Ever since Beyoncé’s 2025 “COWBOY CARTER” tour kickoff show this past Monday (April 28th), the BeyHive has been abuzz over social media clips from the concert featuring a video interlude of the singer picking up the Las Vegas Sphere. However, Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan has objected to the imagery, issuing a cease and desist letter demanding the video be removed from her shows, according to the New York Post.
In a letter to Beyoncé’s production company, Parkwood Entertainment, Dolan’s attorney Kathleen McCarthy accused her of “impermissible use and violation” of Sphere Entertainment Group’s (SEG) intellectual property, arguing this usage “has resulted in significant speculation that Beyoncé will end her tour with a Sphere residency.”
“Beyoncé — many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue — leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it,” reads the letter’s description of the video. “SEG was never asked and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG’s Sphere venue in the video is unauthorized.”
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SEG has imposed a deadline of Monday, May 5th for Beyoncé’s team to cease using Sphere imagery in the concert video. Failure to comply would result in the company taking “further action as SEG deems appropriate without notice.”
It’s worth noting that Beyoncé and Sphere were previously reportedly in talks for a residency. Those negotiations allegedly fell apart over Beyoncé’s reported request for the venue to go dark for two weeks of rehearsals. She has also reportedly been in discussions with rival MGM about a potential 100-show residency.
The “COWBOY CARTER” tour launched earlier this week with the first of five shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Subsequent North American stops include Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and Las Vegas, among others. Get tickets here. Beyoncé will also perform in London and Paris in June. Get tickets to her European dates here.
Revisit Consequence’s review of COWBOY CARTER and see where it landed on our list of the best albums of 2024.
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