NEWS
Watch: “Simone Biles and Elite Olympic Gymnasts to Dazzle with Jaw-Dropping Floor Routines Set to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift Hits This Week!”
Simone Biles and more of the world’s best gymnasts will dance and tumble to songs by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé during competition at the Olympic Games in Paris this week—for which the artists will reportedly earn royalty payments.
Biles, who competes the most difficult floor routine in the world and earned the highest floor score during Sunday’s qualification round, opens her routine with Swift’s “…Ready For It?” which transitions into “Delresto (Echoes)” by Travis Scott and Beyoncé.
Team USA’s Jordan Chiles, who qualified alongside Biles to the floor exercise final, performs her routine to a Beyoncé medley, with songs including “Black Parade,” “My House,” “Energy” and Destiny’s Child’s “Lose My Breath.”
Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade, considered Biles’ toughest competitor, earned the second-highest floor score of the qualification round to Beyoncé’s “End of Time
Jade Carey, an American gymnast and the reigning Olympic champion on floor exercise, performs her routine to the White Stripes’ hit “Seven Nation Army.”
Brazil’s Jade Barbosa performs her floor routine to an instrumental version of Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” and does choreography that mirrors that from Spears’ “Oops!… I Did It Again” video
Swift praised Biles in a post on X following her performance at the Olympic Trials in June: “Watched this so many times and still unready. She’s ready for it tho.” Beyoncé sent Chiles a signed vinyl of her “Cowboy Carter” album, the gymnast posted on Instagram, alongside a note that wished her good luck at the Olympics. Chiles said on Instagram she was “screaming” and “crying” when she received the gift from Beyoncé
NBC used a live version of Swift’s “…Ready For It?” from her Eras Tour in a commercial promoting the Olympics, which heavily features the lyric: “Baby, let the games begin.” Biles, who stars in the ad, asks: “Are you guys ready for it?” Beyoncé promoted Team USA in an advertisement for NBC, in which the singer dons an American flag-inspired cowboy hat and leotard. In the ad, athletes dance and sing to her song “YA YA” from “Cowboy Carter,” including Biles, Chiles and the rest of the American gymnasts.
Billboard reported that NBC, which owns the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, pays public performance licensing fees to organizations that represent artists and songwriters, including the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the rights to feature songs used in Olympic routines. These performing rights organizations distribute royalties to artists—meaning Swift would earn royalty payments for NBC airing Biles’ performance to “…Ready For It?”
Chiles has drawn inspiration from Beyoncé this year, telling reporters at a competition earlier this year that her motto leading up to the Olympics is: “I’m that girl,” a reference to the Beyoncé song of the same name. She said she adopted the motto because “I feel like I’ve proved enough,” and, “I can just be authentic to who I want to be,” stating she identifies with Beyoncé’s journey of navigating racism and body-shaming as a public figure. She wore leotards inspired by Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour at the U.S. gymnastics championships in June.
Biles will lead the American team during the team final competition, which takes place Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. EDT. She will perform her floor exercise later in the week during the individual all-around final, which starts Thursday at 12:15 p.m. EDT, and the floor final next Monday at 8:23 a.m. EDT.