Washington, D.C
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour Crashes 4th of July in Washington, D.C.: 7 Best Moments
The music icon took the most political trek of her career to the nation’s capital.
Beyoncé wears a cowboy hat, a burgundy faux fur fluff coat on one shoulder and a blue denim shirt during the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2026 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 24, 2025 in Paris, France.
Edward Berthelot/Getty Images
Between a surprise appearance from Jay-Z in Paris, Blue Ivy’s routinely show-stealing “Déjà Vu” dance breaks, and an impromptu mid-air “tippin’ on 44s” moment in Houston, Beyoncé‘s record-smashing Cowboy Carter Tour has been filled with viral moments. Nonetheless, Queen Bey pulled out all the stops for her July 4 show at Maryland’s Northwest Stadium, just outside of Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital.
In its Grammy-winning exploration and illumination of the oft-obfuscated Black roots of American country music (and early rock ‘n’ roll), Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter LP found the music icon squaring her personal catharsis (the album was largely made in response to her negative experience at the 2016 CMA Awards) with a look at how the recording industry mirrors the exploitation and discardment of Black minds and lives in America at large.
On Independence Day, Beyoncé entered the stage with her rousing Cowboy Carter opener, “Ameriican Requiem”; introduced by backup dancers doused in blue, the 35-time Grammy-winner’s vocals reverberated across the stadium. The song, something of a funeral march for an antiquated version of America, set a resiliently optimistic tone for the rest of the night. Between performing the entire Cowboy Carter LP, weaving in classic hits from across her nearly 30-year-strong catalog and incorporating recent hits from Black Southern stars like GloRilla (“TGIF”) and BigXthaPlug (“The Biggest”), Beyoncé crafted a sacred space for Black Americans (and those belonging to the country’s most mistreated groups) to host their own emotionally complex acknowledgement of the nation’s birthday.
Here are the seven best moments of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour on July 4 in Washington, D.C.
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“My House” 25 Minutes Away From the White House
“My House,” the house-rap track Beyoncé dropped to commemorate Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé hitting theaters, was always destined to be an explosive live performance. From its raucous horns to its frenetic chants, the track was an instant fan favorite for a reason. On July 4, however, there was a certain gravity felt across the stadium when Beyoncé chanted, “Get the f— up out my house!”
After all, Northwest Stadium is just a 25-minute drive from the White House, where the sitting president signed a devastating new bill mere hours earlier. In a country that’s getting increasingly explicit about who it feels belongs, “My House” offered the crowd a moment to flip the narrative and find an outlet for their rage.
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Beyoncé Opens Show with New American Flag Coat
Fashion has long been a key component of Beyoncé’s stage show — especially after the Renaissance World Tour’s silver theme took over the globe in 2023 — and the Cowboy Carter Tour is no different. Throughout her latest stadium trek, she has debuted a plethora of Western-themed outfits, some of which also nod to the aesthetic of Renaissance, the first LP in her still-unfurling album trilogy.
To open her July 4 show in Washington, D.C., Beyoncé opted for an eye-popping fur coat printed with the design of the American flag over a figure-hugging gray and silver-blue leotard emblazoned with stars. If the coat was a nod to the Cowboy Carter aesthetic, then the leotard nodded to Renaissance — the vibrant Black foundation that America relentlessly attempts to stifle and erase.
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Queen Bey Goes Full Hendrix
Ever since she kicked off the tour in Los Angeles (April 28), Beyoncé’s otherworldly transition from a vocal interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s 1969 Woodstock rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” into her own “Freedom” (which soundtracked Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign) has been an interesting point of discussion. While some didn’t understand the choice and others felt it was in poor taste, Beyoncé’s intentions couldn’t have been clearer as she delivered a dirgeful version of America’s anthem on its birthday. Preceded by her own “Ameriican Requiem” and succeeded by her cries of “Freedom, freedom, where are you?”, the opening act of the Cowboy Carter Tour felt especially poignant on July 4.
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Beyoncé Spots Her Cousin? Sorry, Her Husband
About 15 years ago, Anthony Cosby (hyphen Knowles!) became a BeyHive legend ever since he hilariously proclaimed to be both Beyoncé’s cousin and husband during her I Am.. World Tour. Cosby has popped up at Bey’s tour ever since, including the July 4 Cowboy Carter show, where Beyoncé shouted him out, saying, “C’mon Anthony! I see you, cousin… husband!”
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Déjà Blue
Already a Grammy winner and box office-topping voice actress in her own right, Blue Ivy Carter needs no introduction. Her Cowboy Carter Tour solos have quickly become the show’s most buzzed-about moments, and not much changed in Maryland on July 4. As Honey Balenciaga closed out her part of the rodeo-ballroom section, tens of thousands of phones rose en masse as Blue Ivy emerged from the stage lift, hitting a nasty slow motion turn into her catwalk and “Déjà Vu” dance break — all while donning a new custom costume, of course!
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Beyoncé Lincoln Enters the Building
The “Attack of the 400 Foot Cowboy” interlude is one of the better breaks in Beyoncé’s three-hour Cowboy Carter set, thanks to both her globe-trotting, slapstick humor and BigXthaPlug’s wavy “The Biggest.” In the interlude, a 400-foot-tall version of Beyoncé struts around the world and treats various world landmarks — from the Statue of Liberty to the Eiffel Tower — as playthings. Of course, when the Lincoln Memorial winked at her in response to her hat tip, the crowd went absolutely nuts.
Notably, Beyoncé’s exclusive T-shirt for her D.C. stop features a picture of her posing in place of Lincoln on the memorial. Looks like we’re one step closer to that Beyoncé-Oh, Mary! crossover.
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New ‘Alliigator Tears’ Outfit Deepens Song’s Message
One of the more overlooked songs on Cowboy Carter, “Alliigator Tears” remains one of the album’s strongest tracks over a year after its release. The song explores the toll it takes to transform yourself to fit demands you’ll never meet, set by people who’ll never truly see past their own insincerity and manipulation — and Beyoncé drove that message home with her new costume.
Donning a sparkly, red grown with a thigh-high slit laced with blue frings and white stars, Beyoncé, once again, looked to the American flag to inform her outfit. During this section (which also included gorgeous renditions of “Protector,” “Just for Fun” and “Flamenco”), the costume emphasized the way “Alliigator Tears” illustrates the larger dynamic between Black people and the American project. When she sings, “You say changе religion/ Now, I spend Sundays with you/ Somethin’ ’bout those tears of yours/ How does it feel to be adored,” she’s directly calling out the U.S. for its constantly-shifting goalposts. Whether it’s an effective line of questioning is another conversation, but it certainly packed an emotional punch.
Washington, D.C
12th Honor Flight Tallahassee returns home from successful trip to Washington D.C.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.
Washington, D.C
Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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