Did Taylor Swift announce they were scheduling a fundraising concert with Beyonce to support Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate? No, that's not true: Neither the singers, nor Harris has announced a fundraising concert. The stadium named in the article announcing the concert shows no such scheduled event on its website.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) on the website UK Discoverer on July 23, 2024, with the title:
Breaking News: Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to Host Monumental Fundraising Concert in Support of Kamala Harris
The article continued:
The concert, which is set to take place in Los Angeles's SoFi Stadium, promises to be one of the largest and most star-studded events in recent history. With a lineup that includes some of the biggest names in music, the event aims to rally support for Harris's ongoing efforts to address critical issues such as climate change, social justice, and economic equality.
This is what the article looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: UK Discoverer screenshot taken on Fri Jul 26 14:21:43 2024 UTC)
The article, however, failed to name the source of its "information" and did not have any direct quotes from the singers or their representatives.
Though Swift expressed support for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 (archived here) and Beyonce, as reported by CNN (archived here), allowed the 2024 Harris campaign to use one of her songs, neither of the singers has announced what the UK Discoverer article described as a "monumental fundraising concert in support of Kamala Harris."
Their official websites -- here and here (archived here and here) -- said nothing about a Harris fundraiser. Nor do their official social media accounts contain any mention of such an event. Lead Stories checked Swift's accounts on X (archived here), Instagram (archived here) and Facebook (archived here) and Beyonce's account on Instagram (archived here).
Harris' account on Instagram (archived here) and her campaign account on X (archived here) also didn't discuss the supposed concert.
The current schedule on the website of the stadium mentioned in the article (archived here) showed no upcoming events with Swift or Beyonce.
Had such an announcement been made, major media outlets would have covered it. But a search across Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) showed news organizations only publishing fact checks debunking the concert claim, not confirming it.
Lead Stories contacted representatives of both singers but had not received a response in time for publication.
The website that started the rumor, UK Discoverer, did not have an About page that explains its purpose and editorial principles. As of July 26, 2024, the website was less than 3 months old, according to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which records domain names.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Taylor Swift and Beyonce are here and here. Fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be read here.
