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Did Kansas City slay the Beyoncé mute challenge? Here’s what Queen Bey told the crowd

Eric Adler/The Star

Editor’s note: Do you want to commemorate the finale of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour in Kansas City? Sign up to get a free digital download of The Star’s front page sent to your email after the concert.

Kansas City did it.

The loudest stadium in the country slayed Beyoncé’s mute challenge Sunday night. The queen crowned Kansas City the champion.

Within the show’s first hour, as she has throughout her tour during the song “Energy,” she sang the musical cue: “Look around, everybody on mute.”

The crowd hushed. And when a few screams broke out, people could be heard loudly hushing one another.

On stage, with her arms outstretched, Beyoncé stood still and silent, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

More than 20 seconds, more than twice as long as in other cities.

Then she slowly blessed the crowd with a huge, electric smile as the stadium erupted in cheers.

“You all won. You killed it,” she told fans.

Some had spent hours preparing to win the very last mute challenge of the tour.

They practiced on Zoom. They posted videos of themselves practicing it on planes as they traveled to Kansas City. They even jokingly threatened violence against anyone who broke the silence and ruined the fun.

Facebook user Christa Baughman had instruction cards to hand out when she got to Arrowhead for the concert.

“If you are attending the show tonight, a reminder that the Mute Challenge is still on and it is IMPORTANT to be ‘completely silent,’ during ‘Energy’ when Beyoncé says, ‘Look around everybody on mute,’” she wrote on Facebook before the show.

“Very few cities have successfully completed this challenge. So, with that, KC … don’t embarrass yourselves. That is all. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.”

Those fleeting seconds of silence became a viral phenomenon during the tour, hailed by some as iconic audience participation.

Some cities nailed it — Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta and her hometown of Houston notable among them. (Seattle and Miami reportedly didn’t do so well.)

Kansas City fans rushed to social media to congratulate each other.

“KC did us proud!!!!! The @Beyonce mute challenge was FLAWLESSSSSSSS,” KSHB anchor Dia Wall posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“Sitting here crying cuz I’m really gonna miss this, all the fist fights, the ‘SHUT THE FU*K UP.’, the dirty looks when anyone would breathe,” posted another fan at Arrowhead.

Destiny Willis, 29, who had flown in from Atlanta with her sister Dasani Walker, 22, practiced the mute challenge on the drive to the stadium.

“Atlanta won it,” Dasai said before the show, which was true for only a few more hours.

Or was it?

As quick as Kansas City fans were to claim the crown, fans in New Orleans and other cities chimed in on social media to claim they won the challenge. It got loud.

Look around, nobody on mute.

Beyoncé concert recap: Kansas City show packed with spectacles and sparkles