There’s no evidence Beyoncé was paid to endorse Harris at Houston rally

Beyoncé has long sung about "Bills, Bills, Bills," and now claims are circulating on social media that she was paid $10 million for her speech endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. 

An Oct. 26 Instagram post, with almost 15,000 likes, shared a screenshot of an X post that read "BREAKING: It is being reported that Beyonce got paid $10 MILLION for her speech last night," referring to remarks she gave at a Houston rally in support of Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. 

The post also repeated the claim that pop star Lizzo was paid for her comments in Detroit in support of Harris, a claim for which we found no evidence.

Last week’s claim about Lizzo and the recent claim about Beyoncé were both shared by the same X account, @jackunheard, and spread to Instagram and Threads. 

The Instagram post about Beyoncé was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

But we found no evidence that Beyoncé was cut a $10 million check for her Oct. 25 appearance at a Harris campaign rally in Houston. 

PolitiFact reviewed Google and the Nexis news database and found no credible reporting that Beyoncé was paid for her endorsement or comments at the rally. 

In response to the claim, Beyoncé’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure told PolitiFact Nov. 1, "This is beyond ridiculous." The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

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PolitiFact also reviewed Harris’s Federal Election Commission filings, which documents spending by the Harris campaign. Payment data up until Sept. 30 is available, and the campaign spent about $10 million only twice: $9.9 million Aug. 1 on "media buy & production" in Georgia and $10.7 million for an Aug. 21  "media buy" in Washington, D.C. No payments to Beyoncé were listed. 

If the campaign pays for an endorsement, federal law requires that it disclose the reason for a payment. The campaign disclosed "endorsement-related expenses" June 14 (when Joe Biden was still the nominee) for $75 to the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund. 

Speculation about a Beyoncé endorsement has been swirling since the global pop star allowed Harris to use her song "Freedom" in campaign ads, and rumors about a surprise performance dominated the Democratic National Convention’s final night in mid-August. 

In her four-minute speech in Houston, Beyoncé cited her role as a mother, her desire for unity, and the "freedom to control our bodies" as some of her reasons for supporting Harris. 

PolitiFact found no evidence to substantiate the claim that Beyoncé was paid $10 million to appear at a Harris rally in Houston.

We rate this claim False.

UPDATE, Nov. 11, 2024: This fact-check has been updated to include a statement from Beyoncé’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure.