A-list celebrities are paid in the 6- to 7-figure range for private events. The market operates under entirely different rules. There’s no Ticketmaster, no venue capacity limits, no merchandise sales. Just pure, straightforward transactions where the ultra-wealthy pay premium rates for exclusive access to the world’s most considerable talents.
Justin Bieber earned $10 million for singing at a wedding for just one hour. Rihanna collected up to $9 million for her first full concert in years, performed exclusively for 1,200 billionaire guests. Welcome to the ultra-exclusive world of private event performances, where the world’s wealthiest hosts pay premium fees that make stadium tours look like budget gigs.
The 2024-2025 private event circuit revealed exactly what it costs to book global superstars for weddings, birthday parties, and exclusive celebrations. Spoiler alert: if you need to ask the price, you definitely can’t afford it –
The Biggest Private Event Fees of 2024-2025
Here’s what the world’s top artists actually earned for private performances:
Justin Bieber topped the list at $10 million for a one-hour performance at the Ambani wedding sangeet ceremony in Mumbai, July 2024. He performed hits like “Baby,” “Peaches,” and “Love Yourself” for approximately 1,200 guests. That works out to roughly $166,666 per minute of singing.
Rihanna commanded between $6 million and $9 million for a 90-minute, 19-song set at the Ambani pre-wedding festivities in March 2024. This marked her first full concert since 2016, performed before an audience including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ivanka Trump.
Katy Perry earned $5.4 million for performing at a masquerade ball in Cannes during the Ambani family’s Mediterranean cruise celebration in May-June 2024. Her net worth sits between $360 and $400 million, boosted by the $225 million sale of her music catalogue in 2023.
Bruno Mars reportedly charges $5 million as his standard private performance fee, according to wedding planner Marcy Blum. He performed at Kris Jenner’s James Bond-themed 70th birthday party in November 2025, held at Jeff Bezos’s $165 million Beverly Hills mansion.
Rema, the Nigerian breakout star, collected approximately $3 million for performing his global hit “Calm Down” at the main Ambani wedding ceremony in July 2024. This single performance accounted for roughly 25% to 37% of his total net worth of $8-12 million.
Jennifer Lopez earned $2 million for the Mantena-Gadiraju wedding in Udaipur, India, in November 2025. She performed hits like “Waiting for Tonight” and “Get Right” in crystal-encrusted costumes across the multi-day celebration.
The Backstreet Boys received between $500,000 and $900,000 for performing during the Ambani Mediterranean cruise.
Diljit Dosanjh earned approximately $500,000 for his Ambani pre-wedding performance. His Dil-Luminati Tour grossed $44 million in 2024, making this a respectable addition to his income.
Arijit Singh, Spotify’s most-followed artist globally with 161 million followers, earned around $600,000 for his appearance at the Ambani event.
Akon received between $250,000 and $500,000 for his performance at the Ambani pre-wedding festivities.
Ambani Wedding
When Asia’s richest man throws a wedding, the entertainment budget doesn’t have limits. Mukesh Ambani, worth approximately $118 billion, transformed his son Anant’s marriage to Radhika Merchant into a four-month celebration that reportedly cost between $600 million and $1 billion total. The musical performances alone distributed an estimated $30+ million to international and Indian artists.
The celebrations featured four major events between March and July 2024, each with its own star-studded lineup. The March pre-wedding in Jamnagar brought Rihanna out of concert retirement. The Mediterranean cruise in May-June featured Katy Perry, The Backstreet Boys, Andrea Bocelli, Pitbull, and David Guetta, who entertained guests across European ports.
Justin Bieber’s $10 million sangeet performance in July represented the single highest confirmed payment to any singer for a private celebration. Days later, Rema closed out the actual wedding ceremony with his career-defining $3 million performance.
For some artists, these massive fees barely register on their personal balance sheets. Rihanna’s $6-9 million payday represented less than 1% of her $1 to $1.4 billion net worth, built predominantly from Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty. It’s essentially pocket change for a billionaire pop star.
Justin Bieber’s $10 million fee, while headline-grabbing, represented just 3.3% to 5% of his $200-300 million net worth. His wealth got a significant boost from selling his music catalogue for $200 million in 2022, making this wedding performance a nice bonus but hardly transformative.
For emerging artists, though? These gigs are absolute game-changers. Rema’s $3 million essentially doubled his liquid wealth overnight. One private wedding performance potentially earned him more than years of streaming royalties and touring combined. That’s the difference between established superstars treating these as lucrative side income versus rising stars experiencing life-changing financial windfalls.
Jennifer Lopez’s $2 million represented just 0.5% of her $400 million empire. Katy Perry’s $5.4 million equalled approximately 1.4% of her fortune. Bruno Mars’s $5 million standard fee represents about 2.9% of his $175 million net worth per performance, as he’s well-positioned in this market.
Why do billionaires pay such astronomical fees?
The math doesn’t make traditional sense until you understand the exclusivity premium. Justin Bieber’s typical concert might gross $1 to $2 million playing to 20,000 fans. The Ambanis paid five to ten times that for an audience of just 1,200 guests.
When you’re buying exclusivity and privacy, the per-attendee cost skyrockets beyond anything resembling normal market economics. These aren’t transactions governed by supply and demand; they’re displays of wealth, power, and access that only the world’s richest can afford.
For ultra-wealthy hosts with net worths measured in billions, spending $10 million on entertainment represents a rounding error. Mukesh Ambani could theoretically book Justin Bieber every single day for a year and still have over $114 billion left.
The private event circuit extends well beyond Indian billionaire weddings. Jennifer Lopez’s November 2025 appearance at the Mantena-Gadiraju wedding proved that pharmaceutical CEOs can also afford A-list entertainment. The bride’s father, Rama Raju Mantena of Ingenus Pharmaceuticals, demonstrated that you don’t need to be Asia’s richest person to book global superstars.
Bruno Mars’s performance at Kris Jenner’s birthday party, hosted at Jeff Bezos’s mansion, highlighted how celebrity circles book each other for milestone celebrations. When your party venue costs $165 million, and your host is dating the world’s second-richest man, a $5 million performance fee barely registers as an expense.
