Beyoncé pays homage to Madonna during Renaissance show

Side-by-side photos of Beyoncé and Madonna, both smiling

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer

Aug. 2, 2023 Updated 8:16 AM PT

Release the love, forget the rest! Beyoncé gave a hearfelt shout-out to Madonna on Sunday at the New Jersey stop of her Renaissance tour.

Paying tribute to the “Queen Mother,” Beyoncé singled out the recovering Material Girl during her performance of “Break My Soul,” which heavily samples Madonna’s 1990 hit “Vogue.”

Madonna happened to be in the audience at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., that night and her presence did not go unnoticed by the history-making Grammy Award winner.

“Big shout-out to the Queen! Queen Mother, Madonna, we love you!” Bey said onstage during “The Queens Remix” of her Grammy-winning hit — a remix that her fellow house-inspired pop luminary collaborated on.

Concertgoer footage posted on social media showed Madonna bopping along in a VIP box at the concert. And the shout-out came the same day Madonna revealed how she “realized how lucky I am to be alive” one month after her hospitalization for a “serious bacterial infection.” (TV queen Oprah Winfrey, pal and journalist Gayle King and Bey’s mom Tina Knowles-Lawson also were in attendance — but more on that later.)

The “Like a Virgin” singer reciprocated the love, taking to her Instagram stories Tuesday to recap her time at the concert.

“Thank you Queen B. for your Magnificent show! My Daughters were enthralled! We Love You,” she wrote, sharing a photo of the stage with “Queen Mother Madonna” projected behind Beyoncé’s dancers.

Madge also shared a photo of her group posing with Beyoncé backstage, which included her daughters Mercy James, 17, and twins Stelle and Estere, 10, with a rare sighting of Bey’s 6-year-old daughter Rumi.

The superstar powerhouses have a friendship history that predates their remix, and one that includes adulation at their concerts.

Madonna praised the “Single Ladies” singer in December 2013 when she attended Bey’s show in Brooklyn during the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour that year, taking to Instagram to highlight a tender moment between her daughter Mercy James and the headliner.

“Mrs. Carter crushes the BK with her bad ass show! Girls run the world!” Madonna wrote, adding a photo of Bey kissing her then-8-year-old. “Mercy James gets a big fat one from the Queen B!”

Earlier that year, the “Cuff It” hit maker revealed that she was inspired by Madonna when she screened her self-titled visual album at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

“I felt like I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire,” she reportedly said at the time, “and show other women when you get to this point in your career, you don’t have to go sign with someone else and share your money and your success. You can do it yourself.”

She also told the Gentlewoman that there aren’t enough women like Madonna in the music industry: “I think about Madonna and how she took all of the great things she achieved and started the label and developed other artists. But there are not enough of those women.”

Another icon, Winfrey — whose final episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2011 included sendoffs from Beyoncé and Madonna — also was moved by Bey’s delivery of “Break My Soul” at the concert.

“I have never in my life experienced something as transcendent as @beyonce’s Renaissance Tour,” she wrote on Instagram, sharing a clip of her dancing in the pit with King and Knowles-Lawson.

“That kind of talent, synergy, expression, and anointing is something that comes straight from a Source that creates the planets. The dancers, the production, the musicians, and the team in front and behind the scenes, all perfectly align to create a renaissance in today’s world. You must see it,” she added.

In a video posted on her OprahDaily account, the producer said she was “in awe” and said it’s “the most extraordinary show” she’s ever seen.

“CBS Mornings” host King echoed those sentiments.

“Some things are worth staying up on a school night and it starts with B...BEYONCÉ!” she wrote on Instagram. “I see @oprah got over her concern about standing on her feet for 3 hours at a concert...sister girl never sat down! definitely going again, my jaw is still on the floor!”

Knowles-Lawson concurred, writing, “We partied till the wheels fell off!”

The celeb-filled confab was not lost on the commenters, prompting TV host Sherri Shepherd to reply to Knowles-Lawson’s post with “all the aunties in one place!!!❤️”

Beyoncé shouts out Madonna, her ‘Queen Mother,’ during Renaissance show in New Jersey

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