Trailing after female pop powerhouses Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan is no easy feat – especially when they single-handedly took last years’ Summer as their own. Throwing in extortionate ticket prices (the cheapest seats available for her first London show were £71 for obstructed view seats while the most expensive are £278 for seated in better views) and the public association with Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs trials, spells out a administrative nightmare for artist and promoter alike.

From a timing perspective too, it seems all off. Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, came out more than a year ago in March 2024. An ideal touring spot for this record would’ve been in the depths of Summer last year surely? Or at the very least, in the Autumnal season. Not a whole year later when we’ve had a Brat Summer to remember and a popstar of public damnation who we are equally willing to forget.

In fact, it’s in such dire straits, her team have now starting shelling out free seats, often to those who rely on soup kitchens and community food banks, in order to make the tour in those stadiums appear more popular than it actually is. Irrespective of how those fans feel who actually paid for a ticket, the promoter is surely standing to gain a loss on the Cowboy Carter tour.

So it’s official: the Queen has been dethroned – the music landscape is ever-changing. Maybe it’s time for these artists to realise that they are not the pop powerhouses they once were. It’s time for someone else to doff the crown for once.

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