Beyonce has been accused of failing to seek permission to promote her album with a light display outside a famous New York museum.
The 42-year-old pop superstar is preparing to release her new record ‘Cowboy Carter’ next week and she generated some hype with a stunt in the Big Apple that projected words about the album onto the front of buildings including the Guggenheim Museum, but heads of the institution have since claimed the singer was never given the green light to use the building’s facade to promote her work.
In a statement given to Artnews.com, Guggenheim bosses stated: “[The museum] was not informed about and did not authorise this activation.
“However, we invite the public – including Beyonce and her devoted fans – to visit the museum May 16–20 when we present projections by artist Jenny Holzer on the facade of our iconic building to celebrate the opening of her major exhibition.”
Other buildings featured in the stunt include the Whitney Museum, the New Museum and the Museum of Art and Design. The projection featured phrases such as “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyonce album” as well as the album’s name and release date as well as the singer’s website address.
Beyonce promoted the stunt on Instagram by sharing a picture of co-ordinates showing the location of the light shows.
The album is the second part of Beyonce’s three-record ‘Renaissance’ project which started with her 2022 release ‘Renaissance’.
After announcing her country project, Beyonce became the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
The ‘Crazy in Love’ hitmaker surprised fans when she dropped two new country music songs – ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ and ’16 Carriages’ – shortly after starring in an advert for Verizon during the Super Bowl last month and she made history with the former song after it debuted at No.1 on the US chart.
A week after they dropped, ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ garnered 19.2 million streams and ’16 Carriages’ earned 10.3 million.