Touring
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Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe are hitting the road for another co-headlining tour. On Thursday (Dec. 8), the rock bands announced that they will be trekking across the United States in 2023, with Alice Cooper as a special guest for the series of dates.
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“After finally getting back on the road this past summer, we’re beyond thrilled to bring this massive tour to a global audience including some special dates in America!” Joe Elliott of Def Leppard said in a statement.“We had an incredible time playing The Stadium Tour in North America this summer and we truly can’t wait to take the show around the globe with The WORLD Tour in 2023,” Mötley Crüe added in a joint statement. “Crüeheads, get ready because we have a few amazing U.S. dates set for you!”
The U.S. dates will commence on Aug. 5 with a show at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., and will make stops in Columbus, Ohio; Fargo, N.D.; Omaha, Neb.; and Tulsa, Okla. before concluding in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 18 at the Sun Bowl Stadium. The new set of dates are tacked onto the end of the bands’ previously announced global portion of The World Tour, which will kick off in February with a pair of dates in New Jersey before heading to Mexico, South America, Europe and the United Kingdom.Fans who wish to purchase presale tickets to The World Tour will need a Citi card; cardmembers will have presale access through the Citi Entertainment program starting on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, Dec. 15, at 10 p.m. local time. General on-sale to the public will begin on Friday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m. local time.
See the full list of dates for The World Tour below.
Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe Tour Dates:
Feb. 10 Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena ^
Feb. 11 Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena ^
Feb. 18 Mexico City, Mexico – Foro Sol ^
Feb. 21 Monterrey, Mexico – Estadio Banorte ^
Feb. 25 Bogotá, Colombia – Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park ^
Feb. 28 Lima, Peru – Estadio Nacional ^
March 3 Santiago, Chile – Estadio Bicentenario de La Florida ^
March 7 São Paulo, Brazil – Allianz Parque ^
May 22 Sheffield, England – Bramall Lane ^
May 25 Mönchengladbach, Germany – SparkassenPark ^
May 27 Munich, Germany – Koenigsplatz ^
May 29 Budapest, Hungary – MVM Dome ^
May 31 Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena Kraków ^
June 2 Prague, Czech Republic – Prague Rocks
June 3 Hannover, Germany – Expo Plaza ^
June 7 Solvesborg, Sweden – Sweden Rock Festival
June 9 Hyvinkää, Finland – RockFest
June 11 Trondheim, Norway – Trondheim Rocks
June 14 Copenhagen, Denmark – Copenhell
June 18 Dessel, Belgium – Graspop Metal Meeting
June 20 Milan, Italy – Ippodromo SNAI San Siro ^
June 23 Lisbon, Portugal – Passeio Maritimo de Alges ^
June 24 Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain – Auditorio Miguel Ríos ^
June 27 Thun, Switzerland – Stockhorn Arena ^
July 1 London, England – Wembley Stadium ^
July 2 Lytham, England – Lytham Festival
July 4 Dublin, Ireland – Marlay Park ^
July 6 Glasgow, Scotland – Hampden Park ^
Aug. 5 Syracuse, NY – JMA Wireless Dome ^
Aug. 8 Columbus, OH – Ohio Stadium ^
Aug. 11 Fargo, ND – Fargodome ^
Aug. 13 Omaha, NE – Charles Schwab Field Omaha ^
Aug. 16 Tulsa, OK – H.A. Chapman Stadium ^
Aug. 18 El Paso, TX – Sun Bowl Stadium ^
^ with Alice Cooper
After the pandemic shutdown that darkened theaters on the Las Vegas Strip from February 2020 until July 2021, the “Entertainment Capital of the World’ is now amid a new golden era of entertainment. After opening both Allegiant Stadium and Resorts World Theatre in 2021, now in their first full year these two new venues and the existing Dolby Live performed top in their class according to Billboard’s year-end Boxscore charts thanks to residencies by Silk Sonic, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and more. And that boom’s expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
“Coming back as strongly and swiftly as we have has been such a surprise because we didn’t know what to expect,” says John Nelson, senior vp of Concerts West/AEG Presents, Las Vegas, which books the Resorts World and select Allegiant Stadium shows. “It taught us that we can’t always tell what’s just ahead of us. But Vegas is changing. If you interpret that definition of entertainment more broadly to include sports and spectacles, Vegas is continuing for the next decade as the entertainment capital of the world with F1 in 2023 and Super Bowl coming in 2024.”
Formerly Park Theater at MGM, Dolby Live features Live Nation residency shows such as Lady Gaga Jazz + Piano, Silk Sonic and Usher, topped the category for venues from 5,000 to 10,000 capacity with 478,000 tickets grossing $114.5 million over 98 shows according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. There, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic played 51 shows throughout the year, grossing $50.4 million; Usher played 25 shows with $24.1 million gross; and Lady Gaga capped out her run with 9 shows bringing in $12.9 million.
“The Vegas entertainment community worked tirelessly behind the scenes to get entertainment back up and running again,” says Amanda Moore-Saunders, senior vp of Las Vegas residencies for Live Nation. “It’s mind-blowing to know that our team booked and marketed over 900 shows in Las Vegas in 2022, with residencies from the biggest artists in the world such as Adele, Gaga, Shania [Twain], Miranda [Lambert], Usher and many more, plus now we have Garth Brooks to look forward to in 2023; not to mention booking 13 of the 15 concerts at Allegiant Stadium this year with sell-out shows from BTS, Metallica, Bad Bunny and more.”
Allegiant Stadium, which debuted with sold-out shows from Illenium and Garth Brooks in July 2021 — also signifying the return to touring after the pandemic — grossed $182.5 million with over 1 million tickets sold from 24 shows in 2022. The new stadium with 65,000 seats has opened the city up to large touring shows, which previously passed by Las Vegas. Top 10 grossing tours, including Live Nation’s Bad Bunny, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe and The Weeknd and AEG’s Elton John and The Rolling Stones all played the venue in its first 15 months. BTS ($35.9 million), Bad Bunny ($22.1 million) and The Rolling Stones ($14.8 million) were the venue’s top earners.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Chris Wright, general manager of Allegiant. “I’ve seen venues turn around in markets but this is such a unique thing. The Raiders are fantastic partners. With the city and the state’s foresight to invest in this building, so many entities are all truly pulling together, working in the same direction for common success. One of the things I truly have come to love about the city is all of these disparate entities are not so disparate. People work together here to make something successful. And it’s really amazing to watch. I don’t think a lot of cities have that dynamic.”
Wright, who was previously vp and general manager of Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena, knew that the idea of a stadium in Las Vegas was already a risk, coupled with the task of opening a venue of that scale in the middle of a pandemic.
“There were a number of people with lots of experience who understood the business who had questioned whether a stadium in Vegas would truly do significant business. And here we are,” says Wright. Allegiant almost doubled the numbers of its closer competitor SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. SoFi grossed $107.8 million over 11 shows with 547,000 tickets sold. SoFi and Allegiant, both newcomers, joined State Farm stadium in Arizona in establishing a touring route.
“We fit into a routing through L.A. and Arizona — sitting in the middle [that works for artists to] add another date. But more than that, we have the ability to draw people to come to shows in Las Vegas who see the same shows elsewhere,” Wright says, noting that given the city’s vast entertainment offering it is easy for consumers to build multi-show Vegas weekends — a stadium show, a residency, a sporting event and more. But for the newcomer, getting the right content is an important piece of the puzzle and that came from building a team with strong relationships.
“[Our opening strategy] was an ‘everything’ strategy, our relationships with Live Nation and AEG were instrumental to bringing shows into the stadium and demonstrating that it works,” says Wright. “[We built a team] that canvases all avenues of the music industry — promoters, agents who we have relationships with, managers who we have relationships — constantly going at every opportunity and advancing forward. On a day-to-day basis, you just want to grab as much as you can and you’re constantly trying to move on events.”
With so much demand within the city and the number of venues available to book, getting the right content becomes increasingly difficult as many acts will do residency engagements prior to going on tour.
“It’s definitely competitive. I think if someone is going out on a stadium tour without factoring in a residency component, or a festival play, then I think it makes perfect sense to play Allegiant Stadium. It gets a little more complicated when someone is trying to calculate the impact of a residency either in front of their tour or behind their tour,” Wright says. “But we’ve gotten to the point now where people recognize you can do a stadium play and then come back and do a residency and be wildly successful doing that. I think one complements the other.”
For theaters under 5,000 capacity, newcomer AEG’s Resorts World Theatre, opening in 2021 with residencies from Katy Perry (40 shows, $24.7 million), Luke Bryan (18 shows, $10.5 million) and Carrie Underwood (18 shows, $12.4 million), grossed $55,272,018 over 87 shows with 326,510 tickets sold.
“Resorts World stepped up and made this enormous commitment to build the greatest theater in Las Vegas during a pandemic. They followed through and they did it. They did it on time and we opened and coincided with Vegas’ reemergence. Every day we’re grateful, surprised and happy with what’s happening,” says Bobby Reynolds, senior vp of AEG Presents Las Vegas.
Reynolds says standards across the city have been raised since the pandemic: “The city is firing on all cylinders, whether it’s entertainment or hotels — 20 months, a billion dollars. It is refreshing to see that pent up demand we thought was going to be there really is.”
He continues, “Katy’s show is beautifully produced. It’s huge. It’s massive, it’s larger than life by design. Luke’s concept for his show is so flexible and moves around so well. It’s so impressive with the risers of the stage, and of course, his catwalk that comes over the audience and Carrie’s show with its water feature and pyro. Everyone came in and did their own thing. Kevin Hart coming in to shoot for his next streaming special is a big feather in our cap and he is coming back on New Year’s Eve. I’d be surprised if Kevin didn’t return for more shows.”
In the highly competitive over 15,0001-plus-capacity category, T-Mobile Arena, which is located within the Park MGM campus, took fourth with $124.7 million grossed over 58 shows and 731,000 tickets sold.
George Strait played shows on Dec. 3-4, 2021 and Feb. 11-12, combining to $10.1 million; Daddy Yankee grossed $4.1 million on Aug. 6 and 20; and My Chemical Romance took in $2.3 million on Oct. 7.
“MGM Resorts is home to the industry’s premier entertainment venues [like Dolby Live and T-Mobile Arena]. The success we’ve seen the past two years is a true testament to our employees, event partners, and loyal entertainment and sports fans who enjoy the array of experiences we offer,” says Chris Baldizan, MGM Resorts International’s executive vp of entertainment. “We have hosted some of the world’s preeminent artists and sporting events over the years and look forward to delivering more exciting content in the months and years ahead.”
Live Nation Las Vegas president Kurt Melien concludes, “[We] are uniquely positioned to support live entertainment at every level including residency programming and big arena and stadium business, to our clubs and theaters, as well as a strong pipeline of festivals. We’ve been able to support artists as they bring more concerts and more creativity than ever to the city.”
Celine Dion opened up to fans about a serious health struggle she’s been facing that will result in all her 2023 dates being pushed back to 2024 or cancelled entirely. In an emotional video posted on Thursday morning (Dec. 8), the 54-year-old singer described her battle against a rare neurological disorder called “Stiff-Person Syndrome,” which she said has caused uncontrolled and serve muscle spasms.
“As you know, I’ve always been an open book. And I wasn’t ready to say anything before,” said a solemn Dion, seemingly on the verge of tears in the brief video. “But I’m ready now… ’I’ve been dealing with problems with my health for a long time, and it’s been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through.”
Fighting to keep her composure, Dion said she was recently diagnosed with the “very rare” disorder that affects one in a million people. While her team is still learning about the condition, she said they now know that SPS has been causing all the spasms that she’s been having. “Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life. Sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to,” Dion said. “I have to admit it’s been a struggle. All I know is singing, it’s what I’ve done all my life.”
The immediate result is that she will not be able to re-start her tour in Europe in February as planned. In fact, she said, all of her spring 2023 dates will move to 2024 and 8 of her summer 2023 shows have been cancelled. The shows scheduled from Feb. 24 to April 11, 2023 will now move to March 6-April 22, 2024 and her summer 2023 shows slated for May 31-July 17 have been cancelled; a run of shows scheduled from August 26-Oct. 4, 2023 remain on her schedule as of now.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, SPS is a rare neurological disorder that has features of an autoimmune disease. It is characterized by “fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms. Abnormal postures, often hunched over and stiffened, are characteristic of the disorder.” People with SPS can be too disabled to walk or move and may be “afraid to leave the house because street noises, such as the sound of a horn, can trigger spasms and falls.” According to the Institute, the disorder affects twice as many women as men and science does not yet understand what cause it.
The current treatment is a regimen of anti-convulsants and valium and intravenous treatments aimed at reducing stiffness and lowering sensitivity to touch, noise and stress. The preferred treatments can improve symptoms, but a cure is not yet known and sufferers are often subject to frequent falls because of a lack of the usual defensive reflexes.
“I have a great team of doctors working alongside me to help me get better,” Dion said, adding that her “precious children” are standing beside her and giving her hope. “I’m working hard with my sports medicine therapist every day to build back my strength and my ability to perform again. But I have to admit it’s been a struggle. All I know is singing. It’s what I’ve done all my life and it’s what I love to do the most.”
Gathering her composure, Dion told her fans that she misses them terribly and that she misses performing for them. “I always give 100% when I do my shows,” she said. But my condition is not allowing me to give you that right now.” Dion said she’s hopeful that she is on the road to recovery and is spending all her time focusing on getting better. “I really hope I can see you again real soon,” she said emotionally at the end of the statement.
Back in April, Dion once again postponed her Courage World Tour citing a then-unnamed health issue that was causing severe and persistent muscle spasms. At the time, the European leg of her tour originally slated to kick off in May of this year (and last through late September) were pushed to February 2023 and slated to run through Oct. 4, 2023. In addition, her Las Vegas residency was cancelled in Oct. 2021 after she said she was suffering from spasms.
To see the full list of cancelled and rescheduled shows, click here.
Watch Dion’s full statement below.
This story is part of Billboard‘s The Year in Touring package — read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
At some point during Daddy Yankee’s ongoing La Ultima Vuelta tour, which kicked off this summer, publicist Mayna Nevarez looked around and took stock of what was happening around her.
“I was with him at sold out arenas in Seattle, Denver, Sacramento and, I swear, it brought tears to my eyes,” says Nevarez, who owns Nevarez PR in Miami and has been Yankee’s publicist for over 15 years. “For so long it was cities like Miami, Los Angeles, New York — big Latin hubs — and we forget that the United States is so much more than that.”
Daddy Yankee is no stranger to big tours; in 2007, for example, he played 17 U.S. shows, and in 2019, he played a fabled 12 sold-out dates at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico. But La Ultima Vuelta (The Last Tour) has been his biggest trek by far, selling over 1.1 million tickets for a $125.3 million in gross ticket sales during the tracking period, from Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022, landing him at No. 13 on Billboard’s Top Tours tally.
Yankee’s numbers point to Latin music’s potential for big touring success beyond Bad Bunny and beyond the cities that were long considered Latino strongholds. In 2022, Latin artists of all sizes and genres filled arenas, theaters and festivals, underscoring the huge potential and growing presence of Latin music across the country.
The fray, of course, is led by Bad Bunny, who tops this year’s Top Tours chart with a $373.5 million gross across 65 shows in arenas and stadiums with a combined attendance of nearly 2 million. Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of the 15 U.S. markets that it played, including Yankee Stadium, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The North American leg of tour averaged $11.1 million per show — the biggest per-show average gross by any artist in any genre in Boxscore history (dating back to the late 1980s).
At this moment in time at least, Bad Bunny is “a unicorn,” says Henry Cardenas, de CEO of CMN, which promoted Bunny’s U.S. tour in partnership with Live Nation. “No one does what he does.” But at a touring level, “What Bad Bunny really did is take Latin music to industry execs who aren’t Latin, and make them realize there was a viable market,” says Nelson Albareda, founder and CEO of marketing and promotion company Loud and Live.
Loud and Live, which is owned by Albareda, is a prime example of Latin’s growth in touring. The entertainment, marketing and promotion company was launched four years ago and in 2019, pre-pandemic, produced around 50 shows. This year, it came in at No. 14 on the Top Promoters chart, with $96.5 million in gross ticket sales for 386 shows.
“Overall, touring is definitely stronger, and shows are doing better, including in emerging markets like Seattle, Salt Lake City,” says Albareda. “Secondary markets are here to stay and it’s not just the A acts. It’s not a fluke. I think you’ll see the Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Raleigh, Salt Lakes also do well. The Latino population is now much greater and definitely they’re in every city.”
This allows for vertical growth that may not be always visible on the touring charts. Loud and Live’s roster, for example, includes touring stalwarts like Ricardo Arjona, who ends the year at No. 63 on the Top Tours list ($31.5 million gross on 32 shows), but it also includes rising star Camilo, who just fell short of the Top 100, grossing $11.4 million and selling 149,000 tickets in 28 shows.
Tours by smaller acts, says Jorge Juarez, co-founder of management and promotion company Westwood Entertainment, can still yield impressive margins. Rising Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan, for example, played 23 markets on his first U.S. tour, selling some 7,000 tickets per market at an average $100 ticket price, per Juarez. And regional Mexican acts have seen a surge in ticket sales as well.
“There’s been a general tendency of growth here for the last two years. Certainly, a lot of factors post-pandemic that gave a surge, but we were already on a trend of growth,” says Hans Schafer, senior vp of Latin touring for Live Nation. “It was inevitable that we would reach this point one way or the other […] The sort of evolution that we’re seeing in different genres within Latin is all adding to that. More music, more new artists. Better production at all levels. Connectivity with multigenerational fans.”
On top of that, the growth of the U.S. Latino population and its middle class cannot be discounted as a factor in the overall growth of touring and consumption. According to Nielsen’s “The Evolving Hispanic Consumer” study from 2021, in the next 40 years Latinos will contribute more growth than any other U.S. population segment, contributing 53% of population growth in the next five years and 58% of the growth to 2060. In terms of buying power, from 2010 to 2019, Hispanic buying power increased by 69%, outpacing non Hispanics (41%).
According to a Pew Research Center Statistical Portrait of Hispanics published in July 2022, Latino demographics have grown “in just about every corner of the nation. While California, Texas and Florida hold about half of the U.S. Latino population, the fastest growth rates are in states like North Dakota (up 148% between 2010 and 2020) and South Dakota (up 75% over the same period).”
The growth has profound impact at many levels. In the last decade, for example, Latinos became the largest racial or ethnic group in California for the first time, a fact that explains why cities like Sacramento and San José are now major touring destinations for Latin artists of all stripes.
The direct result of a Latin population with acquisition power can be seen at the new SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and hosted its first full stadium shows with Los Bukis, the romantic Mexican group that had its heyday in the 1990s, on Aug. 27 and 28, 2021. The stadium also hosted two nights of Bad Bunny this last September.
“The way we position ourselves is, we’re in Los Angeles, we’re in Inglewood, we’re 50% Latino,” says Adolfo Romero vp of programming for SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park and YouTube Theater, which has held sold out shows by the likes of Rosalía and Mexican rockers Caifanes this year. “We looked at many different artists [for SoFi opening night] and when we saw this opportunity with Los Bukis, we were very aggressive. I think it kind of opened the eyes to the industry to see that Latin acts could do stadiums. That led us to do two nights of Grupo Firme in 2022, and now we have two nights of Bad Bunny.”
Romero says that when he booked Los Bukis for what would be their first-ever U.S. stadiums, the prospect of selling over 70,000 tickets for a Mexican nostalgia act didn’t make him loose sleep. “I come from [major league] soccer. If we can sell 70,000 plus for soccer here, what’s the difference?” he says. “It’s the same demographic. We have disposable income. A lot of our community was working in the service industry. Now, many of their kids are college grads.”
South By Southwest has announced a second wave of invited artists for next year’s 37th annual showcase event and conference, taking place March 13-18 in Austin, Texas. A scan of the 301 artists reveals a number of standouts, including baroque rock legends The Zombies and the hard-to-categorize Lemon Twigs, along with R&B singer Ambré and garage-punkers Osees.
When listed alphabetically, the Zombies aren’t even the last act in the list — that goes to zzzahara out of Los Angeles. Other standout names include 7ebra (Sweden), ALASKAALASKA (not from Alaska, but London), Baklava Blues (Toronto), Chickasaw Mudd Puppies (Athens, GA), Kill Lincoln (DC, naturally), Puppy Angst (Philly), Revenge Wife (New Hampshire) and Snotty Nose Rez Kids (Kitimat, Canada), among others (full list below).
SXSW announced a first round of nearly 200 artists back in October; that list included Armani White, Algiers and Balming Tiger. The music showcase is just one part of the larger festival, an event founded in 1987 and dedicated to celebrating entertainment and culture. In addition to musical performances, the six-day event also typically gives audiences access to panels and Q&A sessions.
Previously unveiled featured speakers this year include Warner Chappell Music co-chair and CEO Guy Moot, Signal And Cipher chief Ian Beacraft and authors Douglas Rushkoff and Joost Van Druenen.
Among SXSW’s partners for the 2023 edition: Anniversary Group, Atomic Music Group, Athens in Austin, British Music Embassy, Don Giovanni Records, Fire Records, FOCUS Wales, Gorilla vs Bear, Jazz re:freshed Outernational, Pop Montreal, M for Montreal, Music From Ireland, New West Records, Space Agency, and Wide Days Scotland.
Next year will also bring SXSW to Sydney, Australia for seven days and nights from Oct. 15-22, 2023, marking the event’s first foray outside of the United States. Claire Collins was recently announced as head of music for the event Down Under.
SXSW signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, the companies announced in April 2021, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
Round Two List of Artists:
7ebra (Malmö SWEDEN)Abracadabra (Oakland CA)Adwaith (Carmarthen UK-WALES)Air Waves (Brooklyn NY)ALASKALASKA (London UK-ENGLAND)Ambré (New Orleans LA)Anastasia Coope (Cold Spring NY)Andrea Magee (Austin TX)Andrew Farriss (Barraba AUSTRALIA)Annie Blackman (Brooklyn NY)Annie Hamilton (Sydney AUSTRALIA)Aoife Nessa Frances (Dublin IRELAND)Ask Carol (Auma NORWAY)ÄTNA (Dresden GERMANY)Augustine (Stockholm SWEDEN)Ava Vegas (Berlin GERMANY)Aysanabee (Toronto CANADA)Balaklava Blues (Toronto CANADA)BALTHVS (Bogota COLOMBIA)Begonia (Winnipeg CANADA)Bellah (London UK-ENGLAND)Bella White (Calgary CANADA)Bells Larsen (Montreal CANADA)be your own PET (Nashville TN)Big Cream (Bologna ITALY)Big Wy’s Brass Band (Austin TX)BILK (Essex UK-ENGLAND)Billy King & The Bad Bad Bad (Austin TX)Blxckie (Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA)Bona Fide (Copenhagen DENMARK)Boy Golden (Winnipeg CANADA)Brad stank (Liverpool UK-ENGLAND)Brittany Davis (Maple Valley WA)Caleb De Casper (Austin TX)Camilla George (London UK-ENGLAND)Candeleros (Madrid SPAIN)The Carolyn (Atlanta GA)Carver Commodore (Florence AL)Casey Lowry (Chesterfield UK-ENGLAND)Catbite (Philadelphia PA)CHAMELEON LIME WHOOPIEPIE (Tokyo JAPAN)Cheekface (Los Angeles CA)CHERYM (Derry UK-N. IRELAND)Chickasaw Mudd Puppies (Athens GA)Child Seat (Los Angeles CA)Christopher Brown (Mamaroneck NY)Cimarron615 (Nashville TN)CIVIC (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Cloudland Canyon (Memphis TN)CODY JON (Sydney AUSTRALIA)The Color Brown (Carolina PUERTO RICO)Constant Smiles (Ridgewood NY)Corook (Nashville TN)The Courettes (Mariager DENMARK)cowboyy (Portsmouth UK-ENGLAND)Coyle Girelli (New York NY)DAIISTAR (Austin TX)Dana Gillespie (London UK-ENGLAND)Dan Davidson (Edmonton CANADA)Daniel Villarreal (Chicago IL)DAT GARCIA (Monte Grande ARGENTINA)Death Valley Girls (Los Angeles CA)deca joins (Taipei TAIWAN)Decent Criminal (Santa Rosa CA)Del Castillo (Austin TX)DESTA FRENCH (London UK-ENGLAND)Dhruv Sangari and The National Sufi Ensemble (Washington DC)Diatom Deli (Taos NM)Disco Doom (Zurich SWITZERLAND)Dream Wife (London UK-ENGLAND)El Combo Oscuro (Austin TX)Elephant Sessions (Inverness UK-SCOTLAND)English Teacher (Leeds UK-ENGLAND)Enjoyable Listens (Oxford UK-ENGLAND)Enumclaw (Tacoma WA)Estereomance (El Paso TX)Esther Rose (New Orleans LA)Evan Bartels (Tobias NE)Fake Fruit (Oakland CA)Fergus McCreadie (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)Floodlights (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)Foley (Auckland NEW ZEALAND)Font (Austin TX)Fonteyn (Salt Lake City UT)The Foreign Resort (Copenhagen DENMARK)Fotocrime (Louisville KY)Fraud Perry (Montreal CANADA)Frost Children (New York NY)Future Crib (Nashville TN)Garrett T. Capps & NASA Country (San Antonio TX)The Garrys (Saskatoon CANADA)Gay Meat (Wilmington NC)Georgia Lines (Auckland NEW ZEALAND)Geskle (Worcester MA)GEWALT (Berlin GERMANY)GIRLI (London UK-ENGLAND)Girl Scout (Stockholm SWEDEN)THE GOA EXPRESS (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Gold Fang (Sydney AUSTRALIA)Good Looks (Austin TX)GracieHorse (Los Angeles CA)Graham Reynolds (Austin TX)Graham Reynolds & The Golden Arm Trio (Austin TX)Gus Englehorn (Montreal CANADA)Hamish Hawk (Edinburgh UK-SCOTLAND)THE HARA (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Heartworms (London UK-ENGLAND)Hembree (Kansas City KS)HIEN (Budapest HUNGARY)Holly Montgomery (Falls Church VA)Housekeys (Fort Worth TX)Huntly (Melbourne AUSTRALIA)The Hypochondriacs (Fredericton CANADA)Igor Grohotsky (Kyiv UKRAINE)Iona Zajac (Glasgow UK-SCOTLAND)IOTA PHI (Athens GREECE)Ishmael Ensemble (Bristol UK-ENGLAND)IST IST (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Jake Whiskin (Leeds UK-ENGLAND)JayWood (Winnipeg CANADA)Jaz Karis (London UK-ENGLAND)JER (Gainesville FL)Jessica Winter (London UK-ENGLAND)JM Stevens (Austin TX)Johnny Chops (Austin TX)Júlia Colom (Valldemossa SPAIN)July Talk (Toronto CANADA)Junk Drawer (Belfast UK-N. IRELAND)Kadeem Tyrell (London UK-ENGLAND)KALLITECHNIS (Montreal CANADA)Kalpee (Lange Park TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO)Kalu & The Electric Joint (Austin TX)Kate Davis (Frederick MD)Katie Toupin (Lexington KY)Katy Rea (Brooklyn NY)KAZKA (Kyiv UKRAINE)Kid Bookie (London UK-ENGLAND)Kill Lincoln (Washington DC)Kindsight (Copenhagen DENMARK)KING STINGRAY (Nhulunbuy AUSTRALIA)KOKO (Pesaro ITALY)Koleżanka (Brooklyn NY)La Paloma (Madrid SPAIN)Larkins (Manchester UK-ENGLAND)Laszlo and the Hidden Strength (New York, NY)Lauren Ann (Newry UK-N. 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This story is part of Billboard‘s The Year in Touring package — read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
Since opening in April, the Moody Center in Austin, has reshaped touring in central Texas, welcoming a bevy of star talent, including John Mayer, George Straight, Roger Waters, The Killers, and Boxscore record-breaker Harry Styles, to name a few. Over 36 shows, the building now tops Billboard’s year end Top Venues (10,0001-15,000 capacity) chart, grossing more than $62.7 million in the process according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Averaging $1.7 million per show, the Oak View Group-owned arena took in more than $5 million more than its closest competitor, OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, which reported more than 110 concerts.
Moody Center general manager Jeff Nickler says the arena’s success is, first and foremost, due to the city of Austin. Dubbed the live music capitol of the world, Austin was without a proper arena prior to Moody Center and Nickler says the growing population had tons of pent-up demand for big name acts.
“A lot of major tours and artists were skipping the market due to the lack of a premiere venue. So, Oak View Group, Live Nation, [Live Nation-owned] C3 Presents, and [actor] Matthew McConaughey came into the market and we privately financed this building,” says Nickler. “We believed in the music in this market and that investment has paid off in a huge way.”
Moody Center does not have a professional sports team tenant (though the Texas Longhorns basketball programs play there after the arena took over the space from their former home, the 45-year-old Frank Erwin Center on University of Texas’ campus) and has been able to fill its calendar with major artists, many of whom regularly fill larger venues. According to Nickler, the arena’s draw is an amalgam of factors. First, venue partner Live Nation (who has had a record-setting year in revenue and could see its biggest year yet in 2023) has incentive to route their big tours through the new building like Post Malone, Florence + The Machine and Kendrick Lamar. But Moody Center remains an open building, meaning it books tours with any and all promoters including Live Nation competitor AEG.
“Then there is the Irving Azoff effect,” adds Nickler. Azoff is a co-owner of OVG and The Azoff Company manages acts including Styles, Eagles, and Lizzo – all of whom played the arena in 2022.
Styles conducted a six-night run at Moody Center in September and October selling 86,000 tickets and grossing $19.2 million. The multi-night stint was one of many from big artists who could easily fill larger capacity venues in competing markets including Dallas and Houston.
“We see this trend of continuing for artists to do multiple nights in the market,” says Nickler. George Strait and Willie Nelson, the Eagles, Styles and Mayer all did multiple night stints at the arena this year. There is an incentive for artists and promoters to play consecutive nights since it cuts down on bills from labor, marketing and more can cut a budget in half.
Another major advantage to playing Moody Center comes from its floor space. Unlike most arenas designed for sports, Moody Center can hold up to 3,000 fans on its floor compared to an industry average of 2,200, according to Nickler. An artist can significantly boost their grosses with the roughly 800 extra premium seats.
“Even though we have less seats, we can out punch our weight class because of the design of the building, the viability of the market and the ability to charge higher ticket prices,” says Nickler. “That’s a huge factor in why you see that giant number for those tour grosses.”
This story is part of Billboard‘s The Year in Touring package — read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
The touring industry’s comeback from the pandemic brought record revenues and ticket sales for the world’s largest promoter, Live Nation, No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Top Promoters ranking.
Driven by mega tours by Bad Bunny (who had the highest grossing tour of the year), the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Weeknd, Live Nation grossed $4.19 billion and sold 42.3 million tickets from 4,789 in the 2022 tracking period, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore covering a Nov. 1, 2021 – Oct. 31, 2022, collection period.
Live Nation’s reported gross was more than the combined $3.9 billion reported by the promoters ranked from Nos. 2-10.
While Live Nation benefitted from strong demand for arena shows, Cowen and Company analyst Stephen Glagola says Live Nation’s global distribution scale, customizable platform for event managers and its ability to finance artists add to their competitive edge.
“The $9 billion in artists’ fees paid this year is one of their biggest advantages,” Glagola tells Billboard, referencing money Live Nation collects through ticketing and other business areas that it returns to the artist.
As a promoter, Live Nation also gives artists financial guarantees as much as 10 months in advance of events. While that makes Live Nation vulnerable to sharp declines in attendance due to sudden events like a COVID-19 outbreak, it is also a persuasive tool to lock in the biggest artists’ tours.
Live Nation had three of the top 10-highest grossing tours of 2022: Bad Bunny was No. 1, grossing $373.5 million; Red Hot Chili Peppers were No. 6, grossing $177 million; and The Weeknd was No. 10, with $131.1 million.
While promotion is considered a low-margin business for Live Nation, Glagola says, it “drives the flywheel” of the company’s overall economics.
“By getting more artists to promote and tour, it drives some of their higher margin, ancillary revenue, such as food and beverage and hospitality within their owned and operated venues, and the expansion of ticketing,” says Glagola.
On the company’s most recent earnings call, Live Nation executives said the busy 2023 touring season is fueling high demand for live music, despite ongoing questions about the potential impact high inflation and tighter consumer budgets may have on ticket sales.
So far, the company is seeing surging demand.
“Ticket sales for shows in 2023 are pacing even stronger than they were heading into 2022, up double-digits year-over-year, excluding sales from rescheduled shows,” said Rapino. Through the third quarter, Ticketmaster sold over 115 million tickets, up 37% from the same period in 2019. (Live Nation uses 2019 as the most recent year comparable to just its current business.)
Contrary to many industries, supply fuels demand, analysts at Cowen said.
“It has to do with the fact that Taylor Swift only comes on tour every few years,” Glagola says. “When she comes through your hometown you want to see her.”
However, popularity has its pitfalls. Live Nation faces lawsuits and a U.S. Senate hearing next year related to the Nov. 15 Ticketmaster pre-sale for Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour, which saw widespread service delays and website crashes as hundreds of thousands of fans tried — and many failed — to buy tickets.
It’s been a whirlwind 18 months for Måneskin. After nabbing the trophy at Eurovision in May 2021, the Italian rockers notched a win that’s eluded most of that contest’s victors: they scored a Stateside hit on the Billboard Hot 100, via a furious garage rock revamp of the Four Seasons’ “Beggin’” no less. After that went on to top the Alternative Airplay and Rock & Alternative Airplay charts, they followed it up with another Alternative Airplay No. 1, the RHCP-flavored “Supermodel.”
Now, amidst their American leg of The Loud Kids Tour, the quartet is pulling off another trend-flaunting feat: They’re making teenagers care about a new rock band for the first time in years. Of course, this isn’t to say there aren’t rock concerts attracting Gen Z crowds or worthy newcomers netting fervent followings. But Måneskin are one of the few young rock bands making mainstream headway in America — especially among audiences that see the CD as a retro artifact.
Hell, if you Google “Måneskin concert,” the search engine’s first “people also ask” suggestion is, “How old do you have to be to go to a Måneskin concert?” And sure enough, for two sold-out nights at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom (Dec. 2-3), a predominantly teen and twentysomething crowd slathered in glitter gave a rabid response to the glam-sleaze rockers.
With good reason. Frontman Damiano David might pull you in with his lithe hip swings and shirtless stage prowling (the band puts the ‘skin’ in Måneskin), but he seals the deal with a controlled earthy growl that comes across like masterful auditory edging – particularly during “Touch Me,” a live highlight that has yet to see release on Spotify.
Similarly, while in NYC, guitarist Thomas Raggi ripped off a mesmerizing guitar odyssey during the encore that conjured up the shades of Eddie Hazel’s expressive, electric soloing on Funkadelic’s classic “Maggot Brain.”
But it’s not just technical prowess that makes Måneskin come across with crowds: simply put, they know how to put on a goddamn show. Whether it’s Raggi lying on the ground while slithering under bassist Victoria de Angelis or David feeding off drummer Ethan Torchio’s ominous and propulsive drumming during sinuous songs like “I Wanna Be Your Slave,” it’s hard to take your eyes away from the quartet as they feed off each other. And when “Slave” segues into a cover of the Stooges’ spiritual predecessor “I Wanna Be Your Dog” on stage, it’s a fittingly ferocious homage to the Italian band’s American god.
The band’s live prowess is no surprise for anyone who caught their performances at this year’s VMAs or SNL. But in a world where unimpugnable veteran rockers struggle to make their live show seem sexy and dangerous, it’s a bit of a godsend to find a band like Måneskin who remind us that rock can be unpredictable, sensual and showy – both onstage and onscreen.
With so much time between the tours of 2019 to early 2020 and late 2021-22, new arena stars were minted in the in-between, ready to play the biggest stages of their career despite a possibly limited tour history. Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa transferred the goodwill of chart-topping hits into juiced-up arena tours, now suddenly reliable for sell-outs due to the ghost of success during the pandemic.
Also transforming from a club-level up-and-comer to a global touring powerhouse is Rosalía. The Spanish singer-songwriter’s Motomami World Tour — named after her album released in March of this year — earned $28.1 million and sold 343,000 tickets across three continents, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. With more dates to come, she lands at No. 7 on the year-end Top Latin Tours chart.
Before Rosalía became an arena-conquering superstar, she was playing scattered headline shows in clubs in North America. Her April 2019 shows at New York’s Webster Hall, San Francisco’s Regency Center Grand Ballroom and L.A.’s The Mayan all sold less than 1,500 tickets while she built her base via festival sets around the world. She finished that year with theater shows in London and Paris, and a few arena shows in Barcelona and Madrid.
A sludge of one-off singles, award show performances, and ultimately, the release of 2022’s Motomami helped fill the gap between tours. Since then, she and her team scaled her live business.
Rosalía’s 2019 concerts in Barcelona and Madrid transformed into a 12-date tour in her native Spain. Those shows grossed $13.4 million and sold 154,000 tickets.
Performances at the ‘19 Argentina and Chile installments of Lollapalooza became 11 shows on the Motomami World Tour, adding $7.5 million and 114,000 tickets.
And her North American club shows ballooned into 13 shows in large theaters, earning $7.3 million from 75,000 tickets.
The Motomami World Tour has played 36 shows so far, already a fuller run than 2019’s El Mal Querer Tour. And with increased venue capacity and ticket prices, Rosalía’s pace is that of a completely different artist than her pre-pandemic touring. Her North American shows in ’19 averaged $52,000 and 1,369 tickets. Fast forward to her recent domestic leg, and she’s earning $558,445 and 5,781 tickets – more than 10 times her last tour.
The Motomami World Tour has a string of nine European arena dates left before the end of the year. Even without those grosses or attendance totals reported yet, the venues and routing is already outsized compared to the pair of major-market shows in Europe in 2019.
Rosalía joins the aforementioned club of acts that include Bad Bunny, Eilish, Lipa and more, who have leveled up to arenas between tours separated by the pandemic. But unlike those acts’ top 10 albums (on the Billboard 200) and songs (on the Billboard Hot 100), Rosalía’s crossover success remains relatively limited. She has spent one week in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 and has yet to crack the region on the Hot 100.
Elsewhere, Rosalía has received widespread critical acclaim for Motomami (as with her previous albums), engaged on TikTok, and built a name as one of the most exciting new live acts of the last decade. As the monogenre continues to fracture, it only makes sense that this pop-Latin-electro Spanish-singing hybrid artist is one of the most vital touring acts of the year.
Back on the road after a three-year break following his record-breaking The Divide Tour, Ed Sheeran tops the year-end Top Ticket Sales chart after playing to more than 3 million fans in Europe in 2022.
This is not the first time that Ed Sheeran has won a year-end Boxscore trophy. The Divide Tour made him the first artist to repeat atop Billboard’s annual Top Tours ranking, winning the gold in 2018 and 2019. The first of those two victories was the biggest year-end total in Boxscore history, with $429.5 million. Further, that tour ended in 2019 with the highest gross and biggest attendance of any tour ever, at $776.4 million and 8.88 million tickets.
Now back with The Mathematics Tour, Sheeran winds up at No. 3 on the 2022 Top Tours chart with $246.3 million. But separated from gross revenue, his current tour is No. 1 on the Top Ticket Sales chart, ranking the top tours by total cumulative attendance. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, Sheeran moved 3,047,696 tickets in the 2022 tracking period.
Sheeran played 63 shows between Dec. 13, 2021, and Sept. 25, 2022, averaging out to 48,376 tickets per night. But that is a misleading number, as the first 11 of those shows were “rehearsal” dates, setting the British singer-songwriter in small clubs and theaters in London and Dublin. Those shows ranged from 357 tickets at Dublin’s Whelans on April 19 to 5,230 tickets at London’s Royal Albert Hall on March 27. All 11 shows combined to 16,810; even at the top of that range, he was still selling less than 15% of the year’s average.
Removing those rehearsal shows from the equation, the picture of The Mathematics Tour comes into focus. Sheeran’s 52 “proper” tour dates in 2022 paced 58,287 tickets.
Almost every market – each one except for Helsinki, Finland – required multiple shows. Sheeran mostly played double-header weekends, moving from city to city and maximizing audiences with Friday and Saturday shows. He topped off with a five-show run at London’s Wembley Stadium, moving 420,269 tickets.
And while there is no attendance-based chart for Boxscores, the Wembley streak does have the highest attendance total of any engagement this year, beating Coldplay’s four shows at Paris’ Stade de France by more than 100,000 tickets.
Elsewhere, Sheeran broke the 200,000 threshold with four shows at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium and Munich’s Olympiastadion.
These numbers are huge, but even compared to his record-setting predecessor, The Mathematics Tour is ahead of schedule. The Divide Tour included three European legs in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Those runs averaged 14,321 tickets (the 2017 leg was in arenas), 54,485 and 51,898, respectively. Sheeran’s ’22 stadium pace is 7% in front of Divide’s strongest year, setting him up quite well as he prepares to leave his home base.
The Mathematics Tour is scheduled for 12 shows in Australia in February and March, followed by 24 shows in North America throughout the summer. Whether or not Sheeran can match (or even approach) The Divide Tour’s three-year total may be entirely up to him. Fans showed up in droves to his European shows, but the expanse of his pre-pandemic tour was so huge. And not only did the tour last, it went wide, including shows in Asia, South America and South Africa. If Mathematics routing remains modest, it will be difficult to triple the tour’s current totals.
Based on his scheduled 36 shows in 2023, The Mathematics Tour should pick up another 1.5 million to 1.75 million tickets as it approaches the 5 million mark. Should more dates be added, the sky’s the limit.