Billionaire Status and Future Legacy

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It's everything your business needs in one place, saving you time, headaches, and serious money Paying for missing pieces Go to Odoo. com That's odWo. com to learn more. A young girl, just nine years old sweats under the sweltering Texas sun. She is running, her tiny feet are pounding the pavement along the edge of the Bayu Rriver. Five other girls trail behind her. They're all singing at the top of their lungs, harmonizing as they go But none of the golals are hitting the notes quite like our lead. Because this little girl is Beyonce and she will leave everyone in the dust on her journey to becoming a billionaire Welcome to Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Each episode, we pick a billionaire and find out how they made their money. We take them from zero to their first million and then from a million onto a billion I'm Simon Jack, the BBC' Business editor. And I'm Xingg Sing. I'm a journalist author and podcaster. And this week probably one of the cultural figures of the twenty first century. Oh yeah, and probably the twentieth century as well. I mean, we are starting this season with a bang. Have you seen her life? I've seen her life. I've actually seen her life three times and I was trying to was trying to count how much money I've spent on Beyonce in the last fififteen years I reckon probably almost a grand thousand peopleing her Th tickets don't come cheap, do they? And that is one of the reasons that in twenty twenty five, Beyonce was declared a billionaire worth exactly one billion dollars. From the very beginning, Beyonce has embodied professionalism, perfection, power. I mean, you just need to listen to her voice to know that. And capitalism, let's not forget about that. Ambition, materialism, capitalism all being pretty overt in some of her lyrics from her first hit with Destiny's Ch. Bills, bills, bills. It's a tune. Okay too declaring herself and I like this quote, a black Bill Gates in the making on twenty sixteen's lemonade. Yes, you can listen to the Bill Gates episode to decide if she really is the Black Bill Gates, but Beyonce is the CEO of what she calls and I love this, her multipurpose badass conglomerate But really, this is a story about an artist who made money from making music, which is pretty rare. And I like the multip purpose badass conglomerate. Remember Jay Z, who will feature in this story for obvious reasons? He said, I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, comma man. So what does it take to make a billion and become Queen B? Let's travel back to find out Yes, Beyonce Knowles was born in nineteen eighty one in Houston, Texas, in the USA. Her father, Matthew worked at Xerox, selling medical equipment. her mother Tina owned a hair salon and according to Matthew made them their first million dollars before Beyonce was even born. She said I went to private school, We had a very nice house, We had cars, we had a housekeeper. You can actually Google her family home. It's pretty nice, grand looking white house five thousand square feet, four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a swimming pool. So nice. Yeah, so Beyonce grew up comfortable and everyone describes her when she was growing up as someone who was quiet, who was shy. Her parents actually put Beyonce in a dance class because she was too shy. And the story goes is that when Beyonce was seven Her dance teacher, a woman called Darlette, noticed that she could sing and said, it blew me away. I told her to sing again and because she was very shy, I promised her a dollar and she sang it again. interestnteresting incentive for Beyonce there. And Darlette then entered Beyonce into a talent show. And when she got up, she absolutely commanded the stage and her mum Tina who will come up again in the story says it was something that happened on that stage I had never seen before. Beyonce one first class, she took home a trophy, one hundred dollars. So that was the beginning of herourney. Isn't it funny? becausecause I remember one of other billionaires,ute the stage, somebody saw something, Rihanna. Remember that one? Exactly and said, wow, there's something special there So from then on, singing and dancing became part of her central to her life. According to Darlette, Beyonce's parents worked pretty hard developing her They got her a vocal coach with Matthew and Tina's permission, Darletz, she was dragging her all over town to dance competitions and pageants and stuff like that. Age nine, she moved schools to Parker Elementary, which is kind of specialized in music and dance. And her younger sister, Solange, said, Beyonce practiced her bedroom over and over and over again. And when everyone said, okay, that's good, we've got it, she would say, no, I want to do it again. So very driven perfectionism. Exactly. So you might ask yourself, where did this work ethic come from? Beyonce credits her parents. She said, bothoth were entrepreneurs. I watched them struggle working eighteen hour days They taught me that nothing worth having comes easily. And in particular, her dad, Matthew Nos, stressed discipline. he was really tough on her. but Beyonce has said I wasn't doing this because I didn't have a choice or to support the family important for child entertainers, or because I had to get out of a bad situation. I was just determined this is what I wanted to do so bad. Okay. So she was making a name for herself in the local community, winning competitions, One day in the hair salon. Two local mothers, Dise and Deborah approached the Nnses and they said, Listen, we want to form a young version of Nvogue nineteen ninety, we were out here, groups were big at the time. There was a gap in the market for a younger version of that. So be honestly, it became the first member of a band called Girls Time spelt TY Emmy. I like that everything has to be kind of slightly off because there was N vogue in sync, girls Te which w up. Eactly. So we put a team in place, a financial backer, producer, songwriter They trialed thirty girls, six were finally selected for the band. They had intense rehearsals, they practiced nearly every day for months at their family home, Beyonce's family home. The girls did a regular boot camp as per our opening scene. They remember running down the river by the bo. And they traveled to the West coast to record their first record, but tensions were already showing. So those involved have said that Beyonce's dad, Matthew, was tried to position her as the lead, although Matthew obviously disputes this portrayal of himself It's worth noting that there were a lot of people involved at this point, all of whom were developing girls time for months on the end. That's not particularly unusual when it comes to girl bands or boy bands. It's estimated that back then this would have cost around one hundred thousand dollars because it is expensive. you're working with a lot of people. So the band needed to sign a deal, but their producer was shopping the record around major labels for about a year They had no success and their last hope was a popular TV talent show called Star Search, quite similar to, I guess, X Factor or Pop Iidol. Yeah, like an early version of that. At the time it was the largest national talent show Child stars who'd been on Star seearch included some big names, actually Brittney Spears, Christine Aguilera. They practiced for over a month, they got tight, they got polished, they were up against an adult male rock band called Skeleton Cw. I can sort of picture that band And Beyonce said I hadn't even thought about imagining losening as a possibility lose they did. And this whole process of losing Stararch caused also a deep rift within the band, Ashley left. Soon the producers songwriters also parted Ways. and this left the stage player for Mattho Nos. He quit his job to manage the band full time. This is a guy who's probably pretty high up and he just goes, I'm just going to quit to manage my daughter's band. Well, they must have been absolutely convinced that they had a star on their hands because as you say, it's not like this was their only hope. They had a very comfortable life. They both had good jobs and to pack it in partarticularly after losing this you know, at that point you'd say, oh well, nice try. It's not going be. But they double down on this And so more girls left, they brought another one in. the manand changed its name. And one former member, Latavia said, Matthew did not mince his words, she said, And it can be tough to take that kind of criticism when you are a little girl. We would try not to let it break us. Shades of like the Jackson five almost in this, isn't it? L tough, maybe not quite as extreme as that, but a high pressure environment. Definitely, especially for young girls, right? And also it's worth noting things were not going very well for Beyonce at this point. So the nos were also having financial problems because as we said Their dad quit their job to manage them. The family had to move out of that lovely house. The parents even split up for six months. though You know, in a personal stakes, Beyonce's life was not going particularly well. But then came one of those moments in our stories, which basically changed everything. And what's in the name? Well, quite a lot, because this band changed its name to Destiny's child and destiny beckoned. Very good. Yeah fourour years earlier, Beyonce had met an ANR, that's artists from repertoire. they're the kind of people responsible for finding talent Thesa Barbera writes, Tsa was keen on her but couldn't convince her label to sign the act Fast forward to nineteen ninety six Beyonce is now fourteen. Theresa has got a new job at Columbia Records. It's part of Sony So Matthie calls her up and this time she does manage to convince the label And Destiny' Child in fact, is her first signing. Their first single, No, no no, which is an incredible song, by the way, major hit peeaking at number three on the US Billboard chart, but the album only made number sixty seven. Now this failure probably was a blessing in a way. Beyonce has said, the label didn't really believe we were pop stars They underestimated us and because of that, they allowed us to write our own songs, write our own video treatments. It ended up being the best thing because that's when I became an artist and I took control. That's fascinating, isn't it? So they didn't think they were going to be a big enough deal to micromage them. So they let them kind of do their their own And the album thing is interesting because in the mid nineties, mid to late nineties, album sales are still where a lot of the money comes from. It's huge. It's huge. It's not like now you get one streaming or two streaming hits, whatever. album sales were kind of like the bulk of your earnings. Well in nineteen ninety nine, Destiny's child took that artistic freedom and they brought out an album which became critically acclaimed, something called The writings on the Wall. Do you know any songs from this era? I think am I right in saying that sayay My name is on this? Absolutely. Oh there we go. So sayay My nameame, like j jumping those those those. Okay. Hugely influential pop songs which actually Great music videos that still stand up. Okay. And it sold eight million copies, three number one singles But often with these kind of confected pop bands in a way, the band was actually at war. So remembers Lataviia and La Toya filed a lawsuit against Beyonce's dad and the group, alleging he stole their money and threw them out of the group when they tried to seek new personal terms. In fact, they only find out that they'd been sacked when they watched the video say my name and saw two new members lips syncing to their voices. Ouch. that is brutal, isn't it? This is a bit like the guy who was who played Darth Vader, who didn't realize that his voice had been replaced by James L. Jones until he actually saw the film. That's what I heurard. Anyway, but Matthew said the allegations is totally untrue. He also said the own the nameamed Destiny's childild as a Texas corporation therefore, he could decide who the members are, perhaps legally that's right. The lawsuit was settled out of court later that year. So by the third album, there were just three members of Destiny's Ch The ones that we all know, Beyonce, Kelly, a new girl called Michelle, and their two thousand one album Survivor was Beyonce's very first number one album The title and the lyrics were actually about the band's turmoil. So there's a line in there that says, you thought I wouldn't sell without you sold nine million. I always thought when I was growing up that that was about A nasty ex boyfriend who didn't believe in Beyonce or the rest of the girls, but actually it's about all this internal struggle going on within the band at the time And also by that point, by the way, there wass no denying this was the Beyonce show. She was front and center. She was also getting major writing and production credits on the album, which we know from the Taylor Swift episode, is so crucial to making money. And Survivor sold ten million, that's a lot But it's always tricky to find out exactly how much money artists are making from their music. Yeah. In twenty sixteen, entertainment website the Jasmine brand reported on the terms of the original deal Destiny's Child signed with Sony. Apparently they got an eighty five thousand dollars advance for the first album. The second album they would get between three hundred fifty and seven hundred, similar amounts for third and so on. and their royalty rates was set at twenty eight percent for the first album But the rates would rise if an album sold over five hundred thousand copies. However, and this is fairly standard. All the money the label paid to cover producer fees and promotion marketing would be recouped by Sony from the album profits. So we don't know the advances were split equally. Latavia and Lat Toya have claimed that they weren't. But it's hard to be at the stage sure if Beyonce had personally made a million. And in order to do that, Beyonce needs to go solo. So at the end of two thousand one, Destiny's Child announces a hiatus She's only twenty one at this stage She's on her own, Beyonce releases a collaboration with a rapper the man who would later on become her husband, Jay Z. And according to Beyonce, she was not flush with cash at the beginning of their relationship. She says, we used calling cards in Skype when we were falling in love couldn't afford the international hotel bills, so I would literally get international calling cards to call him. Okay, famous the expensive those phone calls from your hotel room At this point their Beyonce started diversifying her revenue stream. Now that sounds all very business like in my comfort zone. She's starting to cash in on sponsorship. She replaced Britney Spears as the face of Pepsi Dipping a her tone to acting. She starred in an MTV madeade for TV film Carmen, a hip hoppera Grown and then the big screen is Foxy Cleopatra in Austin Power's Gold member. I don't remember that. I remember this and she also did a song for it from meemory. Did she? S is quite good, I think, but you know Forgotten into the mists of time. The things are about to get really big for Exactly. So things exploded in two thousand three when she released her debut solo album dangerously in love. It debuted at number one in the States, it earned her five Grammy awwards and it was a truly global hit. In fact, she became the first female artist and the fifth artist ever to simultaneously top both the singles charts and the album charts in the US and the UK. That is really, really difficult. And most importantly Beyonce's journey to a billion, Dangerously in Love became one of the best selling albums of the twenty first century. So between this, the acting jobs, the Pepsi gig, it feels fair to say that Beyonce is a millionaire in two thousand three at the age of TT is twenty two. The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods Market, no antibiotics ever burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribbeye. Grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department, and round it all out with three hundred sixty five brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices Whole Foods Market, Make your summer sizzle If your best finance people are doing expense reports, chasing receipts, or spending time on monthnd clothes, it's time to get BEX AF, a gentTch finance that eliminates that work before it starts Learn more at brex dot com slash AF. I cashed out my entire four hundred one K thinking someone stole my identity. A fake email cost me my dream home after I sent my personal information to a scammer. 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If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call one eight hundred gambler Okay, so Beyonce is now a millionaire and next up we're gonna to track her journey onto a billion But we've got a long way to go get from a million to a billion. A billion is a thousand million for new listeners, just to remind you of that So as much as we love it more you love more, we both love the music. I think you know better and I. We're going to have to fast to the next few albums, which are day. Is it sh for birthday or Beyonce day? Well, I think both actually. Okay, I got it. Then there's I am dot dot Sasha Fierce and four. Yeah. And I think you all know the big hits from this. I want to say single lady crazy in love, we're not yet are we? No, we are. so singles from the albums Irreplaceable, Do you know that one? you will probably don't mum it for copyright reasons, we mustn't sort of go there because we'll get sued or probably. Exactly. So irreplaceable, ring the alarm. Okay Yeah. Single ladies. Single ladies. Yeah. now that I do know. Ely love that che. and also I think it was se out one of the standout videos of all time Exactly. Yeah. If I were a boy Run the world, girls I'm sure like I say, you know, if you sang it, which you're not allowed to. I'm getting a massive F on this one But lots of people did know them and they sold tons. Yeah. We can say that they amassed over seventy five million album sales worldwide. That's astonishing. But we're interested also in Beyonce, the businesswoman. And she has said Men often have the luxury of being perceived as the strategist, the brains behind their ventures. They're given the space to focus on the product, the team, the business plan. Women, on the other hand, especially those in the limelight, I frequently pigeonholed into being the face of the brand or the marketing tool. Interesting quote. So let's jump to two thousand eight when she founds a company called Park Wood Entertainment, which is named after the street that the Nose Big White House had been on ward is her kind of in house production and management company. It produces the tours, the music, the films, the documentaries that will follow this move, and it also fronts most of the production costs But this means it allows her to retain more bkend revenue. She's no longer having the record label siphon it off And so this decision was part one in Beyonce, becoming an independent woman. Yeah. So again, that thing we've talked about before about Very few people were going to write you a check just to do something like a salary or know well done for doing this. You need to own the company like Oprah did with her production company Two of what you just said was Pont W came in twenty eleven when she announced that her father Matthew was no longer her manager. Now according to Beyonce's press release, they had split amicably She said, I only parted ways with my father on a business level. He is my father for life and I love my dad dearly But a few months later, this version of events was called into question somewhat, when Matthew filed a lawsuit against liive Nation Enterertainainment for turning his daughter against him Now Matthew claimed that he was fired by Beyonza. He alleged this was because Live Nation Entertainment had told her he'd stolen money from her as his own daughter the allegation. So Beyonce had to then get a lawyer to conduct an audit which allegedly concluded that Matthew had indeed taken money. Now we should say that Matthew, her dad completely denied taking any money from his daughter and arguue that Live Nation was lying with the goal of getting rights to Beyonce's Tour, something Live Nation denied Ultimately the lawsuit didn' seem to gowhere. Live Nation and Beyonce did not publicly comment on it, but probably worth noting was also around the same time that Matthew conceived a child with another woman during an eighteen month affair, which led to him and Tina divorcing I don't know if this contributed, but you know it probably didn't help. you know tensions were clearly running high And this moment, I think, feels like a real turning point for Beyonce because she's about to turn thirty years old, big moment in anybody's life. She makes herself CEO of Parkwood Entertainment and she starts managing herself. She said, I felt like I wanted to follow the footsteps of Madonna and be a powerhouse and have my own empire and show other women when you get to this point in your career You don't have to go sign with someone else and share your money and your success. You do it yourself. And just weeks after parting with her father, she releases a song that I mentioned, Run the World Girles. Okay. But business had to be put on hold the next year. Beyonce had a miscarriage, describing it as the saddest thing I've ever been through. Johnson and JZ, by the way, had married in two thousand eight Interestingly in the modern world, no photographs on the wedding were leaked which shows impressively tight a lid they kept on that relationship. and she gave birth to her first daughter, Blue, Ivy Carter in twenty twelve. and she described Becoming a mother is the biggest accomplishment of my life. She would have twins five years later, by the way. So shortly after Blue Ivy was born, Beyonce filed an application to trademark her daughter's name. This began a legal battle that has been going on ever since involving objections from a wedding planner. There was also a clothing brand who already held that name. According to JZ, the reason was people wanted to make products based on our child's name and you don't want anybody trying to benefit off your ab's name. No, if anyone's going to do that, it's going to be me. That's right. Shades of the Beckhams here. Oh yeah, definitely. O other kind of Sobbiz family dynasties where you can tell mum and dad are angling for their child to get into the same business.. And I think you can definitely see that, you know, the most recent Met gala we saw blue Iivy on the red carpet next to her mum. Yeah. I think you should trademark your name cool. Maybe. I'm not sure Before Ioin atarkable. But like many mothers, particularly driven ones like Beyonce, she got back to work very quickly four months after giving birth. She performed four consecutive shows in Atlantic City and she said that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Rehearsals started three months after I gave birth I was nervous that I wouldn't feel the same. I think a lot of people coming back from job I think that. And when I still feel the need to work just as hard and I still felt the same release. I was like, okay. Well, twenty thirteen is the year that Beyonce went stratospheric. She performed at the Super Bowl halftime showhow in front of one hundred and ten million viewers. peopleeople don't know about American football. The halftime Super Bowl show is one of the biggest set pieces in the global entertainment calendar. you know, people like Michael Jackson famously did it and caused a sensation, you know always a subject of great cultural debate and analysis, for example, when Bad Bunny did it recently, it was a political storm, so it's a big deal, right? Exactly. Well artists actually and this is interesting, they're not paid a performance fee for the halftime show, but she had actually just resigned with Pepsi for an estimated fifty million, which included a halftime commercial, and Forbes described this deal as an unconventional multiy yearar deal Be Beyonce would have an element of creative control with a multim million dollar fund to support the singer's chosen creative projects. presumably including the Super Bowl. Yeah. So every part of your Beyonce's life now is a product in a way. And that year, she wrote, produced and directed and starred, of course, in a documentary called Life Is But a Dream And she's always stressed her hands on approach. She was actually on Final Cut Pro, that's software which she used to edit video. She said I spent a year editing. I went through hundreds of shows worth of footage and that experience taught me to love the filmmaking process. So you know, an early adopter then of this kind of self execing, you know, I'm thinking of Taylor Swift here as well. Exactly. The Beckhams have done it recently as well. I know some documentary filmmakers who actually hate this kind of form of documentary filmmaking because they say if the talent or the subject gets to make the show It's not really going to be truthful. Yeah If Beyonce is on Final Cut Pro kind of editing together everything, you know, is it going to be an objective portrait of the truth? Who know? Yeah inal. Everyone needs an editor, right? And that editor shouldn't be you. Unless maybe it's Beyonce. Beyonce can edit me anytime. Okay And that was the year she ripped up the music industry rule book. She dropped her fifth solo album, which was a visual album called Beyonce Totally out of the blue broke the record as the fastest selling album in iTunes' history And again, it's one of those things that must have been like this sort Manhattan project. It must have been kept very secret because it would have been a big deal to release it from nowhere. I mean, David Bowie did this towards the end of his life. That's a different thing. He was not the kind of global superstar with everyone's eyes on them. that Beyonce was at the time. You can imagine the number of lawyers that Beyonce must have hired just to write the NDA everyone silent. Yeah. you know it's an interesting sort of study in control, isn't it? In an interview, the journalist from GQ magazine noted that Beyonce's ground rule was that she filmed everything become part of her temperature controlled archive. includes private footage compiled by a visual director Beyonce employees who have shot practically at every waking moment, up to sixteen hours a day since two thousand five GQ magazine said, ready to be summoned and monetized at the push of a button. So this is like a real life Truman show. Is That' exactly what I was thinking Yeah Ecept she's doing it to herselfentually willing. Yeah, exactly rather than being ignorant of it. That year, Beyonce went on a huge tour of one hundred and thirty two shows And every night after performing, she'd apparently watched a DVD of a show that she'd performed. So she'd critique herself, her dancers, her cameraman, and the next morning everyone would receive pages of notes. And this, I think, attention to detail, which I think if you're on her team must come with kind of like pulling your hair out stress. I mean, it brings results because gross revenue from that tour was two hundred thirty million dollars. And that's by the way, how much the tour brought in total, not her earnings from it. Yeah, so we know how much she earned that year. Forbes estimated her earnings to be one hundred fifteen million dollars. and just breaking that down a bit, you got the album sales deal with Sony at the time was rumored to be structured more like a joint venture. Usually you get a royalty rate around twenty percent. She was getting fifty. Endorsements with Pepsi and H and M. She was making big money from her celebrity fragrances, heat, pulse, Rise. They were making tens of millions a year. Apparently Heat has actually got seven spin off cents. Do you own any celebrity fragrances? No, I have to admit, I was not one for the celebrity fragrance era. I know. Anyway, so all of that adds up. Yeah, exactly. So all this combined, Forbes named Beyonce the most powerful celebrity in the world that year based on the money she was earning and her fame She's only got about a quarter of a billion at this point, only Peanuts. So let us fast forward to twenty sixteen for her next big business move. Okay, first of all, the music. In twenty sixteen she released Lemonade Now again, this is a surprise release, a fully visualized album. It was personal this time. It was all about the infidelity of our husband, Jay Z You'll remember this controversy better than I because it had lots of tongues whagging. What were they saying? Oh my God, how do I even let this is a whole kind of odyssey that all the Beyonce fans had to go on, right? So basically gonna to strra myself in getet the popcorn. So basically the Met Gala, one of the most highly public big showbers events organized by vote to raise money for the Met Museum in New York Someone. leaked footage of Soalange Beyonce's little sister kicking and hitting Beyonce's husband Jy in the lift It's kind of wild because Solange doesn't just go for him once. she goes for him several times and Beyonce is sort of like in between two of them, but she sort of stood against the wall of the lift, not doing anything, whichich suggests she kind of maybe approves everyveryone thinks this is because that was the night that Beyonce and Soalange found out about this woman that she refers to on her album as Becky with the Good hair. The woman that JayZ had been having an affair with. Right o. And so this became this whole kind of for my money, this breathing frenzy. Exactly. And this is the first time you ever get a crack in Beyonce's perfect image, right? Right o Where it's like her husband has cheated on herakes album Lemonade, all about that. Okay. and peopleople presumably absolutely loved it. Oh yeah, it was commercially a success, critically a massive hit, critics loved it. It was included in every end of year list. It topped Rolling Stone's greatest albums of the twenty first century. It even won a peeabody award. It actually outsold some other big names that year. We're talking about Adele, Kanye, Yay, these days, Drake, Rihanna beat them all and to support the album, she went on the Fmation tour playing forty nine dates, the first ever all stadium tour by a female artist. That's interesting. I thought Madonna might have done that before, but no The toour gross two hundred fifty six million, that's five million dollars every night. Yeah. And I do remember seeing this and this is a real, I mean, this was a real phenomenon when it came to London. In twenty sixteen, she also made a major move into fashion. So she'd actually tried this before. In two thousand five, she launched a brand called House of Derryion with her mum Tina, which was kind of Denim, skirts, dresses started off okay. but in the early two ten s House of Derion was quietly shuttered But then in twenty sixteen, she started tapping into the growing Athleisure market. Okay with a line called Ivy Park. And if you want to hear more about Aleisure, you can check out our episode on Ben Franis. gym shot. Okay, that's interesting. I have to say, House of Derion As names go, I'm not a fan. No, yeah. Ivy Park much more like it. In fact, I remember the launch of that because every day when I come to work, I have to walk past the flagship store of Top Shop And it was all over. The branding of Ivy Park was all over that for months. And it was because she'd met with the owner, Sir Philip Greene, another one our billionaires. cheheck out that episode And Beyonce said of him, I think he was originally thinking I wanted to do an endorsement deal like they'd done with other celebrities where they just basically sign up, you know, say I wear this other product But I wanted a joint venture. I present him with the idea, the mission statement, the purpose, marketing strategy, all in the first meeting. I think he was pretty blown away. And so he agreed a fifty fifty partnership. I mean, why wouldn't you want to be a partner with Beyonce at that time? credly's like you don't need much business accumen to say this might be a good thing. So they launched Ivy Park just a week before Lemin eight came out with a big cover interview in some of the magazines, including Al selling that new liine. But in twenty eighteen, Beyonce bought Topshop out of that partnership after Philip Green was named as having taken legal action to prevent the publication of allegations of sexual harassment of staff acccusations by the way that he categorically and wholly denies. Instead, in twenty nineteen, Ivy Park announced it was partnering with Adidas. and this was turning a bad situation into an opportunity because Addidas is the second richest sports of a company in the world. They offered her creative control. And meanwhile, Philip Green's Arcadia group, which owned topop shhop was actually collapsing Boy, do I remember that? I was reporting on that a lot at the time and often with late like phone calls with Sir Philip himself it was true that at that time Soir Philip Green was being called the unacceptable face of capapitalism. He was a bit of toxic brand. There's no way someone at Beyonce wanted to be hooked to that wagon at all. So it's no surprise that partnership broke up. Absolutely But the added ass one didn't last long either. In twenty twenty three, they mutually parted ways due to creative differences, love that Behind those differences poor sales though, they were down more than fifty percent to around forty million in twenty twenty two, which is pretty bad for a business the size of Adadas. because they projected two hundred fifty million dollars in sales Ivy Park had been losing money for Adidas. whichich is a surprise to me I must say, but there we go. Not a good time for Adidas, but also not a problem for Beyonce because the original deal she signed guaranteed her about twenty million do in annual compensation regardless of sales. Great fine prin there. When the split was announced, it's said that Beyonce was excitedly looking to reclaim her brand. I think we can safe say that you know, fashion is not beyond say is route to a billion because Ivy Park has not since then. So if that's not going to work, let's try something else. So she tried her hand at some other consumer brands 've got a hair care brand called Sred Sacred. C acute Sacred. Alough if people are struggling to pronounce it and perhaps not the best name for your brand. Yes. It's hard to tell how successful that's been so far. It's reported estimates it's generating two hundred million in annual revenue in the first year But she chose interestingly not to be the face of this brand, saying I made a conscious decision not to appear in the ads The bra's first impression needed to stand on its own merit, not to be swayed by my influence. Interesting. G' got influence like that? whyy not use it? I think that's a really, really interesting departure. Well, she's also launched a whiskey, which is called Sir Davis named after her great grandfather. This is a joint venture with Moe Hennessy, and it follows in the path of her husband Jayy, who got into business with LVMH, who owned Moe Hennessy years ago His champagne, Amanda Brunac, was the biggest contributor to him becoming a billionaire back in twenty nineteen when Forbes estimated it was worth three hundred ten million dollars to him. W. But it remains to be seen whether or not Beyonce's whiskey will be as profitable. Yeah, it's an interesting one, isn't it? I don't see Beyonce and whiskey as two things that go together, whereas I do see the bling of Jay Z and champagne I don't know, I could be totally wrong What do I know? But it did work in one other way because the whiskey became part of Beyonce's cowboy era Be in twenty twenty four she released Cowboy Carter, the second in the trilogy of albums, the first was Renaissance or Renaissance, as the Americans would say in twenty twenty two Again, critical commercial success. Beyonce had the power to sell with the ensuing cowboyification And I have to say I do remember this bit. although I never went to one of her live shows, there was a period in London when everyone on the tube, wherever you went was wearing boots and a cowboy hat and denim And I was like, What's going on? Is there this some kind of country and western festival In a way, there was because it was basically Beyonce's cowboy era. Exactly. Well, I mean, unsurprisingly, brands also wanted to help Beyonce capitalize on this new aesthetic. Levi's paid her an estimated ten million for a series of commercials and she got an estimated fifty million for a special halfftime show for Netflix's first Christmas Day NFL game Yeah, but unlike her husband, JayZ and her contemporary Vienna It doesn't really seem that Beyonce's billionaire status is down to all these product things like Rianna with Fententy and what have you was a huge part of her billionaire status Her fortune is kind of like a good old fashioned musician's fortune like Taylor Swift is down to touring and the value of the music catalogue. That is massive. Right, because Forbes also estimated her music catalogue had increased in value to three hundred million do and through Parkwood Entertertainment, she has significant ownership and control over her master recordings, especially from her self titled twenty thirteen album onward. I remember how important that is because Taylor Swift went to the length of re reccording her original album so that she owned the masters of you know the Taylor's version. So that's a huge part of their wealth because that's an asset which keeps on giving. Every time it's used in an advert, every time it's played on the radio, every time whatever, some money drops on the mat for many, many years And so you can actually kind of work out the value of what the future revenues would be at the time. that adds up to a lot of money and a big part of these people's wealth. Exactly. And there's so many people making money off of historic oldder albums, tracks, songs right now. know, it's something that private equity has also started injecting itself into. In the old days, you go in and buy an album, let's say you bought, you know, writings on the wall or whatever your financial relationship with that band over at that point, but with streaming You know that you're going to keep getting bits of money for years to come and therefore it's becomes a whole different kind of financial creature Eactly. And even after you die, you get an even bigger bump in the amount of revenue you get from that. Yeah. And so by the end of twenty twenty three, she was worth eight hundred million doars. You add in Cowboy Cartter in twenty twenty four, that to made four hundred million ticket sales, fifty million merchandising. So all of that meant by the end of twenty twenty five, Forbes declared Beyonce a billionaire worth one billion dollars But what Nix for Beyonce, she said, I can only work on what liberates me. It's fame that can at times feel like a prison. So when you don't see me on red carpets and when I disappear until I have art to share That's why Sometimes you've had a create you rinse it a bit too much and it's hard for her to fly much higher.s see how her altitude in terms of fame and earning power goes from here. Well remember she's currently in the middle of recording that trilogy of albums Carbo Cota was a second one. Yeah. The rumor is that the third album will be a rock album. Could come out at any minute, it could be a surprise drop W So we will see how Beyonce does rock and roll. Okay. I' this space. Watch this space. That is the Beyonce Noel's story so far Let us try and score Beyonce on our billionaire categories. This is for a bit of fun We rate our billionaires on a series of categories from zero to ten on wealth contontroversy and legacy. So let uss start with wealth. Well, I mean, she's not particularly high under wealth stakes, right? So she's currently about three thousand three hundredth in the world today, but there are very few music billionaires. Oviously if it's one of them, but all in there's probably less than ten the world. Yeah. She came from a bit of money. Often we talk about how far they come from rags to riches. So we know that she started out in a very comfortable pretty successful middle class household in Houston. Boy, she knows how to spend it, doesn't she? In twenty twenty three, her and JayZ spent two hundred million dollars for a Malibu Beachfront mansion, which We think is the highest price ever paid for a property in California, and you're up against some pretty stiff competition in California. I mean, you're up against what movie stars. Yeah. And also of course as a couple, they like to flash the cash, didn't they? I can't think of a more They were the power couple, weren't they? I mean, you could do an entire podcast about how those two as a couple have navigated getting older together and having kids, right? Because she was so young when they met. he was older. He came from, you know, We've done the episode on him. He literally came from the housing projects of New York.. And she comes from this nice middle class background. how those two have continued to go on and create a business despite the infidelity, despite Becky with the good hair and had three kids It's really intriguing, but yeah, they do love to spend it. Okay, so let's give them a wealth rating. She's entry level for our purposes because she's only just crept into the billionaire category. So not that. But on the kind of lifestyle and the aspirational stuff and The way they flaunt it, I'm gonna give them a five. give her a five. I feel like as someone who's spent personally, quite a lot of money on Beyonces, I feel like I have to give her slightly more. so maybe I'll give her a six out of ten. Okay. All right. What about controversy? I mean, one of the most written about women in history probably, A lot of think pieces about whether she's a feminist or not discuss. Yeah. I mean it is interesting because obviously she's had that whole Run the world, girls era where I mean the lyric is literally girls, We run the world. And she stood in front of a giant screen that basically said feminist and included spoken words from Chimimanda andoiia Diase, We should all be feminists essay. If you remember that and you can you know look it up, it's at the VMAs. And there is an argument to be had that you know, beyonce it's this feminist I can't she shown young women and girls, especially black women that you can be the star. you can be the mogul in the same way that Jay Z is. Yeah, notot just the star but the mogul. That's important distinction isn't it? Right? The Black Bill Gates, basically. Yeah. But then you know, there's also a strand of feminism that says actually All you're doing is kind of cowtawing to the temple of capapitalism at the end of the day. You're just telling people that you can do it through You know, hard work through making money when that maybe isn't how society is set up, especially not for people of colour. So I think it's an ongoing tension in her work really. You know, I think Beyonce, when you listen to her, when you read her interviews, she has a pretty you strong idea of what her feminism consists of. And she said, I'm not really sure people know or understand what a feminist is, but it's very simple. It's someone who believes in equal rights for man and woman. Ask anyone man or woman, do you want your daughter to have seenty five cents when she deserves a dollar? What do you think the answer would be? I think that's pretty dead on. Okay, Fair enough. I think the whole controversy over whether Beyonce is a feminist or an arch capitalist Honestly, it just depends on which side of the coin you like. Controversy. someome would say ruthless. we use that word sometimes. I mean, if you look at the destiny's child era, there was chopping and changing. I mean, her dads saying wanting to put her front and center I go and see, you know, people with their kids in the football pitch on a Sunday afternoon and every dad wants their son to be cent to forward. you know what I mean?'s a little no one wants to put in goal apologies to goalies out there. But you know me? I don't think that a parent angling to put their talented daughter somewhere front and center in this thing, given that you've given up your job for it. I don't think that's entirely surprising, so I'm not going to blame them for that. mean she fired her dad as her manager, but we've seen that before thing U I'm going to give her quite a low score for controversy. I'm going to give a Three I think I would give her a two out of ten. I mean, she's not, you know, in the grand good bad billionaire stakes. Three for me, two for you. Okay, power. If she called up the White House, would the president pick up? Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah. any president Mr. President, Beyonce online one, you take it wouldn't you? Oh one hundred percent. The president of any country, I think. Yeah, is quite a fee. Also, in terms of her economic power She can influence whole nations's economic statistics when her entourage comes to town. I think it's in Sweden tickets for her show and hotel bookings sparked such a frenzy that Sweden reported higher than expected inflation Visit Stockholm describe the boom in tourism to the city as the Beyonce effect. Yeah Not a million of miles away from Swift eonomics, which is the exact same thing which happen when Taylor Swift's eras were eroded into town in various cities around the world. And can she influence things like fashion? I mean her forays into fashion didn't work that well, but she can influence the look for examabb Carta Exactly. I mean, my God I don't think I've ever seen as many cowboy boots as I did when Beyonce's tour rode into town. So P, I'm going to give a pretty high rate. I'm going to give a seven. I think I'm going to give her higher. I think I'm going to give her an a out of ten. when you not only become Is it a mononym where you're just First name only, like Sher, Madonna, Beyonce. Yeah. or even a letter. Exactly. O B. there's a lot about the amount of power you have. Yeah Legacy. She holds a lot of records. Yeah. so most number of Grammy wins ever thirty five, which is kind of crazy. You know, obviously she's been