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| - A rumor circulating widely online in November 2024 posited that singer-songwriter Beyoncé announced a boycott of hosting concerts in red states — those that voted for Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Users shared the rumor in the days following Trump's reelection victory. Beyoncé had endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign in late October.
For example, on Nov. 9, 2024, the 300 Guns Facebook page posted a meme reading (archived), "Beyonce and other music artists plan to stop performing in Red States." The post displayed an image showing a map of the U.S. counties that officials purportedly projected Trump won in the 2024 election.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 10, the SpaceX Fanclub Facebook page posted (archived), "Beyoncé Announces Red State Boycott: 'I Won't Perform in Those States.'" Also, the Facebook page The Patriots Lovers posted a similar meme reading, "Beyoncé Shuts Down Concerts in Red States, Announces Boycott: 'This Isn't My America.'"
Numerous users on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X shared this rumor about Beyoncé making the announcement.
A Facebook commenter under one post promoting the claim said, "That's gonna cut way down on her performances." A different person remarked, "Their loss, not the discerning & intelligent folks of the Red States!" Another commented also asked of celebrities supporting Harris, "I thought they were ALL moving out of the U.S.?"
However, we located no record of Beyoncé saying she planned to stop holding her concerts in red states. As such, we rated the rumor that Beyoncé announced a boycott of hosting concerts in red states as false.
As some social media commenters pointed out, she was born in Houston — in Texas, a red state that last went blue during a presidential election year in 1976. Further, some commenters also mentioned the release of her first album inspired by country music — commonly considered a favorite music genre in red states — in March 2024.
The Rumor Originated Before Creation of Satire Posts
All three of the aforementioned Facebook pages displayed information claiming their content featured satire and parody. Also, the bios for SpaceXFanclub and The Patriots Lovers both showed information linking them to the SpaceXMania network of satire and parody. Even so, the truth was that the rumor originated before the creation of these satirical posts.
For example, on Nov. 8, a Facebook user posted, "Beyoncé and other music artists plan to stop performing in Red States." That post received more than 320,000 reactions and 38,000 shares.
We located numerous online posts from Nov. 8 that promoted the rumor, including some that predated the above user's Facebook post by hours or minutes. Most of the posts read, "Beyonce and other music artists plan to stop performing in Red States."
One user on X whose Nov. 8 post received at least hundreds of replies later deleted it, though not before a Facebook user copied and pasted that post's text. According to our research, that user created their since-deleted post after some of the other posts linked above.
We will update this story if we learn more details about the origins of this rumor.
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