Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter is one of the world’s richest celebrities by net worth. Jay-Z, whom Beyonce is married to, is also among the richest celebrities in the world, making the couple the most powerful family in music.
Born on 4 September 1981 in Houston, Texas, Beyonce or Queen Bey, as she is more popularly known, is hailed universally as one of the greatest singer-songwriters ever.
She is one of the best-selling music artists of all time and has numerous music records to her credit, chief of which is the record for the most Grammy Awards by any artist in history with 32 wins.
Beyonce started her career at the age of nine as part of the singing-rapping girl group Girl’s Tyme in 1990. The group later became Destiny’s Child in 1996, comprising Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett, along with Beyonce. Destiny’s Child then took the music world by storm with the release of their eponymous album in 1998.
She embarked on a solo career with her first solo album, Dangerously in Love(2003). She has since released seven studio albums, including Renaissance (2022). All her studio albums to date have been received with critical and commercial acclaim, with each of them reaching No.1 on Billboard 200.
She scripted history in February 2024 when her song “Texas Hold ‘Em” from her upcoming eighth studio album, tentatively titled Act II, debuted at No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs lists. It made her the first woman (and fifth artist overall) to have topped both lists since they began in October 1958 and the first Black woman to land a No.1 on Hot Country Songs.
Beyonce married rapper Jay-Z, who has the distinction of being hip hop’s first billionaire. Jay-Z, whose net worth is USD 2.5 billion as of February 2024, is himself a winner of 24 Grammy Awards. With Jay-Z, Beyonce has three children — Blue Ivy, Rumi and Sir.
All about Beyonce’s wealth and how she has earned it
The net worth of Beyonce
In December 2023, Forbes announced that the net worth of Beyonce was USD 800 million.
Six months prior to the update, in June, Forbes had included her in its list of the 15 richest women celebrities in America as well as its list of self-made women in America with a net worth of USD 540 million.
Thus, Beyonce’s net worth rose by around 48 per cent in just six months.
Forbes said in its December report that the “dramatic boost to her fortune can be attributed to her substantial 2023 earnings”.
She reportedly took home around USD 100 million after taxes from the Renaissance World Tour in 2023. Forbes also said that it made adjustments to the overall value of her music catalogue, which was now valued at USD 300 million.
In its June list, Beyonce was placed seventh richest American woman celebrity behind Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner and Madonna.
At the time when the list was released only Winfrey, Rihanna and Kardashian were billionaires. Taylor Swift became a billionaire in October 2023. With the December 2023 update about Beyonce’s fortune, it is now believed that she will become a billionaire before the end of 2024.
Undoubtedly, Beyonce’s rise on the rich lists has been strong. She was ranked 61 on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women in 2022, with a net worth of around USD 450 million. The publication noted in its 2023 list that she jumped 13 places to rank 48 on the latest list, with around USD 90 million more added to her net worth.
The combined net worth of Jay-Z and Beyonce is now more than USD 3 billion, which is more than any other couple in the music world. Several estimates suggest that Beyonce and Jay-Z are, in fact, the richest celebrity couple in any field.
Interestingly, they surpassed the billion-dollar mark for the first time only in 2018. Based on the estimates, it can be concluded that Beyonce and Jay-Z added over USD 2 billion, or tripled their net worth, in just five years.
Earnings from Renaissance World Tour and overall ticket sales
Much of the rise in Beyonce’s net worth is credited to her seventh studio album, Renaissance, and especially the eponymous music tour that she embarked on in May 2023. Estimates suggest that her earnings from the tour are breaking records, meaning that she will certainly end up much richer in 2024 than she is now.
A Forbes report from early May, just days before the start of the Renaissance World Tour estimated that Beyonce could earn roughly around USD 2.1 billion in ticket sales by the end of the tour, on 1 October 2023.
According to the report, the estimate was drawn primarily from the “most optimistic assumptions of the number of fans buying tickets” multiplied by the high average ticket price of USD 700. At the lowest end of the assumptions is USD 275 million, while at the highest end is USD 2.4 billion. The higher end is far above the highest assumption for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, which, at the time the report was published, stood at USD 1.9 billion.
The estimates were also based on the assumption that Beyonce takes home around 80 per cent of the proceeds of her music tour.
Actual data finally emerged in October 2023 via tour earnings tracker Billboard Boxscore. According to the report, Beyonce earned USD 580 million from 56 shows with a total attendance of 2.8 million. She was the fourth-highest-earner, the only woman, the only Black artist and the only American solo act on the list.
Of the total tour earnings, USD 438 million came from the US and Canada with the remaining USD 141.8 million from its Europe leg. The tour’s European leg was both the biggest gross and attendance among all of Beyonce’s performances in Europe.
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During the European leg, Queen Bey set the record for the highest-grossing engagement ever by a woman, a Black artist, or any American artist with a USD 42.2 million haul from a five-show run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
The RenaissanceWorld Tour earned USD 127.6 million over 11 shows between 8-30 July, according to Boxscore. At the time, it was the largest one-month sum for any artist since the data archives began in the mid-1980s.
By 1 August 2023, the Renaissance World Tour had already become the highest-grossing tour by Beyonce with total earnings up to that point toUSD 295.8 million. The previous record was USD 256.1 million earned by her The Formation World Tour of 2016.
Earnings from private performances
Beyonce has also done private gigs. Though they are few, she has earned millions from a couple of them.
She has appeared twice on Forbes‘ list of the 10 most expensive private performances ever — a story that was released in January 2023.
Beyonce reportedly earned around USD 24 million with her performance at the launch of the Atlantis The Royal hotel in Dubai on 21 January 2023. The figure is the highest a celebrity has ever earned for a private performance.
Indian daily Hindustan Times reported that Beyonce was paid an estimated USD 3-4 million in 2018 to perform at Isha Ambani’s pre-wedding events in India. Isha Ambani is the daughter of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who is the richest Asian in the world.
Music sales
Sales of her albums and singles do not form as large a part of her revenue as ticket sales from her tours. Yet, the figure is still substantial.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Beyonce has sold 30.5 million units as album sales and 114.5 million units as singles sales in the US alone. Soon after its release, Renaissance topped the Billboard 200 chart with 332,000 equivalent album units in the US in the week ending 4 August 2022. At the time, it marked “2022’s biggest week by a woman — and the second-largest week of the year overall.”
To date, Beyonce has released 83 singles besides her studio albums, EPs, live albums, compilation albums and other material. The figures exclude her career as a member of Destiny’s Child.
It is difficult to ascertain how much she may have earned from the sales of all her songs, albums and other records, both as a solo performer and as a pop group member.
In July 2017, Beyonce was named by Billboard as the highest-earning artist of the preceding year with USD 62.1 million based on sales, tours and streaming in the US. However, the data showed she earned about USD 7.5 million in publishing fees, sales and streams. The rest came from tours.
The sales figure is significant because Beyonce released her sixth album, Lemonade, in April 2016; therefore, its sales would also be part of the overall earnings. At little over 10 per cent of her overall earnings for the year, the figure indicated that earnings from album or song sales make up only a small fraction of the overall net worth of Beyonce.
Earnings from movies
Besides being a music phenomenon, Beyonce is also a talented actor. She has appeared in numerous movies over the past two decades. She shot to fame on the big screen with Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and followed it up with successful films such as The Pink Panther(2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Cadillac Records (2008)and Obsessed (2009).
Although Queen Bey has not appeared as a character in any live-action film ever since, she was reportedly paid around USD 15 to USD 25 million for voicing the character of Nala and recording the soundtrack for the computer-animated musical drama The Lion King (2019). With USD 1.6 billion in earnings, the film is one of the top 10 highest-grossers at the worldwide box office.
She was reportedly paid USD 60 million by Netflix for three projects, including a documentary titled Homecoming in April 2019. The documentary showcased her 2018 Coachella performance, for which she reportedly received between USD 8 million and USD 12 million.
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Beyonce also owns a production and management business named Parkwood Entertainment. Founded in 2010, the company produces movies, music and clothing. Cadillac Recordsand Obsessed were two of its projects as well as Black Is King (2020), an American musical film co-written and directed by Beyonce.
On 1 December 2023, Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé hit theatres. Forbes noted in its December story that the concert film earned USD 27.4 million worldwide in its opening weekend. By January 2024, the film earned USD 44.4 million worldwide.
Earnings from Ivy Park label
Brands that Beyonce owns form a good part of her net worth. She launched the Ivy Park activewear line in 2016 as a joint venture with British businessman Sir Philip Green’s Topshop. The equal-share venture ended in 2018, following which Beyonce gained full control over her brand.
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The same year, she relaunched it in a creative partnership with Adidas. As part of it, she developed new footwear and apparel for the German footwear giant. The creative partnership was set to conclude at the end of 2023. However, The Hollywood Reporter stated in March 2023 that Beyonce and Adidas had agreed to part ways before that because of “creative differences.”
Subsequently, The Wall Street Journal reported that sales of the Ivy Park merchandise have not been great. According to its 28 March 2023 report, sales of the merchandise were USD 93 million in 2021 and only around USD 40 million in 2022 against a target of USD 250 million.
Brand endorsem*nts of Beyonce
Beyonce is the face of several prominent brands in the world. Two of them, however, are especially major — L’Oreal and Pepsi.
Queen Bey has been working with L’Oreal as its brand ambassador since at least 2001. That’s a phenomenal relationship of over 22 years. She has appeared in the French cosmetics giant’s ads for their make-up, skincare and hair colour products, starting with the Feria range of hair colourants at the beginning of their association.
It was reported in 2004 that she was paid close to USD 5 million for just 10 days of work as part of a new deal that extended their then three-year association to five more years. As part of the deal, she would be paid USD 25,000 per day for an additional two days of 10 hours.
Beyonce’s work with L’Oreal has been more profitable for her over the years. According to reports, she signed a new deal with the brand in 2020 for an estimated USD 50 million. She currently advertises the firm’s long-lasting lipstick.
The other long-running deal that Beyonce has is Pepsi, with whom she first signed in 2002. One of her most famous appearances for the globally famous soft drinks brand was in the 2004 Gladiatorad alongside Britney Spears, Pink and Enrique Iglesias.
This collaboration has also contributed well to Beyonce’s net worth. In 2012, Pepsi signed a new 10-year deal with the star for USD 50 million.
Besides the two major long-running brands, Beyonce is the face of several prominent luxury lifestyle brands. These include Giorgio Armani’s women’s fragrance, Emporio Armani Diamonds and ., the latter of which she signed up with Jay-Z.
Although the worth of the Tiffany & Co. deal is unknown, Beyoncé created history with the announcement in August 2021 when she was seen wearing a large yellow diamond necklace in the promotional pictures.
According to NPR, the diamond is the iconic 128-carat Tiffany Diamond acquired by the company in 1878 and famously worn by Audrey Hepburn in the publicity photos for Breakfast at Tiffany’s(1961) and later by Lady Gaga at the 2019 Academy Award. NPR said that Beyonce is the fourth woman and the first Black woman to wear the diamond in over a century.
She has also appeared in ads for Tommy Hilfiger’s fragrances True Star and True Star Gold, American Express (AXP), Samsung and Ford, among other brands, over the decades.
In March 2023, she released a 17-look Renaissance-inspired couture collection with Olivier Rousteing, the creative director of the French luxury fashion house Balmain. Beyonce was the co-designer of the project and worked for five months on it.
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Sales of perfume
In July 2023, Beyonce announced that she will release a new perfume worth USD 160 per bottle. The fragrance is the first that the music icon announced in 10 years.
Her first perfume was named Heat. Launched in 2010 and priced at USD 45 per bottle, it recorded sales of USD 75,000 in one day at Macy’s. Her second and third perfumes were Pulse and Rise, released in 2011 and 2014 and priced at USD 30 and USD 22, respectively. Beyonce had also launched a follow-up to her first perfume, Heat Rush.
Its exact details are unclear, but reports suggest that Heat and Pulse alone recorded sales of USD 400 million until 2013.
Assets that Beyonce owns
Now that we know how Beyonce has amassed her wealth, the question is: How does she spend her money? Beyonce indeed owns assets worth millions of dollars with Jay-Z, including some of the finest properties.
Beyonce recently bought a USD 200 million mansion in Malibu with Jay-Z. The purchase, which was reported in May 2023, made it the most expensive home ever sold in California and the second-most expensive real estate deal in the US.
Measuring 2,798 square metres, the house overlooks the Pacific Ocean in the Paradise Cove area. Details of the property and its pictures are, however, scarce.
TMZreports that the mansion was designed by Japanese master architect Tadao Ando, who is also behind the mega property Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, bought in Malibu.
The report suggests that the Paradise Cove property was originally owned by art collector William Bell, who took 15 years to get the all-concrete structure built. It never hit the market and was shown to a select few prospective buyers for USD 295 million.
Beyonce and Jay-Z also own another property in California — a mansion in Bel-Air — which they bought for USD 88 million in 2017. This mansion is spread over more than 2,787 square metres and comprises six buildings with eight bedrooms and eleven bathrooms. The couple spent more on the property’s upgrade, which reportedly took the worth of the mansion to around USD 100 million.
Beyonce is also the owner of a USD 20 million private island, which was gifted to her by Jay-Z when she was turning 29. The island, which measures around 50,500 square metres, is located off the coast of Florida and boasts sandy beaches washed by clear turquoise water.
On the other hand, Beyonce spent USD 40 million to gift a Bombardier Challenger 850 private jet to Jay-Z in 2012. Beyonce also spent USD 2 million on a 2010 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, which was a gift for Jay-Z on the latter’s 41st birthday.
Unlike Jay-Z, who is particularly known to be fond of the wheels, Beyonce appears to be sharing the ownership of some of the cars they have. These include a 1957 Corvette C1, a 1993 Lexus GS300, a 2006 Maybach 57S, a 2007 Maybach 62S, a 2012 Dartz Prombron, a 2017 Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII and a 2018 Bentley Continental GT.
(Hero image: Courtesy of BEYONCÉ/@Beyonce/Twitter; Featured image: Courtesy of Beyoncé/@beyonce/Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions
– Who is richer Beyonce or Rihanna?
Rihanna is richer than Beyonce. While the former has a net worth of around USD 1.4 billion, the latter has a net worth of around USD 800 million. This means that Rihanna is more than twice as rich as Beyonce.
– Why is Beyonce so famous?
Beyonce is famous for her music. Her singing and songwriting abilities are hailed universally as among the finest. This is why she has won 32 Grammy awards, more than anyone in music history.
