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Her quarter century in the spotlight includes plenty to choose from.
In her first performance since the release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé is set to take the stage at the Christmas Day NFL game between the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens. It will mark her third halftime show performance, following her 2013 and 2016 Super Bowl appearances. There’s no saying what the performance will entail, but if her past shows are any indication, it will be one to watch.
Throughout her 26 years in the spotlight, Beyoncé has earned a reputation as an inimitable vocalist, lyricist, and above all, performer. At a Beyoncé show, the dancing is as much a part of the performance as the vocals. From her iconic “Single Ladies” dance to her “Run the World (Girls)” march, her choreography tends to take on a life of its own. She commands the stage with the endurance of an athlete, her vocals unchanged by hours of dancing.
Now, 26 years into performing on global stages, Beyoncé continues to push the boundaries of live performance toward something new. She has a way of contextualizing her music within a broader landscape. Through onstage visuals, choreography, collaborations, and lyrical references, she honors the artists who made way for her work.
Take her reimagining of Madonna's "Vogue" for "Break My Soul," in which she calls out iconic Black musicians. Through performance, Beyoncé introduces mass audiences to artists, subcultures, and facets of Black culture that exist outside the mainstream. At Coachella in 2018, the main stage was filled with references to HBCU homecoming traditions. And on the Renaissance tour in 2023, she brought the ballroom scene onto the global stage.
In more recent years, Beyoncé’s performances have become more explicitly political. In many ways, what makes her stardom so singular is her willingness to critique power structures even as she ascends them. The pop star playbook doesn’t include referencing the Black Panthers at the Super Bowl—until Beyoncé. But despite entering polarizing territory, Beyoncé continues to reach such commercial and critical success.
To see Beyoncé live is to watch a spectacle that is more than the sum of its parts. So, in honor of her upcoming show, see Beyoncé's nine career-best performances, from 2004 to now.
2004 Grammy Awards
Shortly after the release of her first solo album, Beyoncé joined Prince on stage at the 2004 Grammys for a medley of their best hits, including "Purple Rain," "Baby I'm a Star," "Crazy in Love," and "Let's Go Crazy." If her star power wasn't already evident, holding her own alongside one of the greats made it clear. To cap the night off, she took home five Grammys.
2009 Inaugural Ball
The Obamas attended 10 inaugural balls on the day Barack was sworn in as president, but a standout moment was the first dance they shared as Beyoncé serenaded them with Etta James's "At Last." The lyrics were particularly poignant for a day in which America gained its first Black president. Beyoncé, like many in the crowd (including Kerry Washington), appeared on the verge of tears, but her voice never wavered.
2009 VMAs
The 2009 VMAs were historic for several reasons, Kanye West's infamous interruption of Taylor Swift among them. And though Beyoncé was implicated in the drama (through no actions of her own) she managed to pull it together in time to give the performance of a lifetime later in the night. She wore a now-iconic silver bodysuit and a singular matching glove, highlighting her all-important ring finger, while paying homage to Michael Jackson, who had died unexpectedly just a few months prior.
"Single Ladies" was one of the year's standouts. and the dance she performed in the music video became an instant cultural phenomenon long before we had an app dedicated to that kind of thing. ( Justin Timberlake later performed it in a Saturday Night Live skit, while Liza Minnelli did a rendition in the second Sex and the City movie.) The song remains one of her most popular, but what really makes this performance stand out is the dance. In her bodysuit and heels, joined gradually by an army of backup dancers, Beyoncé kicks, lunges, gyrates, and drops it low, all while giving a flawless vocal performance, nary a hair out of place. This was the performance that proved her chops as a performer (her athleticism!) were in a league of their own.
Though Taylor Swift beat out Beyoncé for Best Female Video, Beyoncé went on to win the more prestigious Video of the Year award for "Single Ladies."
2011 VMAs
Beyoncé began her 2011 performance of "Love on Top" with a declaration, "I want you to feel that love that's growing inside me," but nobody could have predicted how the song would end. After a soaring final belt, she tossed her microphone aside, unbuttoned her tuxedo jacket, and rubbed her now visible baby bump. It was the pregnancy announcement heard round the world, in a format never before done— the cherry on top of her long legacy of iconic VMAs performances. Cameras immediately panned over to a grinning Jay Z, who received an embrace from his friend Kanye West. Beyoncé has engineered many viral moments in her career, but this was one of the most stunning.
2011 Billboard Music Awards
For her 2011 performance of "Run the World (Girls)" at the Billboard Music Awards, Beyoncé begins on stage, alone. The graphics projected on the screen behind her serve as her backup dancers, moving rapidly in time with her, making her one-woman performance larger than life. Slowly, she's joined by real dancers, who eventually number 100. It was the first live performance of her now iconic song, and proof yet again of her ability to command a stage.
2013 Super Bowl
For her first Super Bowl halftime show performance, Beyoncé revisited her storied rise to fame. After instrumentals of "Who Run the World (Girls)" announced her arrival, she gave a shortened, acapella performance of "Love on Top," reminding the world that beyond her ability to give a stadium-worthy performance, she has the vocal talent to backup her superstardom.
Next, she delved into some of her early aughts hits like "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy." But the real peak came when she brought Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams onstage for a surprise Destiny's Child reunion. The trio performed "Independent Women, Part I," the song that had earned them a number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list 13 years prior.
Beyoncé’s halftime show helped make this the second most-watched Super Bowl and became the most tweeted-about moment of all time (at the time), according to NPR.
2016 Super Bowl
Coldplay was technically the headliner at the 2016 Super Bowl, but it was Beyoncé's performance of her hit "Formation," released the day prior, that's most memorable in retrospect. The music video alludes to police violence and the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, and the optics of her Super Bowl performance were no less political. Her dancers wore Black Panther-style berets and raised their fists in a Black power salute.
It was a first-of-its-kind choice for a venue that celebrates mainstream American culture and favors the apolitical. AsThe New York Times wrote of the performance, “maybe only Beyoncé is capable of walking the cultural tightrope of delivering a song with such potent declarations of black pride on a stage that prefers studied neutrality.”
2018 Coachella
Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella with her 2018 set. The two-hour performance was an exploration of her discography and, much like her previous album, Lemonade, a celebration of Black Southern culture. She drew specifically from traditions at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the spectacle of homecoming celebrations. She performed alongside a marching band made of HBCU alum, included classic HBCU marching band songs, incorporated choreography like J-setting, and recreated a fraternity initiation ritual.
She sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a 2001 song by Michael Cooper often dubbed the Black national anthem, and, included clips of speeches by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Malcolm X. Jay Z joined her on stage for "Déjà Vu," while Solnage came out for "Get Me Bodied."
Pitchfork called the show a “career-defining performance,” while Vulture dubbed it an “instant classic.” It was received with such fervor it became a movie and a live album, the latter of which landed at number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
The 2023 Renaissance Tour
In the summer of 2023, Beyoncé returned to the world stage for her first tour since the 2016 Formation World Tour. The Renaissance album, widely considered her most ambitious yet, celebrated dance music in all its forms, particularly those pioneered by Black and queer artists. The show puts all of these references on display, taking viewers on a sprawling trip through her discography and the music of artists who made her.
She shouts out musicians who preceded her in the "Break My Soul" remix, which reimagines Madonna's famous "Vogue" rap, pays tribute to Tina Turner with a performance of "River Deep, Mountain High," and invites dancers from the ballroom scene to vogue. She covers Mary J. Blige, the Jackson 5, Frankie Beverly, and Maze. At one tour stop, on Beyoncé's birthday, Diana Ross came on stage.