Beyoncé has removed a visual from her Cowboy Carter tour that featured the Las Vegas Sphere, following a cease-and-desist letter from Sphere Entertainment Group.
Fans first noticed the change during her recent performance at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Originally, the tour visuals included a scene where Beyoncé appears to pick up the iconic Sphere and loom over it.
According to a statement from Sphere Entertainment Group’s lawyer Kathleen McCarthy, “Beyoncé, many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue — leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it.” The company claims this moment used their intellectual property without permission.
The cease-and-desist letter, obtained by The New York Post, stated, “It has recently come to SEG’s attention that a Cowboy Carter tour interlude video contains the unauthorized use of SEG’s intellectual property.”
While SEG acknowledged that Beyoncé’s team likely cleared other visuals and clips properly, they say no one contacted them about the use of the Sphere.
In addition, Billboard reports that SEG CEO James Dolan had previously attempted to negotiate with Beyoncé’s team to bring her to the Sphere for a performance.
However, that deal never came together. Instead, Beyoncé will perform at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on July 25 and 26.
Although the Sphere visual is gone, Beyoncé’s tour continues to break records and generate headlines wherever she goes.
