Beyoncé halted her concert in Glasgow on Thursday night to hold a minute’s silence in memory of two black men shot dead by police in the US this week. The singer paused her show at the Hampden Park Stadium as a giant screen was illuminated with names of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and dozens of victims of recent police shootings in America. Fans described being moved to tears by the tribute that hushed the huge crowds at the 50,000- seat arena.

Beyoncé followed the memorial with an a cappella performance of Freedom, a recent release with themes associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. In a message posted on her website, Beyoncé called on her followers to “take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us’” after footage emerged appearing to show Castile, a 32-year-old from Minnesota, slumped in his car after he had been shot dead by a police officer.

The policeman is alleged to have opened fire while Castille’s girlfriend and her daughter were sat in the car. It comes after 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot dead by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday. The deaths have sparked fresh demonstrations in the US and President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the killings were “an American issue that we should all care about”.

Beyoncé’s online message to US politicians said: “We don’t need sympathy. We need everyone to respect our lives... Fear is not an excuse. Hate will not win.” Meanwhile, Jay Z has released a new song in response to the latest police shootings. The rapper said that he wrote song Spiritual a while ago, but never finished it. He released it on his streaming service Tidal yesterday along with a statement attacking police brutality.

He wrote: "Punch (Terrence Henderson, co-president of record label TDE) told me I should drop it when Mike Brown died, sadly I told him, 'this issue will always be relevant'." Black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, sparking mass protests and rioting.