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AT&T Stadium's biggest, baddest concerts

There's exactly one place in Dallas-Fort Worth where more than 100,000 people can cram inside the same venue for a concert. That's

AT&T Stadium

in Arlington.

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When it's not being used as the Dallas Cowboys' home turf, AT&T Stadium morphs into a monster concert venue that has entertained such diverse acts as Kenny Chesney, Paul McCartney and One Direction.

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In honor of the big names gracing the stage in the past and future, below are the biggest, baddest shows at AT&T Stadium so far.

(Or, if you'd like to see some of our favorite Cowboys halftime shows, that's a separate story. Here.)

George Strait (and friends): June 7, 2014

Of course King George tops this list. George Strait hosted the last concert on his last country music tour at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and the packed house

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broke the record for largest indoor concert in North America

, with 104,793 in attendance. Strait clearly knew how popular the evening would be, and he invited just about every big name country artist you can think of: Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Vince Gill and Sheryl Crow. The cowboy did end up riding away, but not before hosting one of the nation's biggest country music spectacles. (Strait also helped open AT&T Stadium -- then called Cowboys Stadium -- with a sold-out concert in June 2009. We won't list him twice, but we definitely didn't forget about that 2009 show.)

Beyoncé and Jay Z: July 22, 2014

That the king and queen of pop music decided to tour together was big enough news. Their stop at AT&T Stadium made that big deal real for North Texans. It also proved that rap and pop musicians -- not just country stars -- could fill the cavernous Arlington venue. The Carters rocked the stage together and apart,

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singing more than 40 songs by time the music marathon was over

. It was easily one of the biggest concerts of the entire year.

Paul McCartney: Aug. 19, 2009

Paul McCartney's songs are "the soundtrack for life's stages," said former

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Dallas Morning News

music critic Mario Tarradell. North Texans gladly watched the Beatles legend Paul McCartney take them through the decades. There's something special about singing the "na na nas" on "Hey Jude" with tens of thousands of people.

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran: May 25, 2013

Is she country or is she pop? Doesn't matter: She's on nearly every radio dial. Taylor Swift has performed at AT&T Stadium twice so far and has a third concert date coming in October 2015. (She already outgrew Dallas' American Airlines Center.) A crowd of 55,000 greeted her at the 2013 show in Arlington as she performed big hits from her then-latest album

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Red

. With the arena (and Swift) washed in red, she exuded the passion and power that has unsurprisingly led to even higher success.

One Direction: Aug. 24, 2014

What would have been classified as a teeny-bop boy band spectacle is now music history, because One Direction's only AT&T Stadium performance included all five original members. We may never see the fab five on the same stage again. And it doesn't matter if you're a 1D fan; this show was monumental for D-FW. It took place on a Sunday night before many North Texans' first days of school, and yet still parents brought their tweens and teens out in droves to see their generation's favorite boy band. Someone, somewhere is still screaming (or crying) about this show.

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U2 and Muse: Oct. 12, 2009

Here's an easy way to describe U2's concert at the new stadium: "a big show at a big venue." U2 was made for arenas, and AT&T Stadium played happy host to more than 70,000 of U2's fans. This show was one of the early examples of what AT&T Stadium can become: A platform on the stage looked like "a spaceship merged with a spider, its four claw-like structures flanking a circular riser and an outer ring," Tarradell wrote. "The two were connected by moveable bridges. Above the band was a spectacular rotating video screen that eventually stretched into a funnel-like cloud constantly lit for maximum effect." The sound wasn't so good in the nosebleeds, some folks said. Those near the front didn't seem to complain.

What's your favorite AT&T Stadium concert memory? Share them here.