Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour had its first U.S. stop on July 12 in Philadelphia and it appears to have supercharged spending during the week leading up to the show, according to Yelp.
Many of the pop star’s fans looked into getting glammed up for her concert, with Yelp saying that searches for nail technicians during the week of the show nearly tripled compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, searches for wigs rose 81% and searches for dive bars were up 160%.
“Beyoncé is a force, and it’s fascinating to see the level of excitement and tangible interest generated for the local shops and businesses as her tour kicks off,” Tara Lewis, Yelp’s trend expert, said in the report. “Whether it’s people looking for dining and nightlife options, getting glammed up, or booking transportation, the ‘Beyoncé Bump’ is real, and it’s helping more people connect with local businesses in their communities.”
This isn’t the first time the Renaissance Tour has had a noticeable economic impact. After “Queen Bey” performed in Stockholm on May 10, Swedish economists blamed her for artificially inflating consumer prices.
Beyoncé stayed two nights in Stockholm for what was the kickoff to her first solo tour in seven years. Close to 50,000 fans swarmed each of the shows, with some traveling internationally and even overseas to catch the performance.
“Beyoncé’s start of her world tour in Sweden seems to have colored May inflation, how much is uncertain,” Michael Grahn, chief economist for Danske Bank in Sweden, wrote on Twitter. He said it probably accounted for 0.2 percentage points of the 0.3 percentage points that hotels and restaurants added for the month.
Renaissance, released in 2022, is the singer’s seventh solo album, and debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart. It’s a house dance record that was the most critically acclaimed album of 2022, and named best album of the year by publications including the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
Beyoncé seems to now be sharing the success with local businesses along her tour route, specifically Black-, women-, and LGBTQ+-owned establishments. In Philadelphia, LGBTQ+ shops enjoyed the biggest Beyoncé bump across all shopping categories, with a near tripling of searches, the Yelp report found. Transportation got a boost as well, especially high-end services such as town cars and limousines, which were searched 69% and 23% more, respectively.
Beyoncé, who is the most Grammy-decorated artist of all time with 32 awards, is not the only singer supercharging local economies this summer. Taylor Swift is doing the same in what analysts have dubbed the “TSwift Lift” on The Eras Tour. Swift’s impact has been so noticeable that she was mentioned in a recent Fed report.
Swift and Beyoncé could each have the highest-earning tour in history, with both expected to clear $1 billion in profits. Beyoncé is predicted to leap way beyond that mark, potentially making over $2 billion from her tour (if she hits this number, she will out-earn Swift by half a billion). The average ticket price for Renaissance shows is $700, Forbes reported.
The Renaissance Tour has 57 global stops, and will conclude in Kansas City in October.
