Beyoncé makes history with highest grossing country tour, earning over $400 million
The Grammy-winning singer took her final bow on her Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin' Circuit Tour at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas on July 26. She ended her run with a bang, bringing out Destiny's Child, Jay-Z and Shaboozey for surprise performances. The concert signaled the end of her "Cowboy Carter" era — a 32-stop stadium tour that spanned the U.S. and Europe.
The nine-city stint grossed over $400 million with attendance over 1.5 million in its three-month run, according to Live Nation. Billboard reported Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" tour is the highest grossing country tour of all time and the shortest tour in any genre to make over $400 million.
Beyoncé extends her record as the highest grossing Black artist of all time and the highest-grossing R&B artist of all time. With her "Cowboy Carter" tour, she also becomes the first woman and the first American act to have two separate tours gross over $400 million. Billboard reported Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and The Rolling Stones are the only other acts that have accomplished this feat. Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour — Act 1 — reportedly grossed $580 million in 2023.
As fans know, Beyoncé first debuted the highly anticipated show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 28 with 39 songs on the set list. The tour proved to be a revolutionary spectacle filled with fashion, different music genres and most notably country music and cultural commentary as she challenged industry norms.
The megastar first released her eighth studio album, "Cowboy Carter," in March 2024. It has since made history and broken multiple records. As Beyoncé's first country album, she deliberately featured country legends and emerging Black country artists alike.
Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
3 minutes ago
- Forbes
From CNN Contributor To Digital Powerhouse: How Roland Martin Built A Top 100 YouTube News Empire
Many Black journalists in today's mainstream media landscape are facing an inevitable fate: contraction, being sidelined, or silenced. For Roland Martin, none of those things are stopping his show. His journey from a familiar face on programming like CNN, Dish Nation, and TV One to an independent media powerhouse seemed like a savvy pivot. In a recent interview with the veteran journalist, he clearly states that is not the case. 'People like, 'Oh, you shifted to Black media.' I'm like, 'No, I never left,'' Martin states. This declaration is essential to understanding Martin's success and mission. While working at several mainstream platforms, he was quietly building a multi-platform presence brick by brick. He orchestrated carve-out deals for radio and television that kept him firmly rooted in Black-owned media. His work on major networks wasn't the destination; it was merely a vehicle. Today, his daily news program, Roland Martin Unfiltered, is a force in digital media, boasting nearly two million YouTube subscribers and consistently ranking as one of YouTube's Top 100 podcasts globally. With DEI rollbacks hitting major networks and corporations, coupled with the exits of high-profile Black media voices like Joy Reid and Don Lemon, the stability of Black representation in mainstream media is uncertain. What is certain is that Roland has been anticipating this shift for over a decade and is building a media empire on his own Martin's perspective, the greatest mistake people make is that they "pivot when they're forced to pivot" after being fired or laid off. He took an approach different from the norm: he studied the moves of national networks, strategically anticipated the industry's future, and prepared well in advance. "I've always been thinking 10 to 15 years ahead of where folks were," he says. This foresight manifested in a shrewd, entrepreneurial approach to his career. During a conversation with a CNN executive, Roland made a confident move and laid out all his cards on the table, explaining, 'I have 5 revenue streams. CNN is number 3.' This move demonstrated that Martin was more than just an employee dependent on a corporate check. He was a CEO leveraging an international platform to build his own enterprise. In 2009, after being denied a weekend show, he instantly decided, "CNN is now about to become my personal venture capitalist.' 'With what I'm paid by CNN, they're about to fund what I'm going to be doing in a decade.' He began purchasing his own studio equipment while still on their payroll. A recurring theme in Martin's playbook is ownership. While at TV One, he noticed that the network was hiring outside production companies for all of his projects. He made them a compelling offer: to use his personal equipment, including cameras, lights, and a switcher, saving them overhead costs, under one condition. 'We have to co-own the content.' The network later canceled his show. What seems like a setback was actually a masterfully orchestrated business strategy on Roland's part. Following the News One Now cancellation in 2017, the value of his decision to use his personal equipment became apparent. 'A lot of the content we did, I own,' he notes. That content became the foundation of a digital library of nearly 200 terabytes, an asset he can endlessly monetize without new production committed to his long-term vision and goals required faith, patience, and difficult decisions. After canceling his show, TV One offered Martin a new contract with the same pay. He also spotted the devil in the details: a clause prohibiting him from working with any other Black-owned media for the contract's three-year duration. 'If I had signed that contract, then I would have been prohibited from doing anything with black media through the 2020 election,' he explains. This is another example of how Roland's foresight is critical to his success. He knew that the legendary Tom Joyner would be retiring in 2019 and that the 2020 election would require a strong Black media voice, a void he was intentionally aligning himself to fill. Roland urges young Black creators to shift their focus from a content-centered approach to gaining a comprehensive understanding of financial realities. 'The problem for African Americans: we have always been the show. White folks have always been the business,' he says. A critical piece of advice he gives creators is to think like business owners and understand that to everyone on the payroll, "You are an ATM machine." 'Sometimes, that means forgoing the expensive camera or the extra audio engineer to ensure the business survives to create content next year and the year after that.'While Roland Martin Unfiltered has proven to be a success by any metric, it still runs into a historic problem as it relates to independent Black media platforms: advertising. Martin admits that the whole media ecosystem is dependent on advertising dollars, yet they remain scarce for Black-owned media. Armed with this knowledge, Roland's approach has been to relentlessly build a loyal audience. He is aware that where there is an undeniably massive audience, advertisers will follow. He strategically uses platforms like Instagram and TikTok not for direct monetization but as a funnel to drive audiences to his YouTube channel, where revenue can be generated. With all of his current success and momentum, Martin is already looking to the future. "I don't plan on hosting a show at 65," he states. His focus is on building an institution that will outlast him. He is continuously reinvesting his profits in a state-of-the-art studio, a mobile production vehicle, and IT upgrades. The goal is to build a true network by elevating new talent and owning the shows they create together. The one thing Martin fears most is that Black-owned media is "moving towards extinction," leaving audiences vulnerable to misinformation from sources that do not serve the Black community. He is aiming to create a system where the next generation of Black journalists will be trained to pursue truth and serve the community. Martin isn't just building a show; he is establishing an infrastructure that guarantees Black media survives. For him, the power in media has never been just about being in front of the camera. "The power in media," he declared, "is with the person making the final decision." And for years, Roland Martin has been deliberately and brilliantly positioning himself to be that person.
Fox News
3 minutes ago
- Fox News
Tony Buzbee, attorney who represented Shannon Sharpe's rape accuser, takes parting shot at Hall of Famer
Tony Buzbee did not expect to be involved in a highly-publicized case with Shannon Sharpe, but when the opportunity came calling, he jumped on board. The football Hall of Famer-turned-national television star was accused of assault, sexual assault, battery and sexual battery. He was also accused of engaging "in the intentional infliction of emotional distress," and his accuser was seeking $50 million in damages. The situation got ugly, with Sharpe calling the allegations a "shakedown," while he and his legal team released sexually explicit messages that the woman had allegedly sent him. The parties settled last month, and Buzbee said that "both sides acknowledge[d] a long-term consensual and tumultuous relationship." However, upon Sharpe being let go of ESPN as part of the case's aftermath, Buzbee took one more half-hearted shot at the former tight end. "I didn't wake up one morning and say, 'I want to sue Shannon Sharpe.' He has no relevance in my life," Buzbee told Esquire. "I actually think he's very entertaining when he yells and screams and talks about sports that he's not involved in. But if I think it's a legitimate case, then I pursue it. And I think this is worth my time." Buzbee represented two dozen of the women who accused Deshaun Watson of sexual assault, and all but one of those cases ended in a settlement. Buzbee also represented the woman who accused Jay-Z and Sean "Diddy" Combs of assault when she was just 13. Those charges were dropped, and Jay-Z is now suing a woman and Buzbee. Sharpe accused Buzbee of targeting Black men, but Buzbee dismissed such a notion. "I guess a bunch of old White men could say I'm targeting them, and a bunch of multinational corporations could say I'm targeting them as well … I guess you could say I was targeting BP," he said, regarding his lawsuit against the oil company. "If I think it's a legitimate case, then I pursue it." Sharpe said that he "really enjoyed" his abbreviated stint at ESPN, where he appeared on "First Take." "I really enjoyed my time at ESPN. It gave me an opportunity to bring my audience that saw me really just grow. They saw me, you know, 'Lakers in 5' and they saw me say all these funny, these analogies that my grandparents gave me. And I was able to bring that to ESPN, so I'm very, very grateful for that."
New York Post
31 minutes ago
- New York Post
Warner Bros. boss David Zaslav is the real ‘Man of Steel' in shifting media landscape
They hate him in Hollywood, but increasingly they're loving David Zaslav on Wall Street. OK, maybe it's not quite love but there's definitely some canoodling going down. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery are up more than 53% over the past 12 months. Bob Iger gets endless kudos for turning around Disney following years of mismanagement and woke programming hated by much of the American public. His stock is up just 27% over the same time period. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery are up more than 53% over the past 12 months. CEO David Zaslav has proven the creative snobs wrong. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design Zas, as he is known in the media business, is a long-time media executive who landed at the top of major media by getting the telephone nerds at AT&T to offload its Warner Media subsidiary that they didn't know how to operate to his company, Discovery, in 2022. The deal was valued at $43 billion and contained lots of debt, a drag on its share price. Shares dipped to near penny stock levels (just above $5) last year. They closed at $13.17 on Thursday. Hollywood's skepticism toward Zas began with his lack of creative chops. He was a longtime NBCUniversal executive, an acolyte of Jack Welch when he ran the media company as head of the General Electric conglomerate. He then became CEO of Discovery, a mid-sized media outfit with cable channels like the Food Network, Animal Planet and HGTV that were losing viewers in an era of cord cutting. They churned out profits based on Zas's deft balance sheet management as opposed to top-notch programming, or so his Hollywood critics said. Adding credence to the Zas' haters' world view: His reign as media mogul included a major branding misstep, renaming HBO's streaming service 'Max,' a moniker (for obvious reasons) that never stuck. He also alienated those in La La Land by canceling programs as he slashed through the balance sheet. It became nearly impossible to defend Zaslav given his stock's uneven performance and his massive $52 million pay package in 2024 – in an industry that is literally melting away because of seismic changes in the way people consume entertainment, news and sports. Warner Bros. Studios' 'Superman' is the smash hit of the summer. Warner Bros. Pictures But there's a bullish Zas story when you sit with the business types – not crazy lefties in Hollywood who still haven't forgiven him for pulling the plug on useless movies like 'Batgirl' or refusing to overpay for NBA rights because he believed $2.6 billion a year could be put to better use. Despite the name screw-up, his streaming service makes money, a near anomaly among traditional media companies. He's breaking up WBD and will control the HBO Max streaming properties and Warner Bros. studios as CEO. His current chief financial officer, Gunnar Widenfels, will get something named Discovery Global, a holding company for the Discovery+ streaming service and all the cable networks. Those include Discovery Channel, CNN and TNT. Charlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet Sign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The move lets Zas transfer some of his debt to a company that has better cash flow while he rebuilds the studio, or probably sells it. Smaller is always better in M&A, particularly if you're looking for a Big Tech player like Amazon as a buyer, which he ultimately is, I am told. Lately, Zas has even proven the creative snobs wrong. Warner Bros. Studios' 'Superman' is the smash hit of the summer. 'Sinners,' a stylistic vampire flick, has been a surprise box office success. Plus, Zas admitted defeat and went back to HBO Max for his streaming channel. Rich Greenfield, the 'ax' or eminence grise of media analysts at LightShed Partners, says Wall Street may be starting to appreciate Zas as a survivor who will keep living to fight another day, and that day may well pay off for his shareholders. 'Obviously this isn't an easy business.' Greenfield says. 'But the brilliance of David Zaslav is that he got out of Discovery which was going nowhere and convinced AT&T to engage in a merger that gave it a second life. The question now is how he builds the Warner Bros. studio and HBO given this environment.'
