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 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. 

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.’

One 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. 

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.