Fans Furious Ariana Grande was 'Paid Twice as Much' as Beyonce for Coachella

“It’s disrespectful to call it Arichella. It ain’t.”

As if we needed a reminder, the "Homecoming" documentary confirms Beyonce‘s Coachella performance was a defining moment in pop culture history.

Which is why fans are furious at reports this week that Ariana Grande earned twice as much for her headlining set.

Variety reported that the 25-year-old — the youngest to ever headline — was paid $8million to hold the main stage this weekend and last.

According to a Business Insider estimate last year, Bey — the first black woman to ever headline — was paid between $3million and $4million.

While organizers Goldenvoice do not reveal remuneration details, the discrepancy was enough to shake the Beyhive into a hornets nest.

"I love Ari but no one ever can touch #Bey on any level. It’s sick to pay her more… she mostly just reused the sweetener tour while Bey worked harder on #BeyonceHomecoming than anyone has in life. And disrespectful to call it Arichella. It ain’t," one wrote.

"No one comes near her. Not even close. I love Ariana Grande but her Coachella performance in comparison to Beyoncé’s…there is no comparison," wrote another.

"You’ve got to be kidding me….. f–king beyonce is only get half as much as ariana???? make it make sense somebody," exclaimed a third.

Many tweets even went as far as declaring it "white privilege".

As her "Homecoming" documentary revealed, Beyonce worked tirelessly for months on the jawdropping production, which encompassed her matchless career and paid homage to the historic black colleges that inspired her (which she also later donated $100,000 of her profits too).

The Queen Bey meticulously planned every single detail right down to the individual sequins (before getting pregnant and having to start again) — indeed the only superfluous moment came when an announcer midway through her set declared Coachella was to be renamed Beychella — something everyone was already doing.

Even the edits in the doc, switching from the yellow outfits of week one to the pink of week two, are so seamless they look like a simple filter editing trick — a testament to the inch perfect choreography.

Ariana’s week one performance meanwhile — which featured guest appearances by Nicki Minaj, Diddy and four-fifths of N’SYNC, and was applauded by fans — was plagued with technical issues, from sound drops, out of sync vocals and poor lighting.

While none of the issues can be directly attributed to Ariana, one senses they could never have happened under Beyonce’s strict regime of months long prep.

Other estimates place Bey’s take-home pay much higher — Billboard claims she was paid a much more believable $8m-$12, and points out that she would have likely been paid handsomely by Netflix for the resulting doc too, if Dave Chapelle‘s $35million for two comedy specials is anything to go by.

While it never released its 2018 figures, Coachella in turn grossed $114million in ticket sales in 2017 (prices have not changed since then and it always sells out); this figure excludes the hundreds of millions it makes on food and beverage, camping and lodging, sponsorships, licensing and advertisements sold against the livestream of weekend 1 on Youtube.


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