So judging by my timeline, Beyoncé and her husband Jay Z are about to have some of you missing car note payments and coming up short on the kid’s daycare bill for the couple’s first official joint concert tour, which will likely include them doing the same stuff they do at each and every show…
Pre-sales for the long-awaited tour started yesterday, and according to Brooklyn Vegan, some of the dynamic money-making duo’s biggest stans are pretty miffed about the ridiculously high ticket prices, which are said to have some folks doling out $300 to an upwards of 1,000 a piece for decent seats. This must be the champagne wishes and caviar dreams tour. Call me when Bey and her boo decide to do a beer budget and corndog block party or something.
And according to Forbes, this is one of the highest-priced tours either has ever taken part in. As the business magazine reports:
“In fact, when it comes to other high-profile co-headlining tours or individual solo tours by either Jay-Z or Beyoncé themselves, On the Run tickets are head and shoulders above the rest.With an average ticket price of $342.67 on the secondary market, tickets for Jay-Z & Beyoncé: On the Run are 90.16% higher than prices for Jay-Z’s solo Magna Carta tour last fall, when Jay-Z tickets were $180.20 on average. They are also 16.55% higher than tickets for Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter Show world tour from last year, when Beyoncé tickets were priced at $294.01 on average.”
And that’s without the service fee.
Okay, a Beyoncé show I can somewhat understand. One huge credit she gets is the amount of effort she puts into performing, which always amounts to a good stage show. And for 300-smackaroos, she would truly have to bring it. No rehash of the same performances we have already seen. I’m talking skydiving into the stadium with a black Baptist choir strapped to her back, and Blue Ivy on her hip while singing “Survivor.” I’m talking an aerial rope performance, some dancing bears, a parade through the audience by way of a horde of glitter-spraying unicorns, and don’t forget about a hologram duet with Michael Jackson, Tupac and Whitney Houston. Hell, for that amount of money, she better harness the power of their Illuminati affiliation and bring Jackson, Tupac and Houston onstage in the flesh (Just kidding! Or am I…).
However, and in my honest opinion, her husband Jay has never been that exhilarating of a performer to warrant those ticket prices. And that is no offense to him, because the days of rappers Chinese typewriting across the stage in harem pants are long behind us. And most rappers, at the most, just finger point and do the rock away. In fact, his stage shows have always benefited from having many famous guest appearances, as well as talented hype men (ahem, Memphis Bleek and State Property) come on stage and kick a verse or two, including his wife, Beyoncé. Perhaps he’ll incorporate that bit into the show and bring big stars out, however, if it’s just him and Beyoncé, I would personally opt for watching old performances of them both on YouTube. Plus, shouldn’t a duet album come before a duet tour? I’m just saying…
And maybe I’m just a super cheap, broke chump. I’ll own that. Even those times when I wasn’t broke, the most I’ve ever paid for a concert was $99 (minus the service charge fee) to see Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae and Bilal when they came to Philly about three years ago. And as much as I adore Badu (*in my Sophia from the Color Purple voice* “Lord knows I do”), I was b***hing about that. Still, I had a great time and it was a wonderful show. But in the future, I’m not paying that much for anything that I am not consuming, driving, wearing, related to, or sleeping with – and all of those things mentioned I have never paid that much for (including f-ing–He better bring his own money at the very least).
Like what Detroit rocker Kid Rock said recently to Piers Morgan about Jay Z and his pal Justin Timberlake’s tour, where tickets with fees were around $250, “It’s garbage. It’s highway robbery.” Amen.
Listen, I understand that those of the Carter clan are not the only ones demanding ridiculously high ticket prices. Prince does it. The Rolling Stones do it. And Michael Jackson was planning to do it for his “This Is It” farewell tour. What I’m saying is that I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it now. But at the very least, you could argue that seeing Prince and The Rolling Stones is a rarity, whereas it does seem like both Jay Z and Beyoncé do some sort of concert or live performance every single year. And it is likely that they will do a concert and be performing next year too. With all the saturation, the price of admission doesn’t seem fair.
The Carters can charge however much they believe they are worth. But honestly, the personal value of some artists, who charge these high ticket prices, seems to be dismissive of their fanbase, particularly the young and those hailing from low-income communities, whose loyal support helped to place them at the top of their genres to begin with. On a side but related note: The least I’ve paid for a concert is $20. It was a Groupon ticket for the Mary J. Blige and D’Angelo performance. My “seat” was located so far back in the venue that I was literally sitting on the lawn, but damn if those legends didn’t put on a good show!
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