Beyoncé Slapped With a Cease-And-Desist Over Tour Footage Involving the Las Vegas Sphere

Beyoncé just kicked off her highly anticipated Cowboy Carter Tour a few days ago, and she’s already getting into trouble.

According to recent reports, Beyoncé has been hit with a cease-and-desist letter from none other than the team behind the Las Vegas Sphere. The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer came under fire when fan-filmed tour footage began circulating on social media this week. The footage depicts Queen Bey as a giant walking over Las Vegas. In the footage, she picks up and plays with the Sphere.

The special effects are cool, but Sphere Entertainment Group was not pleased about it. Kathleen McCarthy, an attorney representing the group, accused Bey’s production company (Parkwood Entertainment) of featuring manipulated images of the Sphere without the entertainment group’s permission to do so.

Is Beyoncé Going To Get In Trouble Over the Recent Sphere Debacle?

This could be a big deal. The use of the Sphere’s image during Bey’s concert might be considered impermissible use and violation of intellectual property rights. According to McCarthy, the use of the Sphere’s image gives the inaccurate allusion that Beyonce will end her tour with a residency at the famously large and round venue. Which, apparently, isn’t going to happen. According to other reports, Beyoncé had been talking to reps from the Sphere about a potential residency in 2024. Ultimately, negotiations over the residency fell through.

“Beyoncé – many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue – leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it,” said McCarthy in the letter, via New York Post. “SEG was never asked and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG’s Sphere venue in the video is unauthorized. [Parkwood Entertainment must] cease and desist from using the Sphere venue in the video immediately – in addition to refraining from using this imagery on any merchandise, promotional or marketing materials, or in tour movies.”

If Beyoncé’s team fails to comply with Sphere Entertainment Group, legal matters could be taken further. At this point, Beyonce’s team has not released a statement about the matter.

Beyoncé launched her Cowboy Carter Tour in Inglewood this past Monday. The tour will take Beyoncé across a number of cities in the United States, as well as stops in Paris and London. The tour is set to close in July 2025.

Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images