Touring
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Marcelo Figoli is no stranger to big numbers. As the founder and owner of Fenix Entertainment — the Argentina-based conglomerate that encompasses live shows, amusement parks, soccer teams and media — Figoli has offices in eight countries, produces more than 100 live events per year and has successfully promoted tours by the likes of Ricardo Arjona, Ricky Martin, Romeo Santos and Shakira.
But Figoli capped 2024 with his biggest tour ever: namely, the Luis Miguel 2023-24 Tour — co-promoted alongside Henry Cardenas’ CMN — which became not only the highest-grossing Latin tour of the year but also the highest-grossing Latin tour of all time, according to numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore.
In December, when Billboard published its top tours of the year recap, the Miguel tour had reported more than 2 million tickets sold over 128 shows, generating a gross income of $290.4 million in 2024 alone. That number doesn’t include the 2023 figures or Miguel’s final Mexico City shows.
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“I was very emotional [when I heard the news],” Figoli tells Billboard of his record. “I felt immense happiness, for the artist and for the work we did.”
Below, Billboard speaks with Figoli about the stunning success of the Miguel tour and how it broke all records.
Despite its size, Fenix is an independent company. How do you distinguish yourself from other promoters worldwide?
We offer something different. We do more artisanal work, if you will, and put more thought into each of the artists and the products. I throw myself into it. I’m passionate, I go crazy, I review sales numbers every day, I’m a workaholic. I’m very calm when it comes to handling the stress generated by these massive events that I organize, but I’m very nervous in the day-to-day work leading up to achieving success.
We can provide a plus in markets like Latin America and in some cases — as with Luis Miguel and Arjona— in the entire world. Also, Fenix has partnered with CMN in recent years, and that consolidation continues to open a space for us.
Had you worked with Luis Miguel before?
We did countless concerts with Luis Miguel, but we had worked in the South American markets. Never a global tour like this one. But we’d worked very well because we have great respect and great admiration for his career. For us, he is one of the greatest artists in the world in any language, and we firmly believe in his career and that is why we bet on his tour. I thought the tour was going to be big, solid, strong. It may have exceeded my expectations, but I did know that this tour was going to do what it did. Initially, we were going to partner with CMN only in the United States and we ended up partnering for everything.
There’s a big leap from a “solid” and “strong” tour to the most successful in history. What do you attribute it to?
For me, the key to success was, first, how high we aimed. And second, how we planned the tour launch at the same time at a global scale, rather than market to market. We launched the global tour on the same day. The same day we put all the cities up for sale, and on the same day, with the same launch, we created a global explosion. We were able to get hundreds of thousands of fans around the world talking about it at the same time. We had billboards up in every city that went on sale, and we had digital and radio campaigns in each of those cities from day one. It’s the kind of launch that I have only seen for mass-consumer products. It was important to show that confidence and aggressiveness in the tour, and positioning it as a global tour, not a local tour. The way we framed it made it go viral.
How was working with CMN?
A lot of coming together, a lot of pre-production before launch. We work very well with the CMN team and the artist’s team. Plus, Henry is a legendary promoter.
It strikes me that Luis Miguel didn’t even have a new album or single…
But he was having a good personal and artistic moment, and that had an influence. Also, the launch strategy around the tour. In addition, we did a great job with our marketing teams, influencers, etc. But the basis is in the greatness of the artist. I’ve worked with so many artists, and I can’t think of many who could pull off a tour [of this magnitude and stamina]. He has demonstrated extraordinary professionalism and courtesy.
How do you see next year for Latin tours?
Excellent. We’re trying to convince Ricardo Montaner to do a farewell tour. Obviously we are negotiating for Ricardo Arona’s global tour. And with artists in development, we’ve had extraordinary success with Emilia Mernes and her 10 Arenas Movistar in Buenos Aires, where she played to over 290,000 people. I think Emilia is going to be a big deal in 2025.
A familiar group of faces tops Billboard’s monthly touring report for November: For the third time in 2024, and fifth overall, Coldplay is No. 1 on Top Tours. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the British quartet grossed $71.1 million and sold 609,000 tickets over nine shows in November.
Claiming its fifth monthly victory dating back to the chart’s launch in February 2019, Coldplay sits only behind Bad Bunny and Elton John, who have seven titles apiece. Beyoncé and Trans-Siberian Orchestra have each ruled four times, with the latter currently in the middle of its annual holiday tour.
Coldplay’s November run swept through Oceania, with two shows in Melbourne, Australia; four in Sydney; and three in Auckland, New Zealand. The four dates at Sydney’s Accor Stadium grossed a mammoth $37.4 million, earning the No. 1 position on Top Boxscores. The Auckland run ($19.3 million) follows at No. 2. The Melbourne shows grossed $14.4 million on Nov. 1-2, but were a continuation of a four-night engagement that began in late October. Had all those shows fallen in November, the band’s $28.8 million gross would have given Coldplay a clean sweep of the top three.
The most recent leg of the Music of the Spheres World Tour is, of course, the continuation of a three-year trans-continental trek. Dating back to its March 2022 kickoff in San Jose, Costa Rica, it has earned more than $1.1 billion and sold 10.3 million tickets. That’s a bigger attendance figure for any tour in music history.
It’s been a hard-earned all-time record, with Coldplay meeting demand across the world. The tour has featured sold-out stadium shows in five continents, with 48 more shows scheduled for 2025 in Asia, Europe and North America. Watch the video below to see the band’s road to 10 million tickets, one international city at a time.
Of the tour’s three-year totals, $400.9 million and 3 million tickets came from the 2024 tracking period (Oct. 1, 2023-Sept. 30, 2024), nabbing Coldplay the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s year-end Top Tours and Top Ticket Sales charts. It’s the second consecutive year for Chris Martin & Co. atop the latter list.
Pearl Jam follows at No. 2 on Top Tours, with $41.8 million and 314,000 tickets sold in November. Also in Australia and New Zealand, the band’s run featured two dates each in Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney, plus one in Carrara (suburb of Gold Coast).
Coldplay and Pearl Jam each played a pair of shows at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, combining for more than $30 million and the runner-up slot on Top Stadiums, only behind Sydney’s Accor Stadium. Altogether, the two bands helped fuel four spots for Oceania on the Stadiums ranking.
Three former Top Tours champions round out the top five, with Zach Bryan, P!nk and Paul McCartney at Nos. 3, 4, and 5, respectively. Bryan and P!nk both landed in the top five of the year-end Top Tours and Top Ticket Sales rankings, with their recent November totals already positioning them well for 2025’s charts.
While Oceania proved dominant as a continent, Mexico City is the most prevalent city on November’s charts, with three of the top 10 spots on Top Boxscores. Two festivals – Corona Capital and Coca Cola Flow Fest – are at Nos. 5 and 9, while McCartney is sandwiched at No. 7 with two shows at Estadio GNP Seguros. All three engagements delivered eight-figure grosses.
Las Vegas is not far behind, with three in the top 15. Billy Joel and Sting earned $11.4 million from one show at Allegiant Stadium, earning the No. 8 spot. More, two weekends of Sphere shows from the Eagles brought in a combined $18.5 million, split at Nos. 11 and 13.
Sure to crest with the December report, November set the stage for the holiday season. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is No. 10 on Top Tours, while Mariah Carey is No. 17 with the first shows of her fall tour. Further, New York’s Radio City Music Hall towers over the Top Venues (5,001-10K capacity) listing with $33.7 million — more than seven times the gross of No. 2 — with the onset of its annual Christmas spectacular.
The board of directors of Farm Aid — including Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews and Margo Price — have appointed Shorlette Ammons and Jennifer Fahy to lead the non-profit effective Jan. 1.
Farm Aid’s annual festival, the music industry’s longest-running concert for a cause, began in 1985 and has raised more than $80 million to support programs that help family farmers thrive. Across the decades, it has taken action to change the nation’s dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.
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Ammons and Fahy succeed Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid’s first and only executive director, who was tapped for the role by Nelson when he launched the organization. She will continue to work as an advisor to Farm Aid. In addition, Farm Aid associate director Glenda Yoder is leaving the organization at the end of 2024 after 34 years. Yoder has been responsible for the launch of Farm Aid’s Homegrown Concessions, demonstrating that family-farm-sourced food could feed concertgoers on a huge scale.
Fahy joined Farm Aid in 2002 and has served as communications director since 2008, while Ammons has served as the organization’s program director since 2022. Together, they will share leadership responsibilities in the ongoing mission to cultivate a family farm-centered system of agriculture in America.
“There would not be 40 years of Farm Aid without Carolyn Mugar — and for all those years she’s made me look good!,” said Nelson in a statement. “ I am deeply grateful for her passion and commitment leading Farm Aid’s work, listening to farmers and always being a champion of grassroots organizations. Carolyn and Glenda rallied the Good Food Movement to bring people together in support of farmers.”
Mugar was recognized by Billboard on its 2020 Women in Music list. At that time, she noted that in the years since Farm Aid’s first concert in 1985, “what has changed is people’s consciousness.” Farm Aid supporters have recognized the links between its mission and “the good-food movement, the environmental movement, the whole issue of structural racism,” she said. “Farm Aid has been working with Black farmers and Black farm organizations since day one.”
From barnyards to backstage trailers, Mugar has networked nonstop on behalf of family farmers, herding artists and activists “like a collie dog,” she joked then. But inevitably, she has deflected and given credit for Farm Aid’s enduring impact to its leading artists: Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, Matthews and Price. “For all practical purposes, they lead Farm Aid — and they do not take prisoners. They really never give up,” she said then.
In a statement announcing her succession, Mugar said, “All of us at Farm Aid confidently trust that Shorlette and Jennifer are poised to lead Farm Aid’s next chapter to benefit farmers, eaters and our soil and water. We face urgent issues with the health of our planet, and I’m are thankful Farm Aid has a strong foundation for the next leaders to build upon.”
In addition to her deep experience managing communications for Farm Aid and co-producing its annual festival, Fahy holds a certificate in nonprofit management from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Ammons, who comes from a farm family in North Carolina, spent her career prior to Farm Aid addressing the systemic barriers that BIPOC, low-income and rural food and farming communities face. She has 20 years of experience in community leadership, training, education and engagement.
“My two-decade career at Farm Aid has offered me incredible opportunities to dig into a broad spectrum of the work and operations of the organization, for which I am grateful and proud,” says Fahy. “Farm Aid’s people are its greatest strength, and I am thrilled to deepen my work with all of the folks — from farmers and artists to our supporters, advocates, policymakers and everyone who eats — who make up this organization and this movement for thriving family farmers.”
“As a Black Southern woman who grew up in the family farm tradition, I have a deep understanding of the struggles of family farmers and rural communities,” says Ammons. “I know the ways that food and music bring folks together. So, for me, this transition has been taking place over the course of my lifetime of work and service. I’m excited to step into this role to live up to the legacy of Farm Aid’s leadership and the resistance that marginalized communities have demonstrated since the farm crisis of the 80s and throughout our shared history.”
Farm Aid will stage its 40th-anniversary festival in 2025. The venue and date of next year’s concert has not yet been announced.
Earlier this week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues and promoters of 2024. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Today, we continue with R&B. First, the bad news: Grosses for the top 10 R&B tours are down in 2024. Last year’s crop […]
Burning Man still needs to raise $14 million amid its ongoing fundraising efforts.
An email sent out to the Burning Man community on Thursday (Dec. 19) from Burning Man Project CEO Marian Goodell provided an update on the fundraising push that the nonprofit organization launched in October seeking $20 million.
“We started 2024 with a commitment to raise $10 million philanthropically,” Goodell’s email states. “This was up 20% from the $8.2 million raised in 2023. Due to the ticket sales shortfall to Black Rock City in 2024, we found ourselves needing to make mission-aligned budget adjustments and raise the remaining deficit to the tune of approximately $10 million—this, in addition to the initial $10 million goal. And today, with reductions as well as dollars raised from supporters, we’re still about $14 million short of where we ought to be.”
The email continues that “thanks to the generosity of enthusiastic donors” the fundraising campaign is now matching donations through the end of the year.
The update comes amid a fundraising campaign launched in October by Burning Man Project — the nonprofit behind the annual gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert and other Burning Man-related initiatives — that notified Burners that the organization needs to raise $20 million in charitable donations by the end of 2024 due to the fact that the 2024 festival did not sell out “as planned,” per Goodell’s original announcement.
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As reported by Billboard in November, each year since 2016 before the main ticket sale begins, roughly 4,000 Burning Man tickets go on sale for much more than main sale tickets — this year selling at $1,500 and $2,500. These tickets, which are typically purchased by people who have cash to spare and don’t want to risk not getting a ticket during the main sale, usually bring in approximately $7 million — and nearly $10 million in 2023. But in November a spokesperson for BMP said that in 2024, higher-priced ticket sales totaled $3.4 million, down nearly $6 million from the prior year.
This budget deficit is creating uncertainty about ticket prices for the 2025 Burning Man event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. “If we don’t set ourselves up right, we’re going to have to raise ticket prices,” Goodell told Billboard in November, “[especially because] we don’t have the sponsorships that the other festivals do. And I’d like to lower ticket prices.”
Goodell’s latest update emphasizes that Burning Man organizers are “determined to keep Burning Man financially accessible by offering reasonably priced ticket options for Black Rock City 2025,” and also notes that representatives of Burning Man Project are “making ourselves more accessible. By offering town halls, office hours and more clearly providing contact points for you within the nonprofit, we are making ourselves available to participants as a resource.”
Earlier this week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2024. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Today, we continue with country. Country music has been around for more than a century, but that doesn’t mean that it is outdated. […]
Billie Eilish celebrated her 23rd birthday a day early on Tuesday night (Dec. 17) when her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour made its way to the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. There were plenty of celebratory moments throughout the night, including the superstar’s older brother Finneas bringing out a cupcake onstage to lead the […]
Ariana Grande is explaining her decision not to tour after Republic Records confirmed earlier this week that she has no shows planned for 2025.
While at the Golden Globes First-Time Nominees luncheon Tuesday (Dec. 17), the 31-year-old singer-actress told Variety that “music will always be a part of [her] life,” but she’s more focused on continuing what she started with Wicked going into the new year. “I feel so grateful to the acting, and I think my fans know that music and being on stage will always be a part of my life,” she began.
“But I don’t see it coming anytime soon,” Grande continued. “I think the next few years, hopefully we’ll be exploring different forms of art, and I think acting is feeling like home right now. I am appreciative for [my fans’] understanding. I’m so grateful for the ways in which we’ve grown together over this whole journey with Wicked.”
“But music will always be a part of my life,” she added. “I’lll perform at my mother’s house.”
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The “Yes, And?” singer’s explanation comes two days after her label shut down rumors that she was gearing up to hit the road next year, something she’d previously talked about doing during her Eternal Sunshine album rollout. Replying to a fan account on X Sunday (Dec. 15), Republic wrote, “There are no plans for a tour next year. But Ariana remains deeply appreciative of her fans and all their continued love, support and excitement.”
While at the luncheon, Grande also gushed to Entertainment Tonight about receiving her first-ever Golden Globe nomination the same year Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus both earned nods. All three women started their careers around the same time in the 2000s on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel TV shows. Now, the Victorious alum and Wizards of Waverly Place star are both up for best supporting actress in 2025 thanks to their respective performances in Wicked and Emilia Pérez, while the Hannah Montana leading lady’s The Last Showgirl ballad, “Beautiful That Way,” is in the running for best original song.
“It’s incredibly special,” Grande said of Gomez and Cyrus. “I love those girls, and to grow up with the world watching, and then to have your work be recognized in this way, it makes me so happy. I love those girls so much. I’ve always loved their work. Just to see them grow is so beautiful.”
Watch the clip below.
Earlier this week, Billboard revealed its year-end Boxscore charts, ranking the top tours, venues, and promoters of 2024. We’re breaking it down further, looking at the biggest live acts, genre by genre. Today, we continue with K-pop. Less than 10 years since the first K-pop group landed on the all-genre Top Tours chart (BigBang in […]
New York’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club is coming to the Sunset Strip.
On Tuesday (Dec. 17), officials with Blue Note Entertainment Group announced plans to open a Hollywood location modeled after the company’s New York flagship, which is known for its intimate atmosphere, performance roster of icons and rising stars, and propensity for regularly staging world-class jazz shows.
The new L.A. club, which is set to open its doors in March 2025, will mark Blue Note’s ninth location outside of New York with venues in Hawaii; Napa, Calif.; Tokyo; Rio de Janeiro; Sao Paulo; Milan; Beijing; and Shanghai.
“We are excited to bring the Blue Note experience to Los Angeles, offering the same intimate atmosphere and world-class performances that have defined our New York club,” says Tsion Bensusan, COO of Blue Note Entertainment Group, in a statement.
As part of the expansion, Blue Note officials announced that they have inked a partnership with the LA Philharmonic to rebrand the long-running Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival as the Blue Note Jazz Festival. Presented by the LA Phil, the 2025 edition of the festival kicks off on June 14 with a full lineup scheduled to be announced in February.
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“This collaboration represents a union of two iconic institutions dedicated to celebrating jazz and its profound impact on music and culture,” said Steven Bensusan, president of Blue Note Entertainment Group. LA Phil president/CEO Kim Noltemy added, “This partnership represents a shared dedication to celebrating jazz and its extraordinary artists while continuing the legacy of world-class music at the Bowl.”
The Blue Note in both New York and Los Angeles will be curated by artist, composer, producer and frequent collaborator Robert Glasper. In 2018, Glasper and Blue Note launched Glasper’s annual residency ROBTOBER. That partnership has since expanded to include events like the Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa, Blue Note at Sea and The Black Radio Experience, also in Napa.
“I’m honored to partner up with Blue Note once again for what will be a significant cultural intersection for the Los Angeles community,” said Glasper in a statement. “Los Angeles has always been a second home to me and I can’t wait to bring LA culture to the Blue Note.”