Music industry's power couple Beyonce and Jay Z do not seem like people who would use rumours to drum up publicity for their tour. But Beyonce's dad recently hinted that all the divorce talk might be an orchestrated move to increase their "On the Run" ticket sales.
During an interview on "The Roula & Ryan Show" on Houston's 104.1 KREB, Mathew Knowles said that the elevator incident, where Beyonce's sister Solange was seen attacking Jay Z, boosted Solange's album sales, besides increasing ticket sales.
"You know, I know -- because we've done this, from experience -- there's a tour going on," Mathew said, in what is believed to be a reference to Jay Z and Beyonce's "On the Run" tour.
"So you have to sometimes ignite that tour. It's called a Jedi mind trick. And the Jedi mind trick fools you a lot of times. So things you see sometimes are [poof] ... All I know is the Jedi mind trick. Everybody's talking about it. Ticket sales went up. Solange's album sales went up 200 percent," reported Huffington Post.
Interestingly, similar claims were made by Jonathan Hay, who told U.K.'s Sun newspaper that marriage crisis was fabricated to boost ticket sales.
"They are driving interest for the tour," Hay said, according to Radar Online. "If you look at the timing of these stories, I don't think this is a coincidence. So then we had the elevator fight and since then the tour has been written about every single night and ticket sales have increased."
A number of fans, too, believe that the divorce rumours and the elevator fight was staged to drum up publicity, as the couple have started indulging in public display of affection now that their "On the Run" tour is nearing its end.
The couple kissed following Beyonce's MTV VMAs performance, and they were spotted cuddling at the Made in America Festival at the Los Angeles Grand Park on Sunday. Reports have it that the 44-year-old rapper could not take his hands off his wife as they danced to the music.
Beyonce and Jay Z will commence the Europe leg of their tour on 12 September.
