Beyoncé was sent a cease-and-desist letter from the owners of the Las Vegas Sphere after she used computer-generated footage of it as a visual backdrop on her Cowboy Carter tour.
Earlier this week, Billboard reported that Sphere Entertainment Group asked Bey to stop using footage showing a giant version of herself strolling through Las Vegas and picking up the recently opened venue before walking away with it. The letter stated that the singer’s production company, Parkwood Entertainment, included the Sphere in the footage without permission.
“It has recently come to SEG’s attention that a Cowboy Carter tour interlude video contains the unauthorized use of SEG’s intellectual property,” read the letter. “Beyoncé — many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue — leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it […] significant speculation that Beyoncé will end her tour with a Sphere residency.”
The letter continued: “SEG is sure that multiple aspects of the interlude video, including other brands, clips and music, were duly cleared by the tour with rights permissions from the rights holders whose works were used in the video, as is common practice. SEG, however, was never asked, and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG’s Sphere venue in the video is unauthorized.”
Billboard also reported that James Dolan, CEO of Sphere Entertainment and Madison Square Garden Entertainment Group, tried to strike a deal with Beyoncé for her to perform at the Sphere at some point. However, Beyoncé will hit up Allegiant Stadium on the Cowboy Carter tour. Beyoncé has yet to respond to the letter.
Beyoncé kicked off her latest tour earlier this week at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, for the first of four shows. She will then hit up various cities such as Chicago, New Jersey, London, Paris, Houston, Atlanta, and more before wrapping up in Sin City on July 25-26.
