State Champ Radio Touring
Page: 126
What many fans had been speculating is true: Luis Miguel is going on tour this year.
On Tuesday (April 19), the Mexican crooner announced the dates for his 43-date stint in North and South America that will kick off Aug. 3 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The trek will visit major cities in the U.S. such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles before wrapping up Dec. 17 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The tour is produced by CMN.
It’s Luis Miguel’s first tour in years. His last tour — México Por Siempre, which ran from 2018 to 2019 — grossed $101.4 million and sold 965,000 tickets across 116 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. It was the highest grossing Latin tour in Boxscore history until last year when Bad Bunny‘s El Último Tour del Mundo and World’s Hottest Tour surpassed it.
The anticipation for this trek began when El Sol de México — or “The Mexican Sun,” as he is known — simply posted on Instagram “Luis Miguel Tour 2023” in February without offering more details. Whether he’ll drop new music to coincide with the tour is still up in the air. The elusive artist dropped ¡MÉXICO Por Siempre! in 2017, which won album of the year at the Latin Grammy Awards.
Luis Miguel is one of Latin music’s biggest star and one of the top vocalists of his generation. The chart-topping artist has notched 16 No. 1 songs on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart, and nine leaders on the Top Latin Albums tally.
See Luis Miguel’s world tour dates below:
Madonna is taking her massive Celebration Tour to Mexico. The icon revealed that she will be stopping to perform in Mexico City on January 25, 2024, marking her first non-U.S. or Europe dates of the tour.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Tickets for the new date at Palacio De Los Deportes will go on sale on Friday (April 21) at 11 a.m. local time here. Legacy members of Madonna’s official fan club will have access to a pre-sale beginning on Monday (April 17) at 1 p.m. local time. CitiBanamex cardmembers’ presale begins on Thursday (April 20) at 11 a.m. local time.
The Celebration Tour — which will honor her four decades of hits — is set to span from July 15 all the way through Dec. 1. The first North American leg of the tour will kick off Saturday, July 15, at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver and will make additional stops in Phoenix, Detroit, Atlanta, Toronto, Montreal and more before concluding at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Oct. 8. The tour’s European leg will pick up with a pair of dates at The O2 arena on Oct. 14-15 and will make stops in Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Berlin and more before concluding in Amsterdam on Dec. 1 at the Ziggo Dome. The tour then picks back up in Brooklyn on Dec. 13, and stretches through Jan. 20 in Phoenix, Ariz. As previously announced, Bob the Drag Queen will be a special guest on the tour.
“This is a good time for me — I’m gathering ideas, getting inspired, hanging out with creative people, watching films, seeing art, listening to music,” Madonna shared of getting back onstage in a recent feature with Vanity Fair.
The return of two highly popular dance artists has created new headaches for promoters dealing with increased public outcry over ticket scalping. Skrillex’s first show in nine years at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, and Pretty Lights’ comeback tour after a five-year absence have created supply and demand issues not often seen in the amphitheater and club space. That’s meant new challenges with how to deal with resellers buying tickets en masse and posting them online for profit.
Earlier this week, AEG Presents announced plans to reclaim tickets purchased by scalpers for a sold-out April 29 show by Skrillex at Red Rocks and resell them to fans through the Fair AXS ticketing platform, AEG’s own fan verification. Fair AXS requires fans to register in advance for high demand tickets, and like Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform, is designed to weed out scalpers.
The company is now weighing whether a similar plan to claw back tickets for the upcoming, sold-out Pretty Lights tour that kicks off Aug. 6 at the Mission Ballroom in Denver and sell those to fans through Fair AXS.
With the Skrillex concert, says AEG Presents co-president and senior talent buyer Don Strausberg, when the company scraped the sales data, it found instances of buyers who bought multiple tickets, exceeding the four-ticket limit on purchases and violated the terms of service for AEG-owned ticketing system AXS tickets. Those ticket purchases were then canceled, refunded to the originally buyer and put back on sale through the Fair AXS platform, a registration-based identity-verification system that helps concert promoters determine the likelihood that a ticket purchaser is a legitimate fan and not a ticket broker. (This verification system was recently utilized by Zach Bryan for his 2023 tour and requires fans to register in advance and provide their credit card information.) Strausberg says AEG is now considering whether to do the same for the Peaking Lights tour.
Strausberg didn’t identify how many Skrillex tickets were pulled back and sold through Fair AXS, but noted that demand for the April 29 show far exceeded supply at the world-famous 9,545-capacity venue.
“It’s time consuming,” to comb through all of the sales, and requires additional steps by both AEG and fans to register in advance for Fair AXS and to verify the accounts, Strausberg says, “but lately more people are asking for this.” Trying to identify individuals who violated AXS’s terms or service is “something we do without fail on nearly every large concert” says Strausberg, although the scale of unauthorized activity happening with the Skrillex show was larger than normal.
Scalping exists at every level of the concert business, but it’s much rarer to see high volume ticket scalping at smaller capacity venues like those on the Pretty Lights tour, where the artist is playing 3,500-size rooms. AXS ticketed 18 of the 24 shows on the Pretty Lights tour, totaling about 60,000 tickets total.
Lately, ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and AXS have become more effective at reducing the number of tickets that end up on the secondary market. That’s pushed some brokers into smaller capacity events, says a secondary market analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There’s much less opportunity at the club and theater level,” they add, where the majority of shows don’t sell completely sell out.
While Katy Perry spent a good portion of 2022 dazzling The Theatre at Resorts World for her Las Vegas residency, it’s been six years since her last world tour in support of her fifth studio album, Witness.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In a new interview with Out, Perry said that it’s about time she hits the road again. “I still love making music. I still love spreading light and love,” she told the publication. “I know there’s a lot of people who couldn’t make it to Vegas. The last time I was on tour was in 2018. I’m… due. How about that? I’m due to go out and see the kids that couldn’t make it to Vegas.”
As for her extravagant Vegas residency, titled Play, the 38-year-old superstar looks back on the experience fondly and with empowerment. “I’m just so proud of the show that we created and we put on. It is such a spectacular show that we love so much,” she shared. “It’s almost like the greatest hits show! I call it all thriller, no filler. I wish I could bring it to the rest of the world, but it’s just not technically possible to cart around OTT toilets and bathtubs. Closing a chapter on Play allows me to start a new chapter. I’m so excited for the potential of my story to continue.”
The power-packed set list kicked off with “ET,” “Chained to the Rhythm,” “Dark Horse” and “It’s Not the End of the World,” and included hits like “California Gurls,” “Hot N’ Cold/Last Friday Night,” “Waking up in Vegas,” “Bon Appetit,” “Daisies,” “I Kissed a Girl,” “Lost/Part of Me/Wide Awake,” “Swish Swish,” “When I’m Gone/Walking on Air!,” “Never Really Over,” “Teenage Dream,” “Smile” and Roar.”
Rich Paul, founder and CEO of Klutch Sports Group and United Talent Agency board member and head of sports, has joined the board of directors at Live Nation. Paul, who is longtime partner of pop superstar Adele, boasts a client list that includes LeBron James, John Wall, Anthony Davis and Draymond Green and “brings a valuable perspective from sports, business, entertainment and more,” said Greg Maffei, chairman of the Live Nation board of directors. “We’re fortunate to welcome him as a new addition to our board.”
Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino noted that “Rich understands what it takes to help talent develop a long and successful career. His input will be a great addition as we continue driving more value for artists and their fans through live shows.”
Paul, who has regularly been named one of the most powerful agents in sports by Forbes, ESPN and Sports Illustrated — which crowned him “The King Maker” on a 2019 cover — got his start working with James in 2003. He later joined CAA and went on to launch his sports agency Klutch in 2012. In 2020, he became the first African American to sit on the board of UTA, which made a significant investment in his company Klutch the year prior. Last year, he inked a deal with New Balance for the launch of the Klutch Athletics clothing line.
“Live Nation’s artist-centric approach to business makes this a really natural fit for me,” said Paul in a statment. “Going to an event live is one of the most powerful ways to experience sports and music, and I look forward to contributing to the company and the industry in this new way.”
Reigning CMA entertainer of the year winner Luke Combs and Ryman Hospitality Properties’ Opry Entertainment Group have joined forces to reimagine Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon, located at 120 2nd Ave. N., as a Combs-inspired multi-level entertainment venue; it’s set to open in 2024.
The yet-to-be-named complex will total 69,000 square feet, including an outdoor-indoor capacity of nearly 3,200 people, and will reflect Combs’ passions for music, songwriting, whiskey and sports. Specifically, the venue will take inspiration from Combs’ debut hit “Hurricane,” which went 8x multi-Platinum and spent two weeks at the pinnacle of Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart in 2017.
Speaking with Billboard at the Wildhorse Saloon in downtown Nashville, Combs said that watching Opry Entertainment’s work on Blake Shelton’s Ole Red venues was inspiring.
“I’ve had other offers for venues, but I always thought if I had the chance one day to do a venue, I would want to work with them. Working in hospitality the way they do, they bring something unique to the table.”
Combs added, “I talked with Blake about it this January, when we were talking about working with the Opry folks. He had so many great things to say about them and was like, ‘You should absolutely do this,’ and he was excited for me. It was great to get that affirmation.”
The entertainment complex will include a 1,500-person capacity concert venue for ticketed events. Meanwhile, a proposed rooftop bar (720-person capacity) with views of the Cumberland River and Nissan Stadium will add 9,000 square feet of entertainment space to the existing 60,000-square-foot venue.
The three interior levels will convey Combs’ songs, lifestyle and connection to his Bootlegger fans.
Colin Reed, Ryman Hospitality Properties’ executive chairman, told Billboard that he estimates the project will cost in the “tens of millions,” though he declined to offer specific financials.
Reed described the venue as containing a “250-seater honky-tonk at the front that can open up into the concert hall behind it.” He adds that the concert hall will include a “Beautiful Crazy” area designed for groups and bachelorette parties, as well as a bourbon bar and an area dedicated and inspired by Combs’ Bootleggers fanclub.
“We’ve definitely tried to prove over the years that we always think about the fans first,” Combs told Billboard. “I wanted to continue to do that with this spot, too. I didn’t just want to slap y name on something and wash my hands of it. I’ve been very hands-on with this. I wanted it to be something where my fans felt like they could come to. Obviously, if they are in the fanclub, there will be special things and special places for them to come to and unique opportunities.”
“With the honky-tonk, when I say 250 people, it will be two stories,” Reed tells Billboard. “It will be a small, intimate 250-capacity, where people will be on the second floor, looking down onto a stage and on the ground floor it will have a great bar behind it.”
Reed adds that the third floor is include a “new-generation sorts bar, to provide people who come to Nashville, who want not only to drink good bourbon, good beer, but also listen to music and watch their favorite sports team play.”
In the meantime, the venue will continue to operate as the Wildhorse Saloon until the new venue opens in 2024.
The Wildhorse Saloon opened in downtown Nashville in 1994 and has since been home to more than 4,000 television show episodes and tapings, as well as a destination for corporate events. The venue previously hosted The Wildhorse Saloon Dance Show on The Nashville Network in the 1990s and served as a base for the CMT show Can You Duet.
Combs says fans can absolutely expect to see some surprise appearances and performances from him at the venue.
“Any opportunity or any time I do something in town, I can do it here, because this is a spot that is large and versatile. It will be a really unique spot,” Combs says.
Combs is currently on his world tour, will will visit Nashville this weekend, for two shows at Nissan Stadium.
Legendary concert promoter James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal is planning a new festival for central Texas, timed to coincide with a rare total solar eclipse that will be visible across North America next year.
Dubbed the Texas Eclipse, the celebration will take place April 8, 2024 in Burnet at Reveille Peak Ranch, located just 60 minutes outside of Austin.
“About a year from now, millions of people from around the world will be able to witness a once-in-a-lifetime bucket-list event,” Estopinal tells Billboard. “The Texas Eclipse is distinct from the events we normally create and will involve collaboration with various groups and organizations to produce a unique and collective event experience.”
So far, few details on the event have been released. A press release announcing the event explains “Texas Eclipse will be a nexus of cultures, passions and interests; bringing together a curated experience for all to encourage discovery, exploration, and participation. In addition to featuring multi-genre world class music talent, it will also feature the best of Central Texas culture, including interactive art installations and local food and craft vendors. Beginning the weekend before, attendees can camp on the stunning festival grounds to enjoy a host of family-friendly fun, including exciting music performances, mind blowing space exhibits and interactive technology activations ahead of the eclipse.”
Estopinal is partnering with event producer Mitch Morales from Texas event production company Probably Nothing — creator of Austin’s long-running Euphoria festival — for Texas Eclipse.
“Growing up in Central Texas, it’s been a dream of mine to help create an event that celebrates a once-in-a-life experience and brings people from around the world to enjoy the best of music art and culture,” Morales says. “The venue is unique and spectacular and I don’t think there’s a better venue to observe the 2024 eclipse. I’ve admired the team at DDP for a long time and am thrilled to be working with them to bring this dream to reality.”
The April 8 eclipse is expected to last 4 minutes and 20 seconds and will be seen across Texas and a large swath of North America as it heads east, with the first location in continental North America to experience totality being Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT., according to an information page created by NASA. The eclipse is expected to be visible in Texas at approximately 12:23 p.m. CDT.
The 50,000 person event will be spread over the 1,200 acre Reveille Peak ranch, which provides 200 acres of camping grounds, 60 miles of trails and is decorated by beautiful lakes, winding creeks, wooded forests and rolling hills.
More at seetexaseclipse.com
Courtesy Photo
SBS Entertainment, the live event arm of Spanish Broadcasting Systems, and global venue development company Oak View Group (OVG) have inked a multi-year strategic agreement, the companies tell Billboard.
The deal, which has been in the works for two years, is described as an effort to “reimagine the live industry landscape” and an opportunity to reach new markets with Latin-focused music events.
Founded in 2015, OVG has grown to work with more than 400 venues worldwide. The deal with SBS marks the first time they’ve teamed up with a Latin company that focuses on producing and promoting large-scale live events. For 16 years now, SBS has produced L.A.’s Calibash, the best-known urban Latin festival in the U.S. that has boasted J Balvin, Daddy Yankee and Karol G as headliners over the past few years. It also produces the New York-based Mega Bash concert (presented by SBS radio station La Mega 97.9), which in December will take place for the first time at UBS Arena — marking the first event announced under the partnership.
Conversations about a possible partnership began when New York’s OVG-developed UBS Arena, which opened in November 2021, was still under construction. It was then that Mark Shulman, the facility’s senior vp of programming, invited the SBS Entertainment team to tour the grounds.
“When you look where [UBS] is located and [the] diversity nearby, Latin music should be a core of what this building is built on,” says Shulman. “I reached out to SBS, being such a leader in live events, and brought out their entire team so they could experience it from its early days. That began the explorations of what the possibilities might be. What started as a New York discussion quickly turned into a national discussion.”
But it wasn’t until last year that the national deal was sealed, and it happened when Francesca Bodie, president of business development at OVG, and Alessandra Alarcón, president of SBS Entertainment, met at Billboard‘s Women In Music 2022 event (both women were honored that year).
“I knew Mark had a relationship with SBS, but Alessandra and I just sat together at the event and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to work together?’ The fact that our venue in Palm Springs will do over 20 Latin shows this year, we thought, ‘This is not just a New York thing, this is going to be a nationwide opportunity,’” says Bodie. “We could’ve easily done a one-year commitment but doing a multi-year deal instead was a no-brainer. They have the team that can execute these marquee events and we have state-of-the-art arenas in the U.S and in the world. It was just a natural fit.”
“In our continuous dialogue with OVG about where to take the shows next, we suspect we’re going to be bringing our marquee shows to other markets,” says Christopher Martinez, director of business affairs at SBS. “We are focusing a lot on growing our heritage brands. There’s also a focus on regional Mexican and we’re planning on bringing one-off shows to Austin and also to Palm Springs. We’re definitely looking at expanding and not just focusing on reggaeton.”
The deal between SBS Entertainment and OVG comes at a time when Latin music continues to see global growth across multiple metrics, particularly in touring. The top 25 Latin tours of 2022 grossed $990.8 million and sold 8 million tickets (based on Billboard‘s Boxscore reporting period of Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022). Moreover, in 2022, Latin music outpaced growth in the overall industry with a 24% increase, totaling $1.1 billion in revenue, according to the newly-released RIAA U.S. Latin revenue report, which also highlights an all-time high in terms of market share for the genre at 6.9%.
“Companies like OVG are prioritizing the Latin space and now see the value of partnering with media companies like us because we are the general market now,” says Martinez. “We’re seeing people responding to what the new normal is [with] respect to Latin music.”
Adds Bodie, “As we look at the way we want to continue to anchor and prioritize [Latin], it is critically important that we have alignment with SBS.”
With OVG venues under development in the United Kingdom and Brazil, Bodie hopes to keep expanding their deal with SBS by developing Latin-focused content and activations in those markets. “We’ll definitely talk about what those opportunities will look like in the future.”
Sabrina Carpenter apologized to her fans in Portland on Tuesday (April 11) after the singer said she was forced to cancel Monday night’s show at Keller Auditorium unexpectedly. “Portland – I can’t tell you how much it breaks my heart, this is the last thing I wanted to do but due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to perform tonight,” she tweeted.
The “Nonsense” star promised that refunds would be available and then noted that the venue would be closed for the night.
Rolling Stone reported that Carpenter’s fans were asked to leave the Auditorium after a “credible security threat” was made to the venue that the singer was originally slated to perform at in the city, the Crystal Ballroom. “Employees with the Crystal Ballroom called after they received a phone call from an anonymous person claiming they were going to blow up the venue,” Portland Police Bureau Lt. Nathan Sheppard told RS.
Police said Carpenter previously announced she was upgrading to the larger venue, but even though she was no longer scheduled at the Ballroom, promoter AEG Presents and Sabrina’s team opted to scotch the show out of concern for her fans’ safety.
An AEG Presents spokesperson told the magazine that, “While the threat was not directed at Keller Auditorium specifically, Sabrina and event organizers agreed that out of an abundance of caution, the show be called off. Steps were taken to ensure that the audience exited the venue calmly, quickly, and safely.” Portland police said they sent out extra patrols around both venues due to the threat but found on explosive devices.
Before venue officials asked fans to leave the Auditorium an hour after Carpenter was slated to perform, they were reportedly able to attend Sabrina’s VIP soundcheck and watch opening act Spill Tab. Carpenter, who is on the road supporting last year’s Emails I Can’t Send album, performed in Seattle on Tuesday night, where the venue implemented a clear bag policy, seemingly in the wake of Monday’s incident. Her next scheduled show is on Saturday (April 15) at the Warfield in San Francisco
See Carpenter’s tweet below.
Sting‘s 2023 world tour is finally getting ready to touch down in North America. The Police singer announced on Tuesday (April 11) that he will be playing a series of dates across the United States and Canada starting in September.
The My Songs World Tour — which previously traveled to Asia, Africa and Australia earlier this year — will kick off in Toronto at the Budweiser Stage on Sept. 5, and will make stops in Boston, Phoenix, Vancouver, Los Angeles and more before concluding in Rogers, Ark., at the Walmart AMP on Oct. 12.
Members of Sting’s official fan club will be one of the first to score presale access to the tour starting on April 12 by visiting his website. Additional fan presale will roll out later through the week, with the tour’s general onsale starting on Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time.
See the full list of North American concert dates for the My Songs tour below.
STING: MY SONGS 2023 NORTH AMERICA LEG 1 TOUR DATES
Sept. 5 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sept. 7 – Boston, Mass. – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Sept. 20 – Morrison, Colo. – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Sept. 23 – West Valley City, Utah – USANA Amphitheatre
Sept. 29 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
Oct. 2 – Concord, Calif. – Concord Pavilion
Oct. 4 – San Diego, Calif. – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU
Oct. 7 – Los Angeles, Calif. – Hollywood Bowl
Oct. 9 – Phoenix, Ariz. – Arizona Financial Theatre
Oct. 12 – Rogers, Ark. – Walmart AMP
