Beyoncé tickets: High demand as UK concerts go on general sale
Image source, Reuters
Beyoncé won a record-breaking 32nd Grammy Award on Sunday
By Ian Youngs
Entertainment reporter
Beyoncé fans faced high demand as tickets for the UK leg of her new solo tour went on general sale.
The pop superstar is playing stadium shows in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sunderland and London in May and June.
Some users got an error message on the Ticketmaster website, while others said they were kicked out of the queue, which in some cases was 300,000 strong.
Two more London dates were added on Tuesday "due to high fan demand", taking the number of UK dates to seven.
Some fans got an error message on the Ticketmaster website
It is the singer's first solo tour for seven years. A portion of the UK tickets had already been sold in a series of pre-sales, while the first pre-sales for her North American dates began on Monday.
There is particular scrutiny in the US of how Ticketmaster handles the tour, especially since the company's systems were overwhelmed by demand for Taylor Swift tickets last year.
When are the concerts?
The UK concerts are part of a 43-date world tour in support of her Grammy-nominated Renaissance album.
The shows kick off in Sweden on 10 May, before landing at Cardiff's Principality Stadium a week later.
She will then visit Edinburgh's Murrayfield on 20 May, Sunderland's Stadium of Light on 23 May and London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 29 and 30 May.
After tickets went on general sale on Tuesday, she added two further shows at the Tottenham stadium on 3 and 4 June.
How expensive are the tickets?
In the UK, standard ticket prices to see Beyoncé range from £56 to £199.
However, the VIP packages, some of which include guaranteed front row seats or even seats on the stage, stretch to more than £2,000.
Many fans on social media ridiculed the cost, reminding Beyoncé that she advised people to "quit their jobs" on her recent single, Break My Soul.
Billboard magazine predicted the five-month tour could earn the star up to $275m (£223m).
What's happening in North America?
Ticketmaster said it had changed its process for the North American legs of Beyoncé's tour following the Taylor Swift debacle in November.
The company apologised after bots disrupted the sales for Swift's Eras tour. Ticketmaster said there was a "terrible consumer experience", while Swift said she was annoyed that many fans felt "like they went through several bear attacks" to get seats.
The US Senate is now investigating the company.
Beyoncé fans were asked to register for Ticketmaster's Verified Fan process - which the company says filters out touts - before the first North American pre-sale opened on Monday.
Those who managed to sign up ahead of time were entered into a "lottery-style process" after demand outstripped the number of available tickets.
If there are remaining tickets after those on the waiting list have been offered a chance to buy, then they will go on general sale - but that is unlikely.
When did Beyoncé last play live?
Beyoncé's last outing as a solo artist was 2016's Formation tour, which saw the star perform in front of a 60ft LED cube called the "monolith".
She then staged a joint tour with Jay-Z, in which the couple re-enacted their estrangement and reconciliation every night, in a two-and-a-half hour musical melodrama.
In January, the star performed her first headlining concert in four years at the opening of a luxury hotel in Dubai, but did not play any of her new material.
She was reportedly paid $24m (£19.4m) for the one-off show, but faced criticism for performing in a country where homosexuality and gender reassignment are outlawed.
Critics said that contradicted the message of her latest album, which explicitly celebrates black and queer dance culture.
What can we expect from the Renaissance tour?
Beyoncé conceived the Renaissance album as "a place to dream and to find escape" during the pandemic, layering her songs with multiple samples and references to club music, from Nile Rodgers' Studio 54 disco grooves and Grace Jones' imperious soul, to less-celebrated movements like bounce and dancehall.
Exclaim magazine called it "the sound of a once-in-a-generation superstar performing at her peak", while the Guardian described it as "a breath-taking, maximalist tour de force".
Unusually, Beyoncé has avoided making music videos for the album, meaning the Renaissance tour will be fans' first chance to see her visual interpretation of tracks like Break My Soul, Alien Superstar and Cuff It.
The star generally reworks and updates old songs to fit her current aesthetic, so we may also hear clubbed-up remixes of hits like Crazy In Love, Formation and Single Ladies.
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