Tour Announcement
After weeks of speculation, Beyoncé and Jay Z finally released a press release on April 28 with the full details of their first co-headlining trek, the 2014 On the Run Tour. Much like Jay Z’s 2013 tour with Justin Timberlake, the upcoming joint venture will take over numerous North American stadiums, with performances scheduled from June 25-Aug. 5.
The initial announcement includes 16 North American cities—listed below—that will host the two hip-hop icons this summer, as the tour is slated to stop in stadiums like Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park (June 28), Toronto’s Rogers Centre (July 9), Chicago’s Soldier Field (July 24), and San Francisco’s AT&T Park (Aug. 2). The On the Run Tour also will make a stop in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston (July 18), but the first string of dates does not include any performances in Jay Z’s native New York. There’s no word yet on whether or not the couple will be adding shows at a later date. While the couple has routinely made guest appearances at each other’s individual concerts, these 2014 tour dates mark the couple’s first time venturing on a full-fledged tour together.
Both artists released new music last year: Jay Z dropped his GRAMMY-nominated Magna Carta…Holy Grail in July, while Beyoncé’s self-titled release was made available in December. Both albums, which were two of the top 10 best-selling in the U.S. last year, featured collaborations between the couple, like Jay Z’s “Part II (On the Run)” and Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love.” Thanks to album sales in excess of a million copies each, Beyoncé and Jay Z also became the first couple in history to have two solo albums land in the end-of-the-year top 10 list.
Aside from the upcoming co-headlining tour, Jay Z also announced that he’ll take on the challenge this summer of expanding his Made in America Festival to include a weekend in Los Angeles. The event had previously been held only in Philadelphia, but in 2014, another edition will simultaneously take place in L.A.’s Grand Park on the weekend of Aug. 30-31. The lineup has not yet been released for either location, but past years have featured a number of A-list performers, including, among many others, Jay Z and Beyoncé.