Beyonce starts concert tour with record setting $73m gross, Entertainment News
Beyonce has started her Cowboy Carter Tour with a record setting US$55.7 million (S$73 million) gross.
The Crazy in Love hitmaker finished a run of five gigs at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on May 9, pulled in well over US$50 million with 217,000 tickets sold.
As reported by Rolling Stone magazine, the Los Angeles run is the "biggest reported single-venue engagement" of the year so far.
It's also the fifth-highest grossing tour stop in Boxscore history — beaten only by U2 at the Sphere in Las Vegas across 2023 and 2024, Harry Styles at New York's Madison Square Garden in 2022, and Take That's Wembley Stadium run in 2011 — and the highest-grossing single-venue engagement in history by a female artist.
Beyonce started her tour on April 28 and returned to the venue on May 1, 4, 7 and 9, pulling in an average of US$11.1 million per night with over 43,000 fans in attendance for each show.
With three performances as SoFi in 2023, her eight gigs in total are more than any other artist in the venue's five-year history.
On the opening night of the SoFi run, the Grammy Award winner was joined onstage by her daughters Blue Ivy Carter and Rumi Carter.
Blue Ivy, 13, danced with her famous mother during her performance of America Has A Problem.
Later on, it was time for Beyonce and Jay-Z's seven-year-old, Rumi Carter, to make her onstage debut.
As Beyonce belted out the moving ballad Protector, Rumi and her big sister stood with her under the spotlight.
Following the performance, pictures of Beyonce and her three children — also including Rumi's twin brother Sir — appeared on a big screen behind her.
Blue Ivy was part of the backup dance troupe for her superstar mom on her 2023 Renaissance Tour. She also joined her mother onstage for her NFL Christmas Day Halftime Show in 2024.
She followed in her famous parents' footsteps and voiced Kiara in the 2024 Disney film Mufasa: The Lion King.
[[nid:717691]]
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
21 hours ago
- Straits Times
Taylor Swift buys back rights to her old music
Taylor Swift bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital, an LA investment firm, for an undisclosed amount. PHOTO: AFP NEW YORK - Pop sensation Taylor Swift, locked in a feud with record executives since 2019 over ownership of her music, has bought back the rights to her entire back catalogue, she said on May 30. 'All of the music I've ever made... now belongs... to me,' she wrote on her website, after years of dispute over her first six albums, a number of which she has re-recorded to create copies she owns herself. 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it,' she wrote in the letter penned to fans. 'To my fans, you know how important this has been to me – so much so that I meticulously re-recorded and released four of my albums, calling them Taylor's Version.' Those records included the award-winning Reputation and self-titled Taylor Swift. Swift bought back her masters from Shamrock Capital, an LA investment firm, for an undisclosed amount. The queen of pop, whose recent nearly two-year-long, US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) Eras tour shattered records, said that she was 'heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry.' Swift's ultra-lucrative tour which wrapped in 2024 was a showbusiness sensation, and will have helped offset the costs of buying back her catalogue. The 149 shows across the world typically clocked in at more than three hours long each. Eras tour tickets sold for sometimes exorbitant prices and drew in millions of fans, along with many more who didn't get in and were willing to simply sing along from the parking lot. AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Sha'Carri Richardson joins Team USA stars getting Athlos stake
Sha'Carri Richardson during the Met Gala, an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. PHOTO: REUTERS (Bloomberg) – Athlos, the all-female track event founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is expanding into a team-based league for 2026 and adding field events. The league will be headlined by Olympic medallists and Team USA standouts Sha'Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas and Tara Davis-Woodhall, who will all serve as adviser-owners and shareholders in the league. 'For so long, athletes, especially in track, have carried the show but never owned the stage. To have a seat at the table where the decisions get made? That's powerful,' Richardson said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg. Ohanian launched Athlos – the Greek word for contest – in 2024 in an ambitious attempt to shake up women's track, combining music, racing and bigger prize money. Athlos held its inaugural race in September 2024 at Icahn Stadium in New York City. It showcased six sprint style races, with a DJ playing in between every race and each runner being introduced with a walkout song. They gave away one of the largest prize purses in the sport's history along, with US$60,000 (S$77,200) for the winners plus a Tiffany's crown. The night ended with a concert by rapper Megan Thee Stallion. 'Athlos isn't just trying to fit track into an old model. It's building something new that honours the athletes, the culture, and the competition in a way that grabs people's attention and makes the sport accessible. That's what's going to push the sport into the mainstream,' Richardson said of how Athlos is set to elevate the sport. The first season drew about three million viewers, the company said. Now they will host another race at Icahn Stadium in October 2025 before launching the league next year. No specific financials were released about the league, but Athlos confirmed there will be individual prizes per meet, and a team prize for the championship. Giving the founding athletes equity wasn't something planned when they initially signed on to be part of the league. 'That wasn't even a part of the conversation,' Ohanian said in an interview. 'So you can imagine it was a nice surprise to say, hey, look, we're doing a league now, and we'd love to have you involved and have a stake in it.' Athletes have increasingly taking stakes in the growing number of new startups outside of tradtional leagues and competitions. San Antonio Spurs point guard Chris Paul recently bought into Tiger Woods' Tomorrow's Golf League franchise Jupiter Links GC, joining sports stars including Mike Trout and Harry Kane as backers of the team. Footballers including Diogo Jota, Diogo Dalot, and Mason Mount invested in Baller League, a six-a-side football competition backed by a range of influencers and former footballers. Ohanian, who funded Athlos through his 776 venture capital firm, is looking to making track a lot more fun for fans and boosted viewership, thereby increasing pay for the athletes beyond the four-year Olympic cycle. A push has been made to capture the popularity of track and field outside of mainstream athletic events. Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track launched in April with a US$12.6 million prize pot, with US$100,000 for the winner of each event. Next year will see the launch of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, with a US$10 million pot and US$150,000 for first place. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Straits Times
Kevin Costner sued by stunt performer over ‘unscripted' rape scene in Horizon 2
Kevin Costner is both the director and star of the Horizon: An American Saga film series. PHOTO: HORIZONAMERICANSAGA/INSTAGRAM LOS ANGELES - A stunt double who worked on the Western film, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 (2024), sued its director Kevin Costner and producers on May 27 for what she called forced participation in a 'violent unscripted, unscheduled rape scene' without advance notice or an intimacy coordinator. The plaintiff, Ms Devyn LaBella, was the lead stunt double for English actress Ella Hunt, who plays Juliette Chesney in the film. Ms LaBella said she was left with permanent trauma after the scene and was seeking a public apology and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. A lawyer for Costner, who also stars in the film, said the claims were meritless. According to Ms LaBella's complaint, the unscripted rape scene took place in May 2023, one day after she had filmed a similar one without incident. Costner, the suit said, inserted additional scenes to be shot with a different male actor in which he would climb on top of Hunt and violently rake up her skirt. The additions, the suit said, were not outlined in the day's call sheet, and no arrangements were made for an intimacy coordinator, who works with actors before and during scenes involving nudity or simulated sex to make sure they are comfortable. 'Ms Hunt became visibly upset and walked off the set, refusing to do the scene,' the complaint said. At that point, Ms LaBella was asked to stand in. She had not been prepared for the scene, the suit said, and learned its details after filming had begun. There were multiple takes of the scene, according to the lawsuit. Horizon 2 was the planned second instalment of a four-part film series by Costner, 70. After the first chapter, which cost US$100 million (S$129 million) to make, earned US$11 million in its opening weekend in June 2024, the second chapter's theatrical release was cancelled. Mr Marty Singer, Costner's lawyer, said in a statement that Ms LaBella's claims contradicted her own actions and that she was using 'shakedown tactics' that would not work. He said the scene in question was explained to her, who rehearsed it and gave an indication that she was willing to film it. The lawsuit by Ms LaBella, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, states that the added scene also violated her union contract, which prohibits last-minute requests for nudity or simulated sex. The union, SAG-Aftra, requires producers to provide at least 48 hours' notice before call time to negotiate a written contract rider for simulated sex and obtain a performer's consent. A union representative did not respond to a request for comment. After that day of filming, Ms LaBella said, she felt shame and humiliation and flew home for a few days before returning to work. Several people apologised and made excuses for Costner, the lawsuit said, which made her feel 'even more uncomfortable'. Mr Singer's statement said that after filming had wrapped, Ms LaBella took the stunt coordinator to a thank-you dinner. 'She also sent him a cordial thank-you text illustrated with happy heart emojis,' the statement said. 'The facts are clear and we are beyond confident that Kevin will prevail.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
