Touring
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Katy Perry will play her first full U.K. tour in seven years on her upcoming Lifetimes arena tour. The slate will see her play five shows throughout the U.K. in Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and London in October 2025.
Perry released her seventh studio album, 143, in September and the LP charted at No. 6 on both the Billboard 200 and the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart, her lowest positions for over a decade.
The announcement says that the Lifetimes tour will be a “career-spanning run of live shows, including all the hits from across her multi-million selling albums.” Perry is due to launch the outing in Mexico next year, before heading to Australia for a string of shows and then additional Latin America dates next September. She will be performing at Capital FM’s Jingle Bell Ball at London’s O2 Arena on Dec. 8.
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Perry has also announced that £1 from every ticket sold on the tour’s U.K. leg will be donated to the Music Venue Trust, an organization that champions and supports grassroots music scenes and venues throughout the U.K. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. (GMT) on November 22 here.
Speaking on the donation, Perry said, “I’m proud to donate £1 from every ticket on the U.K. leg of The Lifetimes Tour to Music Venue Trust so that venues like Water Rats and Scala, where I played my first U.K. shows, can continue to usher in the next generation of music talent.”
Mark Davyd, CEO of the MVT, added, “We want to say a huge thank you to Katy and her team for stepping up to support grassroots music venues, artists and promoters. The contribution from these shows will keep venues open, get new and emerging artists out on tour, and enable promoters to bring the best in new music to our communities.”
Perry is the latest act to partner with the MVT to help support the future of grassroots music spaces. Earlier this year, Coldplay announced that 10% of all proceeds from their upcoming 10-night stand at Wembley Stadium in London next summer will be donated to the grassroots music scene.
Speaking to Billboard, Davyd said that “our door is very open to anyone” when it comes to donations. He added: “I want this to become the new normal – I don’t think that’s stupidly ambitious. There are lots and lots of examples of industries – all properly functioning industries – to reinvest to get future gains. As soon as you start talking about it as an investment program into research and development, I don’t think companies should be resistant to that but should be thinking, ‘that makes perfect sense.’”
Last week, the British government backed the idea of a voluntary levy on all stadium and arena tickets sold in the U.K. live music industry as “as soon as possible” to “safeguard the future of the grassroots music sector.”
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said in a report that, “We believe this would be the quickest and most effective mechanism for a small portion of revenues from the biggest shows to be invested in a sustainable grassroots sector.”
Katy Perry’s Lifetimes U.K. 2025 Tour Dates:
Oct. 7 – Glasgow, Scotland @ OVO HydroOct. 8 – Manchester, England @ AO ArenaOct. 10 – Sheffield, England @ Utilita ArenaOct. 11 – Birmingham, England @ Utilita ArenaOct. 13 – London, England @ The O2
SXSW London has shared details about the ticket sale for 2025’s upcoming inaugural event in the U.K. Taking place in east London’s Shoreditch neighborhood from Jun. 2-7, the upcoming event will be the first time that SXSW has taken place in Europe, in addition to its home in Austin, Texas, and expansion into Sydney, Australia.
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Passes for the entire event across the Conferences, Music and Screen Festivals will be available to purchase, as well as for individual separate programming strands. Tickets will go on sale on Nov. 21 and a 25% discount will be applied to those who purchase a pass from the general sale before Dec. 19. With the exclusive price offer, prices range from £488 for the individual programme strand passes, to £975 for platinum passes. For further ticket information, head to the SXSW London website.
SXSW London has also announced additional details about the venue partners throughout Shoreditch. These include Truman Brewery, Village Underground, Rich Mix, Shoreditch Town Hall, Shoreditch Church, Christ Church Spitalfields, Dream Factory (Chance St & Rivington St), Kachette, Bike Shed Moto Co, Shoreditch Studios / Over the Road, and Protein Studios.
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Billboard has been confirmed as the event’s first official partner, and will host a night of music during the festival with a globally-renowned artist performing at the event. The show will also be ticketed to the general public.
Mike Van, president of Billboard said, “We’re thrilled to partner with SXSW London for the inaugural 2025 event. This collaboration underscores our shared commitment to supporting and celebrating the global music community. Billboard will bring a night of live music celebrating world class artists, both established and on the rise, and will offer fans a truly unique experience within the festival.”
The festival will partner with local charities and community groups to provide 500 complimentary passes to ensure “the rich diversity” of the city is represented throughout the events and programming.
“We’re thrilled to share how many incredible venues are working with us already for SXSW London’s Shoreditch takeover next June,” said Katy Arnander, director of programming for SXSW London. “Shoreditch is renowned as a vibrant centre for creativity and technological innovation, as well as for its diversity, energetic youth culture, global cuisine and nightlife. We’re excited to be working closely with local stakeholders to ensure the festival creates a positive impact for the community it will take place in.”
In October, SXSW London announced that it would begin the process of accepting session proposals from the public across the various programming strands. The festival says that “thousands of session proposals have already been submitted from over 50 countries across the world.” The submission portal will remain open until Nov. 29 at the festival’s website.
Back in April 2021, it was announced that SXSW had signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
11/15/2024
The information-packed day concluded with a Superstar Q&A with Billboard cover star Olivia Rodrigo.
11/15/2024
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the oil-rich country’s sovereign wealth fund, has sold its entire stake in Live Nation, according to an SEC filing dated Thursday (Nov. 14). In April 2020, the $925-billion PIF acquired approximately 12.5 million shares that amounted to a 5.7% stake in Live Nation, making it the fourth-largest shareholder behind […]
The excitement began on the plane: a half-dozen girls and young women exchanging notes on outfits (“You’re doing Lover?” “I’m doing Midnights!” “I’m going as Miss Americana”), making and trading friendship bracelets and even a few headed to the country without tickets, hoping for a day-of miracle. It continued at the bars and restaurants the […]
Olivia Rodrigo is ready to take a well-deserved break at the conclusion of her Guts World Tour in 2025. When asked what she plans to do after the tour — which continues next year in Brazil, Mexico, Ireland and the U.K. — Rodrigo told Billboard’s deputy editor Lyndsey Havens: “I’m so excited to just rot on the couch and eat so much food.”
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Rodrigo was presented with the touring artist of the year honor at Billboard’s 2024 Live Music Summit in Los Angeles on Thursday (Nov. 14) after her Guts World Tour grossed $184.6 million from over 1.4 million tickets sold, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
After shows on the tour, Rodrigo says she immediately gets offstage and ices her feet, which she joked is “really sexy.”
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“I jump around a lot, like my calves get sore. So, yeah, that’s what I do. Take a shower, take off my makeup, and head back to the hotel,” Rodrigo said. “It’s really not that exciting. It’s a really interesting shift to go from like being in front of 1000s of people to like being alone in your hotel rooms.”
While on tour, Rodrigo said one of her favorite songs to perform for catharsis is “All-American Bitch,” which features the young star floating over the audience on a crescent moon.
“There’s a part of the song where I make the whole audience scream and think of something that you hate or something that really ticks you off, and just let it all out and scream. I think that’s so powerful,” Rodrigo said. “It’s very cathartic. It feels like a rage room or something. There’s something so cool about being able to be in a room with 1000s of people and to be anonymous and get all your emotions out. I just love that aspect of music.”
Her energy onstage matches that of some of her all-time favorite live performers, which she said includes Beyoncé and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
In October, Rodrigo released her tour documentary Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour on Netflix, and watching it back in film format, the singer said it was hard not to be critical of herself.
“I was trying not to be too critical the whole time. I’m just like, ‘Be nice to yourself.’ It’s really weird because I know that show like the back of my hand. I’ve done it so many times,” she said. “Watching it I was like, ‘Why are you so nervous? You got it, girl. You got it.’”
When asked if anything surprised her from seeing herself perform for the first time, Rodrigo said, “I was working out so much on tour and I watched things back, I was like, ‘Yeah, I got muscles in my arms for the first time in my life.’ That was surprising.”
Global touring has drastically changed in the last 30-plus years, according to Live Nation Concerts president of global touring/chairman Arthur Fogel. During a conversation at the Billboard Live Music Summit in Los Angeles on Thursday (Nov. 14), the veteran promoter said infrastructure around the globe has drastically improved and opened touring to nearly double the number of countries over that time.
“The first time that I went to South America was in the 1990s with David Bowie, so 35-ish years ago. It was a different world down there. It was a very different world everywhere,” said Fogel. “It was the Wild West. It was very difficult, despite the audience being great, but you fast forward to today and the level of expertise that’s been created. There’s the ability to do business on a very serious level.”
In conversation with Haus of Gaga’s Bobby Campbell, who is Lady Gaga‘s manager, Fogel explained that global touring is “night and day” compared to 35 years ago when North American artists would only have the opportunity to tour 15 to 20 countries. Now, Fogel said there are 60 to 70 countries available to them.
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According to Campbell, touring has become more than just an economic engine for artists; it’s become a marketing driver for the music itself.
“You used to have cycles where you put out the album, promote the album through talk shows and TV performances and award shows, then eventually you go on tour,” said Campbell. “Now tours are becoming a central part of the marketing plan for the album.” He added that artists will now change small aspects of their shows, such as the setlist or certain dance moves, to create new content for each stop.
These small adjustments are a far stretch from the dramatic changes tours would have to make decades ago as they crossed continents, explained Fogel, who said that artists used to create a touring show specifically for North America and then scale back and change it for other parts of the world.
“There are so many new state-of-the-art venues coming online that have really helped propel the ability for artists to go and play all kinds of different places,” said Fogel, who pointed out that Africa, essentially the last frontier on the touring front, has recently opened up.
“South America, Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, India, South Africa, Eastern Europe — all those territories and regions of the world that were once very hard to access in terms of touring have really developed dramatically over the last decade and a half,” Fogel added. “To provide the opportunity for an artist to go basically anywhere in the world at this point and connect with their fans is really a pretty interesting and important piece. Maybe it’s the most important piece in terms of development in our business.”
Louis Messina reflected on his storied career in touring on Thursday (Nov. 14) at the Billboard Live Music Summit in Los Angeles.
Speaking with Melinda Newman, Billboard‘s executive editor, West Coast and Nashville, Messina spoke about the working with some of the biggest names in music, with the 11-artist roster of his Messina Touring Company including Taylor Swift, George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Ed Sheeran, Old Dominion and recent signee Zach Bryan.
“I’ve worked with a lot of really goofball acts in my career,” said Messina. “All the acts I work for right now, there is not one that’s an asshole, there really isn’t.”
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Messina credited Strait with launching his own career, saying that “if there were no George Strait, there would be no Messina Touring Group.” He also spoke about helping develop Kenny Chesney, starting his work with Taylor Swift when she was 17-years-old, his impressions of Chapell Roan and much more from his historic and thriving career.
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Below, find highlights from the conversation.
On George Strait, Who “Connects With Everybody In the Audience”
Messina’s first client, George Strait, recently made history by selling 110,905 tickets at a June show in College Park, Texas, for what was the biggest ticket event anywhere in the United States in history.
Messina reflected on Strait’s special (and massive) appeal, saying that “When you’re at a George Strait concert, no matter where you’re sitting, you feel like George is singing to you. His eyes are his show, besides his voice and his music. But he connects with everybody in the audience and that, to me, is the secret of every artist… Every star artist, they know how to connect with the audience, and the audience then connects to the artist. To me that’s the key thing, and that’s what I always look out for: how does the artist and audience connect, and how do they fall in love with each other? That’s George. Every superstar artist, they know how to do that.”
On Working With Taylor Swift Since She Was 17
Newman noted that Swift’s Era’s tour, which wraps up in a few weeks in Vancouver, has grossed well over a billion dollars, then asking Messina what he’s saw in the superstar from the start. “She’s outworks everybody,” said Messina. There’s no one I’ve seen with a work ethic like Taylor Swift. I met her when she just turned 17… She had one song on the radio… By the third night [of seeing her on tour] I just knew. I saw the twinkle in her eye, I saw her work ethic, and here’s a 17-year-old girl singing about high school boyfriends and just had the audience in the palm of her hands. And then every morning, she was the first person in the production office, after she visited radio stations, and she signed notes to everybody. Fans, DJs that played her music… She would be the first one in the building and the last one in the building. That’s what’s special about Taylor Swift, because she’s one-of-a-kind and she will outwork everybody. I was just blessed to happen to be there and see that connection that she had to everybody.”
On The “Magical” Chapell Roan
Newman closed the conversation by asking Messina which artists he hasn’t worked with that he’d like to. He said he’d love to work with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, adding “and who doesn’t want to work with Chappell Roan, though? What a superstar; what a unique artist. I haven’t seen anybody like her since — she reminds me of when Madonna first started. That attitude; she’s unique. I saw her at ACL and she blew me away… she’s one of a kind. She’s magical.”
On Sphere
While reflecting on the differences between venues, Messina reflected that ultimately “It’s the artist’s name on the ticket, not the building, except the Sphere. That’s a whole other ballgame.” Newman then asked if any of Messina’s artists might play the boundary-pushing venue, to which Messina said, “Yes I have a couple of artists that are potentially playing there.” Newman deftly observed that given that Messina has 11 artists on the roster, there are only a certain number of acts it could be.
On Guiding the Rise Kenny Chesney
Messina has been working with Chesney since the country superstar was opening for George Strait. “He was third or second from the bottom,” Messina said of the lineup he had Chesney on, “and I just saw him, and I saw his merchandise numbers, and he came back the next year, and everybody was in the stands early and he was outselling merchandise more than anybody… I just saw this magic that he had and the connection… We put Kenny on Tim [McGraw’s] tour, and then I said ‘It’s time to headline now.’ He looked at me and said ‘You’re absolutely crazy. I’m going to be playing to grass every night. I’m going to be playing to seats.’ I said ‘No you’re not. You’ve gotta trust me.’ And he did. This year was my 25th anniversary with Kenny. Kenny believed in me, and I got him to believe in himself, and then we got people to believe him.”
Linkin Park is heading back on tour with new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong, and the band’s co-founder Mike Shinoda is opening up about returning to the stage with the group seven years after the untimely death of frontman, Chester Bennington.
In an upcoming interview with The Zach Sang Show alongside Armstrong, Shinoda shared that getting back in the swing of Linkin Park has been “amazing,” despite his initial nervousness. “Part of it is going from the band being an indefinite hiatus or whatever it was — we didn’t put names on it, it was just like, ‘We’re not doing it anymore.’ From it being that to standing on the stage doing it, there were all these weird little moments that were so surreal,” he explained. “Getting in a room and doing it was so cool.”
He added that there were moments that were “stressful,” because he wanted to “set aside enough time for us to get this right,” continuing that with Armstong’s vocal talent, “We were changing keys on songs we played for 20 years. I had to relearn ‘Breaking the Habit’ from scratch basically.”
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“It’s like, having a thing that you felt like it was taken away and then being able to get it back like, ‘Oh, you can’t play shows as Linkin Park anymore,’ even though Linkin Park is like Part of my DNA,” he added.
Shinoda concluded by noting, “Linkin Park is part of my DNA. Everybody’s got a core identity diagram, like, this is who I am. If you were to sit down with a piece of paper and write down the things that make you you, that’s a crazy exercise when you think about it. It’s things you love to do, your family, your kids, your spouse, whatever. The things that make you you and your beliefs, right there in the middle of it is Linkin Park for me. There are many other things too, but to have that one out was painful. To have it back in, there’s nothing like it. There never will be anything like it.”
Ahead of their 2025 tour, Linkin Park is set to drop their eighth studio album, From Zero, on Nov. 15 via Warner Records. Check out the exclusive clip from the interview via Billboard below, and catch the full episode of The Zach Sang Show on Friday (Nov. 15).
When the music world was shutting down for most artists in 2020, it was just gearing up for John Summit.
At Thursday’s Billboard Live Music Summit, Summit and his manager, Metatone’s Holt Harmon, joined a panel discussion titled “Inside the Rise of John Summit,” moderated by Billboard‘s Katie Bain, to detail how they managed to take the dance world by storm over the past four years.
Summit’s Billboard-charting career began in 2020 with “Deep End,” which peaked at No. 26 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs that year. Since then, he’s racked up his first two top 10 hits on the chart — “Where You Are” and “Shiver” (both peaking at No. 8 and both with singer Hayla) — and crisscrossed the globe to play the biggest festivals, set up shop in dance havens like Ibiza and Las Vegas, and wow crowds around the world.
Below, find highlights from Summit and Harmon’s conversation, starting from the beginning of their journey through the release of his first full-length album Comfort in Chaos over the summer.
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No Rules
Holt Harmon: “Part of the beauty of working with young people and being young ourselves is, nobody had put a title on what we were already. So honestly, it was like the beauty of the unknown and the beauty of being able to tackle anything — not living by rules that we didn’t know about.”
John Summit: “If you don’t know the rules, you can’t break them.”
Picking Up During Shutdown
Summit: “I just knew that the whole world was online because everyone was stuck at home. So I was doing streams every single day, posting every single day, sharing my music, sharing the process. … I think a lot of artists took it as a time to relax and see their families for once. But because I was living in my mom’s basement at the time — shout-out Tamara in the crowd! — she kept me fed while I cooked the beats.” [Laughs]
Harmon: “COVID was kind of like the great reset. It’s like, anybody who was leaning or — I hate to put it like this — but anybody who was being lazy and leaning on touring, and that was their entire career, not putting out great music, not putting out great art, but just leaning on that they could tour, didn’t have that to lean on anymore. Didn’t have that crutch. So it more or less reset the industry.”
Changing It Up
Harmon: “You come to a John Summit show, expect the unexpected. He’s gonna play whatever he wants stylistically. He might throw dubstep in. He’s gonna throw drum and bass in. He’s gonna do his thing. … For me, it’s so cool to watch him be able to be like a chameleon. But it allows him to do different things and not get pigeonholed.”
Summit: “That’s where I think songwriting really comes into play, that I can change the productions for a song. … I think kind of changing around the production for songs and adapting, but then also, you know, staying true to yourself.”
His Second Home…To a Point
Summit: “What makes Vegas so nice is that I do 20 days a year, and it’s a different crowd every single weekend. You can’t do like 20 weekends in Chicago, because it would just be the same. Because [Vegas is] a tourist destination, much like Ibiza. That’s what keeps it really fun and entertaining, that keeps things fresh, and the hospitality is so great there that I feel like it’s a second home for me. … But it would my hell if all I did was a residency and it was the same thing every weekend, so that does freak me out.”