Beyoncé and JAY-Z announce joint tour

After rumors circulated last week, JAY-Z and Beyoncé formally announced an upcoming joint tour on Monday morning. The OTR II Tour follows the musical power couple’s 2014 On The Run Tour, which grossed $109 million and spawned an HBO concert special of the same name. The duo’s new tour kicks off on June 6 in Cardiff, U.K. and will stop in 15 cities across the U.K. and Europe and 21 cities in North America.

While the original On The Run Tour followed a seismic year for both Bey and Jay — in 2013 they released their Beyoncé and Magna Carta Holy Grail albums, respectively — their cultural status has grown considerably since. For one, both Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade and JAY-Z’s 2017 album 4:44 scored Album of the Year nominations at the Grammys, and both artists staged successful solo tours behind those acclaimed projects. (Jay didn’t perform on Lemonade, but Beyoncé guested on 4:44‘s Family Feud..............................

Offstage, their lives have been similarly eventful. Lemonade famously detailed Jay’s marital transgressions, though the couple appears to have subsequently patched up their relationship; the couple welcomed twins, Rumi and Sir Carter, in June 2017. Meanwhile, both artists have continued their political activism, with Beyoncé promoting protections for transgender youth and JAY-Z speaking out against the war on drugs and mass incarceration..................................