The City of Love got to witness “Crazy in Love” live Sunday night (June 22) with Beyoncé and Jay-Z — a performance the superstar couple haven’t put on together in more than six years. The Cowboy Carter songstress wrapped a long weekend in Paris with her husband by her side at Stade de France, just north of the capital, where the Cowboy Carter Tour had a three-night run (June 19, 21 and 22).
Surprise guest Jay-Z joined his wife on the pair’s 2003 hit “Crazy in Love” and was there for a version of 2013’s “Drunk in Love” remixed with “Partition,” and brought his own “N—-s in Paris” to the city. (Jay originally recorded “Paris” with Ye, for their collaborative Watch the Throne album that topped the Billboard 200 in 2011; Ye was, unsurprisingly, not a part of Jay’s performance Sunday.)
The last time Bey and Jay, aka The Carters, performed in concert together was at Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Dec. 2, 2018.
But crowd-captured video — and even a clip uploaded by concertgoer Cardi B, who went full Cowboy Carter with her outfit — shows Beyoncé stepping aside for a moment mid-“Crazy in Love” Sunday night, leading all eyes to Jay-Z, who emerged out of the blue to rap his entire verse to the cheers of Parisian fans.
The footage also gives a glimpse at Jay-Z performing “N—-s in Paris” while Cardi, Kelly Rowland and Tina Knowles are dancing in the VIP area.
“Crazy in Love,” which in 2003 spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and lives on as one of Beyoncé’s biggest singles to date, is a standard on the Cowboy Carter Tour setlist, just without Jay-Z’s verse. However, Sunday marked the first time “Drunk in Love” has made the cut this tour, and as expected, it’s also the only time “N—-s in Paris” has been part of the show.
Sunday’s Jay-Z surprise follows a surprise appearance by Miley Cyrus on Paris night one. Beyoncé and Miley treated the June 19 audience to the live debut of their Cowboy Carter ballad “II Most Wanted.”
The Cowboy Carter Tour returns to the U.S. next, resuming on June 28 for pair of hometown shows in Houston.
