NFL player turned talk show host Shannon Sharpe asserts that pop singer Taylor Swift has greater star power than Beyoncé.

The former Denver Broncos tight end broached the comparison conversation with Chad “Ochocino” Johnson, during their joint “Nightcap” podcast. The question was asked, Who can move the proverbial needle in entertainment like Michael Jackson?

Shannon Sharpe sparks debate after he compares Taylor Swift’s impact to Michael Jackson, says Swift has more star power than Beyoncé. (Photos: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for MTV/Paramount Global; Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for We The Best Foundation; @beyonce/Instagram)
According to Sharpe, the answer was simple.

He said Swift’s sphere of influence has a more significant impact, surpassing even the former Destiny’s Child lead. Sharpe supports his stance by highlighting the NFL’s alleged attempt to secure the “Shake It Off” singer for the Super Bowl and her subsequent decline of the invitation.

While he loved Beyoncé, he said she is not capturing the “8 to 15-year-old eyeballs,” like her white counterpart, whose appeal is much greater.

“Beyoncé ain’t move the needle like this chick, Ocho!” he firmly said. “She’s the closest thing to moving the needle like Michael Jackson that we’ve seen.”

Ochocino was outraged and insisted that there be a chat vote. However, the chat vote agreed with Sharpe. 62% of their vote said that Taylor moves the needle more than King Bey.

“Taylor Swift is a different animal,” Sharpe doubled down, even while admitting that “Beyoncé is phenomenal.”

“The NFL could have anybody do half-time,” the “Club Shay Shay” host said. “I guarantee you Taylor Swift is first, over Beyoncé and Jay-Z and Rihanna combined. That’s who they want. I ain’t telling you what I heard, I’m tell you what I know… she turned him down.”

Unwilling to let his position go, Ochocinco said, “I ain’t buying that.”

Beyoncé performed at the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show in 2013. Her husband has helped produce four Super Bowl halftime shows with the NFL since his long-term partnership started in 2019, including Rihanna’s performance last February. Jay-Z also convinced Dr. Dre to perform with Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar during their Emmy-winning halftime show in 2022.

Sharpe also added that this was not about whether or not he liked one artist of the next, sharing that during one of her last concerts, he paid $6,000 apiece for a pair of tickets to see her perform.

The Beyhive flooded the comments, blasting Sharpe. However, some people understood exactly where Sharpe was coming from.

“How is Beyoncé not moving the needle like Taylor? They literally do similar things with equivalent fandoms one just has a very different approach than the other,” one person tweeted.

Another X user responded, “Taylor’s fanbase is much younger (as low as 10 year olds now) than Beyonce, who was performing 25 years ago. This is not to say she’s whack. She’s not moving the needle as TS is.”

One person said neither young lady will ever be on the same level as Michael Jackson.

“Michael Jackson was arguably the most famous person to walk this earth, not named Jesus Christ. Stop the comparisons,” one comment read.

There are a few ways to compare the two artists’ popularity.

If social media is an indicator, Beyoncé noses ahead — as long as X is not counted.

Beyoncé dominates on Instagram, boasting 319 million followers, surpassing Swift’s 279 million. Meanwhile, on X, Swift takes the lead with 93.3 million followers compared to Beyoncé’s 15.4 million, even though Swift has not posted a tweet in over a year. But the X platform might not be good for the comparison, as Beyoncé has not been on the platform in years.

On Facebook, Swift maintains the upper hand with 79 million followers, outpacing Beyoncé’s 57 million. Swift is more active on TikTok. She has accumulated 19.4 million followers, while Beyoncé lags with 4.8 million.

If X is subtracted from the social media platforms combined, Beyoncé is ahead by more than 10 million followers.

When it comes down to real hard dollars, people paying to see their art, Swift’s The Eras Tour brought in over $1 billion, more money than any tour has ever made. Beyoncé, though her Renaissance World Tour had people dressing up in silver and diamonds, didn’t “move the needle” as much.

Her concerts only earned $579 million, still a great number but paling next to Swift’s.

But the most apt metric to consider might be one that measures how much people are listening to the two singers. Swift dominates there. She was the No. 1 artist on Spotify — the largest music streaming platform — in 2023, with 29.1 billion streams worldwide. Queen Bey did not crack 5 billion streams.