On Monday—after recovering from their huge Oscars after-party organized in honor of Mary J. Blige at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles—Beyoncé and Jay-Z accidentally teased a joint tour. Bey’s Facebook and Ticketmaster pages revealed a concert date for a previously unannounced stadium stint: Monday, July 30, at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Press caught it, her team deleted it and we never thought about it again ... until Tuesday, when two anonymous sources confirmed to Billboard that the tour is definitely real, but Bey can’t talk about it because of Coachella.
Hmmm.
One of the aforementioned two sources told the pub, and I quote, “A hold for the tour had been placed at a number of North American stadiums.” This is exciting, to say the least: The last time a Jay-Bey tour happened was in 2014, their infamous On the Run Tour. It’s been two new albums (J’s 4:44 and B’s Lemonade) and four years since, and I’m hungry for more, goddamn it.
So why can’t Beyoncé and Jay-Z spit out the good news and ease our troubled minds? Coachella might really be to blame—Bey is headlining the festival this year, performing on Saturday night both weekends of the Indio, Calif., event: April 14 and 21.
Historically, Coachella’s parent company, Goldenvoice, has required its big talent to hold off on any tour announcements until after the event, which makes sense: If I’m only trying to see Bey and a few other acts, it’s much, much, much cheaper to wait until she comes near me, and I get to avoid Coachella, which seems unbearable. Win-win, y’all.
If she (and her husband, lest we forget) waited until the Monday following the end of Coachella, April 22, as Billboard points out, they’d still have 98 days to announce, sell tickets and market the Philadelphia show. That’s a lot less lead time than other tours of this size, but they could be prepping for it right this very second, so who knows?
Honestly, they probably don’t need to make the same preparations as other artists, so let ’em do whatever they want—as long as we get the tour. Bye!