vLast Friday, the pre-wedding of the son of Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest conglomerates active in the oil and communications sectors, took place in Jamnagar in western India. The businessman went all out to celebrate the wedding of his son Anant Ambani with Radhika Merchant, the daughter of a pharmaceutical industrialist. Among the guests: Bollywood stars, the King of Bhutan, but also Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and of course Rihanna…
According to local media India todayThe singer reportedly received a check for $9 million for his performance on Friday night. A not-so-extravagant sum for the richest man in Asia (9th richest man in the world), at the helm of a $116 billion fortune. These three-day celebrations focused on Indian traditions, with the actual wedding ceremony not scheduled until July.
This isn’t his first move for the famous businessman: in 2018, he reportedly spent more than $100 million on his daughter’s wedding. At that time it was the singer Beyoncé who gave a concert.
This weekend there was criticism after Rihanna’s concert, whose performance was considered mediocre. Some noted that it was content to provide minimal service in playback. His last concert, aside from the Super Bowl in 2023, was eight years ago. Now the Barbadian singer devotes most of her time to her two children from her relationship with ASAP Rocky and her brands Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty.
The lucrative private concert market
This is what Bruno Pradels and Martin Berthelot, the two founders of the artist agency Romy’s Music, told the magazine in May 2023 number that “the amounts of the stamps vary between 1,000 euros and 1,000,000 euros.” » By specifying “that a private performance does not last longer than thirty minutes”. This “parallel market”, which has flourished since the introduction of streaming, takes the form of intimate concerts but also “after shows” for major luxury brands.
Accordingly The New YorkerBeyoncé’s private concert in the hotel Atlantis The Royal in Dubai in January 2023 grossed $24 million for a total one-hour performance. The rapper’s manager, Flo Rida, explains in the same newspaper that his artist plans about thirty private shows a year. One of the most recent was a “six-figure stamp” for the birthday of the son of an executive at a financial services company.
Artists Drake, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, the Black Eyed Peas, the Rolling Stones and Sting have also performed the same type of shows throughout their careers. Despite the criticism, private concerts are on the rise. On the one hand, luxury brands want to offer increasingly exclusive experiences, but on the other hand, billionaires do not deny themselves eccentricities.
