while the vast majority were being resold by scalpers.

Beyoncé got some help later in the performance when Blue Ivy and Rumi made a surprise appearance on stage during Protector.

The Cowboy Carter tune already had a connection to her youngest daughter, as a spoken-word recording of Rumi is featured on the studio recording.

Fan footage posted to social media showed Beyoncé sitting in front of a human pyramid of backup dancers while Rumi sat next to her and embraced her.

Blue stood above her mother and leaned down to rest her cheek on Beyoncé’s head while her long curls draped down. 

Earlier, the Drunk In Love singer held Rumi’s hand as she led her and Blue out on stage.

Her eldest daughter was dressed in a sparkling silver top with a gray plaid skirt and tall boots. 

Rumi was dressed for maximum visibility in a sleeveless gold mini dress and matching gold boots.

Beyoncé wore her own gold outfit during the concert for I’m That Girl.

Blue, who previously had a dance solo at several of the Renaissance Tour dates, again had a spot to show off her dance moves.

Her aunt Solange Knowles shared a video of Blue dancing on stage, captioning it: ‘exactlyyy neicy pooohh.’

While two-thirds of her children were represented on stage, Rumi’s twin brother Sir was nowhere to be seen. 

His absence has become a trend for the famous family, as Blue Ivy has long made public appearances with her parents, and Rumi has more recently joined them in public, but Sir has remained in the shadows. 

While Beyoncé initially tried to keep her twins out of the spotlight, it’s now believed that Sir is kept in the wings because he’s uninterested in the spectacle of his parents’ performances.

The performer’s parents, Tina Knowles and her ex-husband Mathew Knowles, have suggested as much.

In recent years, Beyoncé’s parents Tina and Mathew Tina Knowles have shared insight into the twins’ personality.

In 2019, Tina explained: ‘The girl [Rumi] is really just going to rule the world, and the boy [Sir] is kind of laid back and chills like the dad.’

She aded that ‘[Blue Ivy] is the Queen B. The second Queen B.’

In a subsequent chat with E! News, she expanded on Sir’s personality.

‘Sir is very quiet. He does all of the numbers stuff, so he’s not into fashion as much,’ Tina explained.

In 2020, Sir’s grandfather added that ‘Sir, he just wants his world to himself.’ 

However, he said his twin sister Rumi reminded him more of Beyoncé’s sister Solange, suggesting she has a natural desire to perform.

The fact that Beyoncé would include either of her twins at all is somewhat surprising in the wake of ‘vulgar and offensive’ tweets her former friend Kanye West made about them last month. 

After West — who has made a string of pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler posts in recent months — made his offensive statements about the twins, a source told Page Six that Beyoncé and Jay-Z were ‘discussing how they want to handle this situation, whether that be privately and/or in a legal matter.’ 

Regardless of the approach they choose, the insider emphasized that the two ‘will absolutely not stand for’ how West had ‘spoken about their children.’

It likely didn’t help that, after West took the post down, he made it clear that he didn’t do so to be ‘a good person.’

‘I need everyone to know that I took the post about Jay Z and Beyoncé’s family down … because there was a possibility of my Twitter being cancelled [sic],’ he wrote on X. 

Beyoncé previously made a grand entrance at her tour opener in an all-white Western-wear look featuring chaps and the customary cowboy hats she has taken to wearing while promoting Cowboy Carter. 

‘Oh Beyhive, it feels so good to be on this stage,’ she said after her opening number, Ameriican Requiem, according to USA Today.

‘I want to thank all of those who came before me that allowed me to be on this stage today,’ she gushed. ‘I want to thank you to my fans for allowing me to make this album.Thank you giving me the creative liberty to challenge myself.’

It was the first time Beyoncé has performed Ameriican Requiem live, and she followed it up with her Beatles cover Blackbird, as well as a surprise performance of The Star-Spangled Banner.

But she quickly got back to the bangers with a shortened version of her Lemonade song Freedom, followed by the Cowboy Carter tune Ya Ya. 

Although Cowboy Carter songs made up the greatest proportion of setlist choices, Beyoncé included her Lemonade cuts Formation and Daddy Lessons, which was performed live for the first time since 2016. 

She reprised her earlier Renaissance Tour vibe by performing several songs from that album at the end of her show, including Cuff It, Thique, Cozy and Alien Superstar (see below for a full setlist).

Monday’s concert, and the subsequent shows in Los Angeles, were likely to have plenty of celebrity stars looking to catch Beyoncé’s latest country-tinged material.

Oprah Winfrey wouldn’t miss opening night, and she was joined by her bff Gayle King and other friends for the show. 

In an Instagram post from Gayle, the women showed off their outfits — which mixed in some Western-friendly blue denim with white to match several of Beyoncé’s looks — as they got ready for the show.

‘Giddy up, giddy up, giddy up!’ Oprah shouted in a video of the women, before Gayle quoted lyrics from Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, interjecting with ‘Don’t be a b****, come take it to the floor now.’

Another fan — and a singer in her own right — was Rita Ora, who posted a video to her Instagram Stories of herself dramatically flipping her hair as she rode to the stadium. 

‘On our way @beyonce I literally can’t handle my excitement! 🙌🏼🔥,’ she gushed. 

Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph admitted she was seeing her first Beyoncé concert when she posted a photo of herself in a white cowboy hat from her prime seats. 

Compared to her massive Renaissance tour, which ultimately featured 56 total shows, Beyoncé currently has only 32 concerts scheduled for her all-stadium tour.

She’ll be going to only nine different cities due to multiday runs, with US stops including Chicago; East Rutherford, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; Summerfield, Maryland; Atlanta; and Las Vegas. 

Her two international destinations will include six concerts at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and three shows just outside Paris. 

Despite her issues moving tickets, Beyoncé will be making history whens he plays more shows than any other artist at Sofi Stadium — though the venue has only been open since September 2020. 

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, an inside source maintained that resellers – individuals or businesses that scoop up mass amounts of concert tickets and resell them to fans for exorbitant prices – are largely to blame for limited attendance. This can be seen in seat maps on Ticketmaster, where resale tickets make up a large portion of empty seats. 

Still, the insider explained that Beyoncé and her husband Jay-Z are remaining hopeful and ‘expecting more of her fans to buy tickets today and in the coming days if resale gets cheaper.’

‘Ticket prices could be slashed the evening of some dates to fill the seats if they are noticeably empty,’ they added.

There’s been much speculation in recent weeks that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour has seemingly fumbled the bag. 

Shortly after the Single Ladies singer announced her tour in February, fans instantly complained about the jaw-dropping prices of tickets, which ranged from hundreds to even thousands of dollars.

But last week, one fan claimed to have found resale tickets in the nosebleed section of the star’s SoFi Stadium show for as low as $20. They then compared it to the cost of one of the limited edition Minecraft Movie Big Mac Meals from McDonald’s, which was around the same price.

‘Due to its low demand, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour tickets ($20) are now cheaper than a McDonald’s Minecraft meal ($21.39),’ they wrote. 

Another fan pointed out that some seats for the SoFi Stadium show were going for $27 at one point, although they have since increased to $37 for the cheapest seats. 

‘LMAO WHAT A FLOP!!’ one user replied to the post. 

‘As a Beyhive I’m really happy that this happened, cause the prices were absolutely ridiculous in the first place,’ another fan wrote.

Meanwhile, one Beyoncé fan on X/Twitter shared that their floor ticket had been moved by the ‘production team’ to a different section at SoFi Stadium ‘because of an obstructed view of the stage.’

In response, several users wondered whether it was because of the stage’s elaborate design or if they were moved simply because of small turnout.

Despite the speculation, however, the tour’s promoter Live Nation confirmed in a statement to Billboard that Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour is 94 percent sold out across all dates.

Perhaps it’s not high ticket prices or resellers that has deterred fans from attending Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour, but rather the A-list couple’s connection to disgraced music mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. 

The music producer is currently sitting in a Brooklyn detention center as he awaits his May 5 trial for charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

Beyoncé and Jay Z, who have been married since 2008 and share three children together, were dragged into Diddy’s ongoing legal woes in December last year when a lawsuit accused Jay-Z of raping a 13-year-old in 2000 alongside Diddy. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice by the alleged victim’s attorney two months later in what Jay-Z hailed as a ‘victory’ in a statement.

But that hasn’t stopped those close to the Halo singer from worrying that her husband’s former association with the disgraced rapper may be having an effect on her low ticket sales.

‘Beyoncé isn’t worried about her fans not supporting her, but some close to her are concerned about how casual listeners may have responded to the association with Diddy,’ the source continued. 

‘Beyoncé and Jay-Z see him as a thing of the past so it is irritating to some extent that being associated with him may have affected her ticket sales.’

DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Beyoncé and Jay-Z for comment.

Despite rumors circulating about low ticket sales for her Cowboy Carter tour, the album was in fact a huge success when it was released in March last year.

Not only did it top the Billboard 200 chart, but lead single Texas Hold ‘Em also hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 and the Country chart. 

She took home the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, marking Beyoncé’s first time winning the major category, and Best Country Album, the first Black woman to achieve this feat.

Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour also broke records, pulling in $579 million and securing a spot among the top 10 highest-grossing tours in history.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter opening-night setlist for April 28, 2025:

Ameriican Requiem

Blackbiird

The Star-Spangled Banner

Freedom

YA YA

Why Don’t You Love Me?

Oh Louisana

America Has a Problem

Spaghetii

Formation

My House

Diva

Alliigator Tears

Just for Fun

Protector

Flamenco

Desert Eagle

Riiverdance

II Hands II Heaven

Sweet Honey Buckiin’

Jolene

Daddy Lessons

Bodyguard

II Most Wanted

Cuff It

Tyrant

Thique

Levii’s Jeans

Daughter

I’m that Girl

Cozy

Alien Superstar