Beyoncé Accused Of Stealing Artist’s Work For Her $500M Renaissance Tour: ‘You Should Have Asked’
December 20, 2023 by Julia DeKorte
Beyoncé is catching some heat from fans who have accused her of stealing art from a 76-year-old Japanese illustrator to use in her Renaissance Tour costumes. The illustrator, Hajime Sorayama, posted photos on Instagram last week comparing his original artwork to one of the costumes Beyoncé is depicted in on tour. However, other fans are claiming that the artist’s work is heavily inspired by the 1927 film Metropolis, and that what he’s claiming is “stolen” isn’t unique art, rather a style of art that cannot be owned.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour has grossed over $500M, so if she did in fact copy artwork from Sorayama, it doesn’t really make much sense why she wouldn’t pay him for it. Although, the pop star is also refusing to pay a $7M tax bill to the IRS… Keep reading for more information.
On Dec. 11th, Hajime Sorayama posted a series of photos to his Instagram account, @HajimeSorayamaOfficial. The first slide is a picture from the Renaissance Tour featuring Beyoncé in a chrome headpiece with small metal spikes sticking out from the side. The second slide is the same image, but on a t-shirt. The third, fourth, and fifth slides are images of Sorayama’s artwork: a woman wearing a very similar chrome headpiece as well as a chrome suit of armor.
He captioned the photos, “Yo @beyonce You should have asked me ‘officially’ so that I could make much better work for you as like my man @theweeknd.” The post now has over 57,000 likes and over 3,500 comments, making it both his most liked post and his most commented on post. It’s currently unclear if Sorayama is taking any legal action against Beyoncé.