Touring
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After nearly 60 years in the music business, there’s precious little Elton John hasn’t already achieved. The icon has sold millions of records, toured the globe countless times and even saw the biopic based on his life, Rocketman, win honors at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. But this week he added another accolade to his extensive collection, and one that sets a mind-boggling record: his multiyear Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, and the only one to surpass $800 million in gross, passing Ed Sheeran’s Divide tour for the title.
John’s outing isn’t even over yet, and there’s still the possibility that this tour crosses even higher benchmarks before all is said and done. But it’s already a crowning achievement for Debra Rathwell, the executive vp of global touring and talent at AEG Presents, who promoted the trek. And the milestone earns her the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Rathwell breaks down how the tour came together and became so successful, the strategy behind moving up from arenas to stadiums midway through, the challenges posed by the pandemic and the lessons learned from such a gigantic undertaking. “I’m not sure that there will ever be another artist like Elton John, or a tour quite like the FYBR Tour,” she says. “But for any artist aspiring to achieve this level of success, this tour is probably the best example of what comes out of hard work and a love of performing: get out there and share your music with your audience.”
This week, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour became the highest-grossing tour in history, and the first-ever tour to gross $800 million. What key decision did you make to help make this happen?
This all started to come together six years ago, back in 2017, a full year before the first date of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour. Jay Marciano (AEG Presents chairman/CEO), Howard Rose (John’s longtime agent), Keith Bradley (John’s tour director), Donna DiBenedetto (AEG Presents vp), Barrie Marshall (Marshall Arts), Doris Dixon (Marshall Arts) and myself met in Las Vegas to begin the job of routing and shaping the first half of tour. At that time, Elton John was playing the final shows of The Million Dollar Piano residency at the Colosseum.
Once we had our plan together, Elton held a press conference in New York in January 2018 to officially announce his retirement from touring, but not before he had embarked on a final run of 350 shows over three years, beginning that September. He wanted to travel around the world to say farewell to his fans. We all knew right then that this would be the greatest tour of all time, and that it was our job to back up Elton and deliver the goods.
No single person can take credit for the monumental success of the FYBR tour — apart from Elton John, of course. But if I had to describe my small part of it over these past five years, it’s been kind of a “utility player” role. Depending on the day, or even minute, it’s coach, captain or just “the bossy girl with the clipboard” who keeps things on course.
Elton spent the first few years of this tour in arenas, before moving up to stadiums this past year. Why did you guys go that route?
For several years prior to the first arena show in Allentown, Penn. (Sept. 18, 2018), Howard Rose had booked shows in smaller secondary markets, which created demand in the major markets. That demand, combined with the news of the retirement, created demand for multiple shows in those markets. We repeated this strategy several times during the tour. But we also made sure to return to many of the same smaller secondary markets; it was important for Elton John to bid a final farewell to as many of his fans as possible.
It was always the plan that the final lap of the FYBR tour would be in stadiums. This was important to Elton and mapped out in the planning stages. Getting them organized and on sale during COVID turned out to be our biggest challenge.
Given the demand of an iconic performer’s final tour, how did you approach setting this up differently than you would have any other tour?
The tour was divided into two parts that we internally referred to as “Round One (179 shows)” and “Round Two (153 shows).” Round One kicked off with that Allentown show and ran all the way through to Sydney on March 7, 2020. Of course, we had no idea that the world would be shutting down four days after we wrapped Round One. And we certainly never imagined that Round Two wouldn’t be wrapped until summer 2023.
The tour also encompassed the pandemic. How did that affect your plans, and how did it force you to adapt once you got back on the road?
When we resumed touring in January 2022, we had very strict COVID protocols in place for all members of the touring team and local venue staff. With some minor adjustments in the routing, we were able to reschedule shows. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the two sold-out shows in Montreal and the two sold-out shows in Toronto due to government COVID restrictions. We also had to cancel some entire territories altogether; we always intended to bring the FYBR tour to Asia and South America, but two years of COVID delays and the rescheduling that followed made that impossible.
We also made the decision that the ticket prices for the stadium shows would be pretty similar to the arena shows — we were in a situation where rescheduled arena shows were on sale at the same time we were putting stadium shows on sale.
How has touring changed overall given the events of the past few years? And how has this tour itself evolved across the years that it’s been going?
The interesting thing to watch was that as the FYBR tour continued, the audience got younger. Elton John broadened his fan base over the life of the tour. Rocketman and his biography Me: Elton John were big moments for us. And The Lockdown Sessions album released in October 2021 was of course one more thing that connected him with a new generation.
The public demand for tickets increased exponentially as the tour was coming to an end. It actually got quite frenzied as the final shows approached in every market. We were all so excited that we were able to sell out three Dodger Stadium shows in Los Angeles, culminating with the livestream of the concert on Disney+.
What have you learned from this long-running Elton tour that you can apply to the rest of your clients?
First and foremost, the initial messaging and announcement of a tour is so important. It really is critical to its success. And the messaging that Elton John conveyed to his fans at that press conference all the way back in 2018 was front and center at all times.
Also, this tour really drove home the importance of having a strong team around you. I have loved every minute being a part of this team. It has been the greatest pleasure of my professional career to be involved with Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Luke Lloyd Davies and all of the wonderful people at Rocket Entertainment. Keith Bradley is the finest tour director and this tour would not have made it around the world for five years, in its many shapes and forms, without him. Many cherished hours were spent with Howard Rose and our touring partners Marshall Arts (Barrie Marshall and Doris Dixon) for the U.K. and Europe and Michael Chugg and Frontier for all of the shows in Australia and New Zealand.
Plus there’s our AEG Team: Andrew Sharp and John Merritt who have been traveling around the world for these past five years — apart from when they couldn’t — and Donna DiBenedetto, my promoting partner who keeps things organized. And of course, Jay Marciano’s leadership and experience has been invaluable. It’s just an incredible group of people from top to bottom.
I’m not sure that there will ever be another artist like Elton John or a tour quite like the FYBR Tour. But for any artist aspiring to achieve this level of success, this tour is probably the best example of what comes out of hard work and a love of performing: get out there and share your music with your audience.
To sum up: Start each tour with a clear message and intention, and a collaborative mentality is imperative. A successful tour requires lots of teamwork on the part of the agency, management, promoter and artist. Think big, and think worldwide. And always be patient. When I first meet with the extraordinarily talented artists with whom I get to work, I often joke that I will negotiate the rights to their 20th Anniversary Tour right then and there. But it’s not really a joke. That’s how much I believe in them.
Louis Tomlinson is taking his tour east. On Friday (Feb. 3), the “Out of my System” singer announced that he will be taking his Faith in the Future tour to Asia this spring.
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“FAITH IN THE FUTURE WORLD TOUR 2023. ASIA,” the former One Direction member shared on social media, along with a red poster of the tour dates below an image of him performing on stage. “I’m really excited to be coming back to Asia for these shows in April. I can’t wait to see you all again this year!”
There are seven show set for Asia, starting with a trio of dates across Japan. Tomlinson will begin the tour with a stop at the Maruzen Intec Arena in Osaka on April 17, then heads to two additional prefectures — Nagoya and Tokyo — on April 19-20. The 31-year-old will then make stops in Bangkok, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur before concluding the trek at The Star Theatre in Singapore on April 27. Tickets are available via louis-tomlinson.com.
Tomlinson previously announced his Faith in the Future tour — named after his second studio album, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 — in November. The newly released Asia dates come ahead of the star’s plans to tour North America in May through July, before starting the U.K. and European leg in late August.
See Tomlinson’s new tour announcement below.
Five years ago, award-winning electronic music DJ-producer Jesse Rose and hit songwriter-producer Jesse Rogg decided to launch a global agency to represent creative directors. “We just realized that there was no structure to the world of creative direction,” says Rogg. Having previously worked well in the studio together, Rose says they figured they would work just as well as business partners and, in 2018, formed the Original Creative Agency.
Today, OCA represents over 50 creative directors — or “architects,” as Rose and Rogg say — with clients including Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Christina Aguilera, Tame Impala and Steve Lacy. And while the agency’s creatives work across mediums from music videos to styling to album art, looking at the year ahead, the pair predicts the live space will become a much bigger part of business. “Now people are coming to us and asking us to produce their tours, starting from the creative,” says Rose. “Which makes sense because our job is to make a story for a show.”
The two are confident that storytelling — both on and offstage — will be key to 2023’s most successful treks. Rose recalls speaking with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker ahead of the band’s Slow Rush tour, initially planned in 2020, about how to make the outing feel fresh in 2022. Their solution was to build an entire campaign around the tour. Creative director Ryder Ripps came up with the idea for Rushium, a fictitious pharmaceutical company pushing “rush pills” that appeared on posters, merchandise and the sides of trucks. As for Lamar, the pair praises the way his 2022 Glastonbury headlining set (creative-directed by Mike Carson, along with Lamar and Dave Free) “told a story through movement rather than over-the-top stage design,” relying on two groups of dancers, says Rose. Most effective, he recalls, was the finale, during which Lamar chanted, “Godspeed for women’s rights,” as blood dripped from his thorny crown.
At a time when the live space is more competitive than ever, Rogg adds that such effective campaigning and messaging help set a tour apart — and cites a significant return on investment, too. Plus, adds Rose, the approach has recently helped OCA form relationships with nearly every major agency. “Artists and creatives — the great ones, at least — are always the ones coming up with what’s next,” says Rogg. “So we’re quite mindful of only representing the folks who are those trendsetters. They understand the bigger picture — and not just over one campaign, but across a whole career.”
This story will appear in the Feb. 4, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Over nearly four decades, Billboard Boxscore has charted the biggest tours in the world. From Whitney Houston and Billy Joel in the ‘80s to Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish in 2022, artists have topped Boxscore charts in Vegas theaters, international stadiums, and everything in between.
Most recently, road warrior Elton John broke the record for the highest grossing tour of all time with the Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, now at $818 million after a brief leg of Australian shows. His tour began in September 2018, was interrupted by COVID for two years, and has returned stronger than ever — and stronger than everyone else.
The updated top 10 tours of all-time include previous record-holders by Ed Sheeran and The Rolling Stones, as well as live legends like Guns N’ Roses and Madonna.
John’s triumphant farewell tour is one of two in the top 10 with post-pandemic results, but more upheaval could be on the way. Still on the road, Coldplay, Harry Styles and previous record-holder Ed Sheeran are marching past the $200 million and $300 million marks with many shows scheduled for this year. And that’s not to mention newly announced 2023 treks by Beyoncé, Metallica, Taylor Swift, and more.
An influx of tours by these artists would not just help to modernize the top 10 but would add dashes of diversity, breaking up a current roster that includes eight tours by male rock acts from the U.K., Ireland and Australia.
Below are the 10 highest-grossing tours in the Boxscore archives, ranked by total earnings, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. All 10 have grossed more than $400 million – who will be next to join the club?
Alejandra Guzmán and Fey are two of the biggest Latin pop icons of the ’90s. For decades, they have maintained a strong presence in Latin pop/rock with their timeless hits. So when the two Mexican powerhouse artists officially announced Thursday (Feb. 2) via an Instagram Live with Billboard that they would be joining forces on tour, fans lost their minds.
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“We are excited, happy to celebrate one more day of life and career,” Alejandra Guzman tells Billboard Latin’s social media manager Ingrid Fajardo. “The truth is that I am very thrilled about this day, to be able to invite everyone into our madness.”
“We are exploding in love, in emotion, in energy, and in music,” adds Fey.
The two idols, who were thrilled to reveal the news live, also mentioned exclusively that they will be releasing a single together very soon, ahead of the tour that kicks off on May 4. “Since we were given the chance to be onstage together, we both know and are clear on who we are,” says Guzmán. “We started to write and flow, we already have two songs together!”
“Hits are eternal. The music becomes eternal when it becomes the public’s,” continues Guzmán, alluding to the name of the upcoming tour.
The “Eternamente Bella” and “Media Naranja” singers will kick off their stint in their native hometown at Arena CDMX; on June 23th they will follow up with a performance at Arena Monterrey in Northern Mexico. After these two homecoming shows, the divas of Mexican pop will announce more dates throughout Latin America. They will also embark on a US tour which will take place in September.
Both women are forces to be reckoned with in Spanish-language pop. Establishing herself as a kitschy electro-pop artist with a buoyant dance flair, Fey rose to stardom with her earwormy eponymous debut in 1995 via Sony Music Mexico. With her breakout LP, she scored a handful of soon-to-be-timeless hits, such as “Gatos en el Balcón,” “La Noche Se Mueve,” and the everlasting “Media Naranja.” Her success kept building into the following decade, where she explored other Latin rhythms, like the pop-reggaetón kiss-off of “No Te Necesito.” To date, she has released a total of eight studio albums. On Sept. 25, 2020, the entertainer celebrated the 25th anniversary of her career with the English-language cut “The Perfect Song,” featuring Paul Oakenfold.
Like the yang to Fey’s yin, in a way, the Mexican Queen of Hearts whipped up a storm with her electrifying pop/rock that was filled with revelry and rebellion with a tinge of seduction. Guzmán broke into the scene with her third album, Eternamente Bella (1990), and she continued to drop gems like Flor de Papel (1991) and Libre (1993) and well into the next decade. With over 30 million albums sold, the Latin Grammy winner is considered one of the most successful Mexican singers.
Tickets for the Eternas Tour go on sale Feb. 8.
WME’s music department has promoted seven to partner and 12 to agent across its global offices in Beverly Hills, New York, Nashville, London and Sydney.
Agents recently promoted to partner are: Dave Bradley (co-head of WME’s pop division based in London, with clients including Dua Lipa, Kim Petras and LCD Soundsystem); Brendan Long (London-based and representing electronic music artists including Richie Hawtin, Eric Prydz and Adam Beyer); Henry Glascock (Nashville-based, with clients including Parker McCollum, Catie Offerman and Randy Rogers Band); Doug Singer (Beverly Hills-based, with clients including Orville Peck, Blood Orange and Vince Staples, also appointed department lead for podcast and book tours); Bradley Rainey (who leads WME’s music for visual media group, with a roster that includes Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Randy Newman and Max Richter); Levi Jackson (who leads the tour marketing team for all WME clients including Adele, Luke Combs, Travis Scott, Bruno Mars, Foo Fighters and more) and Jared Rampersaud (Beverly Hills-based and working across the agency’s roster, specializing in live performances for private events and brand activations).
Those promoted to agent in contemporary music include Kidder Erdman, Phillip Richard and Henry Delargy in Beverly Hills; Anna Horowitz and Josh Sanchez in New York; Tom Larner in London; and Brendan Moylan in Sydney. In Nashville, Becca Chisholm, Caleb Fenn, Carter Green and Kanan Vitolo became agents in the country music department and Morgan Carney became an agent in Christian music.
“These promotions showcase the breadth of our client roster and how far we can go in servicing our artists,” said Lucy Dickins, WME’s global head of contemporary music and touring, and Becky Gardenhire, co-head of WME’s Nashville office, in a joint statement. “We are so proud of the leadership and ingenuity each of these individuals has demonstrated, and we look forward to what they will achieve.”
Fans in seven cities will get an additional chance to score tickets to Beyoncé‘s long-awaited Renaissance World Tour 2023, as the superstar revealed on Thursday (Feb. 2) a slew of additional shows due to high demand.
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Second shows have been added in Toronto on July 9, Chicago on July 23, East Rutherford on July 30, Washington, DC on August 6, Atlanta on August 12, Los Angeles on September 3 and Houston on September 24.
According to a press release from Live Nation, fan demand has already exceeded the number of available tickets by more than 800% based on current registration numbers. However, even with these added dates, “it is still expected that the majority of interested fans will not be able to get tickets because demand drastically exceeds supply.”
The 48-show global trek will launch in Stockholm on May 10 and feature a mix of stadium and arena shows across Europe through June 27 before picking up in North America at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8; that leg is currently slated to run through a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Ticket sales for the Live Nation-promoted tour — produced by Parkwood Entertainment — will kick off with a TM Verified Fan Registration for the North American dates, which is open now and closes at different times based on the city (click here for details on Verified fan and on-sale dates for European shows.) There will also be a Citi presale using Verified Fan as well as a Verizon Up presale.
President Biden urged Congress to “crack down on excessive online concert, sporting event, and other entertainment ticket fees” on Wednesday (Feb. 1), according to a statement from the White House. Biden’s call for action came roughly a week after Live Nation Entertainment faced scathing critiques from both Democratic and Republic senators during a Senate Judiciary hearing.
Speaking with his competition council, Biden said that Congress “should lower the huge service fees that companies like Ticketmaster slap onto tickets for concerts or sporting events that can easily add hundreds of bucks to a family’s night out,” according to The New York Times. “It’s a basic question of fairness,” he added.
President Biden’s interest in curbing ticket fees is part of the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which he discussed with his competition council Wednesday. The act takes aim at four types of excessive fees that cumulatively “cost American consumers billions of dollars a year.”
“Many online ticket sellers impose massive service fees at check-out that are not disclosed when consumers are choosing their tickets,” the White House noted in a statement. These fees make attending live events prohibitively expensive in some cases: “A family of four attending a show could end up paying far more than $100 in fees above and beyond the cost of the tickets.”
As a result, “the President is calling on Congress to prohibit excessive fees, require the fees to be disclosed in the ticket price, and mandate disclosure of any ticket holdbacks that diminish available supply.”
In addition to limiting ticket fees, the Junk Fee Prevention Act also aims to eliminate “airline fees for family members to sit with young children,” “exorbitant early termination fees for TV, phone, and internet service” and “surprise resort and destination fees.”
Ticket fees were just one of several topics that came up during the Senate Judiciary hearing last month, which also explored the Taylor Swift ticket sale fiasco, whether Live Nation bullies its competitors and the extent to which the company acts as a monopoly. Joe Berchtold, Live Nation’s president and chief financial officer, told lawmakers that his company wasn’t as powerful as critics were making out and argued that “ticketing has never been more competitive.”
The hearing almost immediately caused ripples in the live music industry. The following day, Ineffable Music Group announced that it would no longer collect 20% of touring artists’ merchandise sales at the 10 venues it owns or operates. “Any action we can take to help to insure a healthy, vibrant concert ecosystem is important,” Ineffable Music Group CEO Thomas Cussins told Billboard at the time.
Beyoncé released Renaissance, her seventh solo studio album, in July 2022 to rapturous acclaim and No. 1 status on the Billboard 200 and, for lead single “Break My Soul,” No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. But unlike 2016’s Lemonade and 2013’s Beyoncé, there were no concerts and no televised performances — not even a music video.
But six months later, days ahead of a potentially pivotal Grammy ceremony (Feb. 5) where she’s the year’s leading nominee, Beyoncé has announced the Renaissance world tour. It’s bound to be one of the year’s biggest concert events, aiming to be her fourth tour to gross more than $200 million based on forecasts estimated by Billboard Boxscore. In fact, the tour could easily sail past the $275 million mark. The all-stadium trek is currently scheduled to play 41 shows in 10 countries from May 10 through September 27.
A Beyoncé tour used to be a given every couple of years, but the Renaissance world tour will launch seven years after her last solo outing, 2016’s The Formation World Tour. That was her first solo trek in stadiums, though neither the show’s stellar reviews nor fans’ insatiable demand hinted at her rookie status. The tour earned $256.1 million and sold 2.2 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, finishing atop Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart.
In the years since, Beyoncé mounted On the Run II, her second stadium tour alongside Jay-Z following 2014’s On the Run. The stadium trek came close to Beyoncé’s solo high mark but finished with $253.5 million and 2.2 million tickets — coming within 1% of Formation’s gross and 3% of its attendance despite the doubled-up star-power. The strength of Beyoncé’s solo tour among her entire live history perhaps speaks to her unique draw as one of the century’s most singular live entertainers.
The Formation World Tour marked a 21% improvement upon the $212 million take of 2013-14’s The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, which spanned 126 dates in arenas.
This summer’s Renaissance world tour was announced with 15 shows in Europe in May and June, followed by 26 shows in the U.S. and Canada.
That 41-show sum is slightly shorter than The Formation World Tour’s 49 and On the Run II Tour’s 48. But while Renaissance could trail her previous outings in cumulative gross because of a more compact schedule, that scenario is unlikely considering the industry’s plumped-up ticketing.
In efforts to redirect second-and-third-party ticket sales to the artist, dynamic pricing, platinum ticketing and fan-to-fan re-sale have sent grosses soaring in the post-pandemic era. Beyoncé’s 2016 and 2018 tours averaged $114 and $116 per ticket, but that number will likely be far closer to, if not more than, $200 in 2023.
And like with Billboard’s early projections for Taylor Swift and Madonna, Beyoncé’s initial routing announcement may just be the singer playing coy. Per the first announced round of shows, London is the only market with more than one show, while previous Beyoncé tours also doubled up in New York, Chicago, Paris, Houston and more. More dates could be announced in some of the routing’s open spaces due to expectedly high demand. As the routing stands at press time, there are often four or five days between shows, with long stretches between May 30 (London) and June 8 (Barcelona), and September 2 and 11 (Inglewood, Calif. and Vancouver).
The continental splits for Formation and OTR2 were similar to that of Renaissance, with slightly more than a third of the entire tour in Europe and the other 60-65% in North America. Grosses and attendance lined up, too — $86.9 million and 867,000 tickets in Europe on Formation and $87 million and 871,000 tickets on OTR2, versus $169.1 million and 1.4 million tickets in North America on Formation and $166.5 million and 1.3 million on OTR2.
Given her consistent sell-out stadium business and an expected 30%-plus lift on ticket prices, the Renaissance world tour could be earning $6.8-$7.5 million per show. At the low end of that projection, with no additional shows, total gross would be heading for a personal-best $275 million. With just a few extra shows, at the top of that range, she’d notch her first $300 million tour.
Across her career, Beyoncé has grossed $767.3 million and sold 8.9 million tickets across 375 shows, including those with Jay-Z and the Verizon Ladies First Tour, a co-headline run with Missy Elliott and Alicia Keys in 2004. That means that the Renaissance world tour is setting her up to be one of three women to potentially cross the billion-dollar mark this year. Swift’s Eras Tour is sure to push her over the edge, while P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour could do the trick as well.
Renaissance was Beyoncé’s seventh No. 1 album, while “Break My Soul” marked her eighth No. 1 song. When album cut “Cuff It” shot to No. 10 on the Hot 100 last month, it became the 21st top 10 Hot 100 song of her solo career. The Renaissance world tour is scheduled to kick off May 10 at Stockholm’s Friends Arena and wrap on September 27 at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome.
Beyoncé is trending on Twitter. People are posting about their bank accounts and making jokes at Ticketmaster’s expense. The viral “It’s happening!” fire alarm clip from The Office is circulating once again. Could it be? Is it really so?
It is. After keeping fans waiting for months, Beyoncé has finally announced plans to go on tour in support of Renaissance, posting the news on Instagram Wednesday (Feb. 1) with an elegant outtake from the album’s cover shoot. Dates for the trek also went live on the 41-year-old pop star’s website, showing that she’ll kick off the tour in Stockholm on May 10, and will make stops through numerous stadiums and across Europe before moving over to North America.
She’ll then perform at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 8, weave her way through the United States and Canada, and close out the North American leg with a Sept. 27 gig at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Naturally, the tour news has the Beyhive absolutely buzzing with excitement … as well as anxiety. As Taylor Swift and SZA fans could tell you, securing tickets to see big name artists live has never felt so difficult — or expensive — what with issues such as scalpers, bots, dynamic pricing, overcrowded presales and so on.
Many are already tweeting to share their thoughts in anticipation of Bey’s Verified Fan presales, open now for registration in partnership Ticketmaster, who has recently been the target of fan lawsuits and a Senate Judiciary hearing following the platform’s alleged mishandling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale.
“Ticketmaster watching the beyoncé fans coming after just dealing with taylor fans,” tweeted one fan, sharing a viral clip of Euphoria‘s Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, looking absolutely terrified.
“Swifties I need you to explain ticketmaster to me QUICKLY,” tweeted another.
Other Bey fans are more concerned with how much the tickets will set them back financially. “Me at beyonce’s tour after selling my kidney to buy the tickets,” posted one, along with a gif of a model walking down the runway with an IV bag in tow.
The overarching theme of all of their posts, however, is sheer excitement at the chance of seeing Bey live. See some of the best reactions below: