A tour rider, for the unaware, is a list of demands sent by an artist to a venue ahead of a gig, usually requesting some very specific food and drink requirements backstage ahead of their arrival. These can range from the incredibly difficult (Madonna ships her own furniture around with her on tour and demands for it to be installed in her changing room, for example) to the not-so-bad (Eddie Van Halen wanted bags of M&M's with the brown ones removed).
Beyonce's rider for her Mrs Carter tour ranges from the banal (finger food) to the incredibly strange (red toilet paper only). Elsewhere, Queen Bey requests $900 worth of titanium drinking straws, used to drink a special alkaline water which must be served at exactly 21 degrees.
Her dressing room MUST be painted off-white and have a brand new toilet seat installed ahead of her arrival. After her show, Beyonce must be immediately presented with a hard carved sphere of ice to suck on in order to help protect her vocal cords.
Every single backstage crew member must wear clothes made from 100% cotton and nothing else. Speaking of the crew members, they will only have access to green vegetables, oatcakes and almonds - there is a complete ban on any form of other food backstage.
Beyonce's other half Jay-Z is no better, either. His backstage demands at a recent superbowl included $6,000 of booze and cigars for Jay-Z to enjoy at his leisure. And you better be sure that he was given every single request he asks for too, that guy's got enough problems...
