A concert tour (or simply tour ) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often, concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific tour with a particular album or product. Especially in the popular music world, such tours can become large-scale enterprises that last for several months or even years, are seen by hundreds of thousands or millions of people, and bring in millions of dollars in ticket revenues. A performer who embarks on a concert tour is called a touring artist .
33-542: Farewell Yellow Brick Road was the forty-ninth concert tour by English musician Elton John . It began in Allentown, Pennsylvania , US, on 8 September 2018, and ended in Stockholm , Sweden , on 8 July 2023. It consisted of 330 concerts worldwide. The tour's name and its poster reference John's 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road . According to Billboard , the tour grossed $ 939.1 million from 328 shows, making it
66-828: A hip injury. On 23 June 2021, a stadium leg was announced which was to go across Europe , North America and Oceania . It should have started in Frankfurt in the Deutsche Bank Park , but the new stadium stage had already been used in Oslo in the Telenor Arena . The stadium tour stopped in several major cities such as Milan , Paris , Liverpool , London , Philadelphia , Chicago , Washington D.C. , Las Vegas , in Los Angeles with three shows at Dodger Stadium , Melbourne , Sydney and Brisbane . After it
99-792: A new form of theatrical entertainment, a fusion of song, performance art, innovative stage craft, and state-of-the-art technology. She managed to popularize the Las Vegas residency as a desirable way for top artists to essentially tour in place, letting their fans come to them. American singer Lady Gaga , who cancelled the 2018 European leg of her Joanne World Tour , signed for a Las Vegas residency to help manage her fibromyalgia illness, which can be exacerbated by touring. The 2015 study by charity Help Musicians found that over 60% of musicians suffered from depression or other psychological issues, with touring an issue for 71% of respondents. List of highest grossing concert tours The following
132-453: A tour are denoted in different ways, dependent on the artist and type of tour, but the most common means of separating legs are dates (especially if there is a long break at some point), countries and/or continents, or different opening acts. In the largest concert tours, it has become more common for different legs to employ separate touring production crews and equipment, local to each geographical region. Concert tours are often administered on
165-485: Is Taylor Swift 's Eras Tour , with $ 2.089 billion earned from 125 shows. In 2024, Coldplay 's Music of the Spheres World Tour became the second tour to gross $ 1 billion in revenue. In third place is Elton John 's Farewell Yellow Brick Road , with a total gross of $ 939 million from 2018–2023. On fourth place is Ed Sheeran 's ÷ Tour , with a gross of $ 776.2 million. On fifth place
198-400: Is U2 's 360° Tour , with $ 736.4 million. Global touring revenue reported to Billboard Boxscore exceeded $ 5.5 billion in 2016. Due to the collapse of record sales in the 21st century, concert tours have become a major source of income for recording artists. Besides the tickets, touring also generates money from the sales of merchandise and meet-and-greet packages. However,
231-443: Is a concert tour intended to signal the retirement of a singer, the disbanding of a band, or the end of a show's run. Many of the tours end up not being the last tour, with frequent regroupings, or revivals of shows. Luciano Pavarotti 's 2004 tour and Kenny Rogers 's 2015–2017 tour are examples of farewell tours which were the last to be staged before their deaths. As of October 2024, the highest-grossing concert tour of all time
264-508: Is a list of concert tours that have generated the most gross income . The data and rankings come largely from reports by trade publications Billboard and Pollstar . Billboard , which launched the boxscore ranking in 1975 through its spin-off magazine Amusement Business , has featured the ranking in its own magazine since the issue date of October 3, 1981. Pollstar began reporting box office data on November 29, 1981, but it has relatively little information about pre- 2000 tours. In
297-439: Is a peculiar thing, it doesn't suit me particularly well. I'm a real homebody and I get so much joy in the small things." A concert residency concept is offered as an alternative to performers who just need to stay in one venue and the fans come to see them. The concept has been revitalized in the 21st century by Canadian superstar Céline Dion with the success of her A New Day... residency (2003–2007). Her residency introduced
330-437: Is a retrospective of her career to that point, where each act of the concert represents one of her albums . In another case, artists embark on a concert tour to celebrate the anniversary of their past albums, such as U2 's 2017 tour to mark the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree (1987) and Janet Jackson 's 2019 tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). A farewell tour
363-456: Is largely dominated by bands and male soloists of rock music , some of the highest-grossing tours have featured pop stars such as Swift, Ed Sheeran , Harry Styles , Beyoncé , Pink , and Madonna , as well as country singer Garth Brooks . The Rolling Stones set the all-time tour-revenue record three times (1990, 1995, and 2006); their Voodoo Lounge Tour held the record for 11 years (1995–2006), longer than any other record-holder. They are
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#1732798097632396-589: The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) at the 75th ceremony in 2024, allowing John to attain EGOT status. Elton's Glastonbury set on 25 June was broadcast on BBC One and BBC Radio 2 . The set list was changed several times during the tour. Starting from minor changes in terms of releasing and adding a few songs until the concert in Sydney on 7 March 2020, to a restructuring of
429-600: The third-highest-grossing tour of all time. On 24 January 2018, it was announced that Elton John would be retiring from touring and would soon embark on a three-year tour. The first concert was announced to take place at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania on 8 September 2018 followed by an extensive tour of the United States and Canada before moving on to Europe. John cited spending time with his family as
462-584: The 2022 European stadium leg grossed $ 69.2 million in 2022, resulting in a combined worldwide total of $ 749.9 million from 5 million tickets sold by November 2022. In January 2023, the Oceania leg grossed $ 40.9 million and sold 242,000 tickets. In total, the Australia & NZ shows in 2020 & 2023 have sold 875,000 tickets alone. By the end of the Oceania stadium leg in January 2023, Billboard reported that
495-581: The UK and Europe for 2022 and 2023, when the tour wrapped up. At the 27 March 2022 performance in Lincoln, Nebraska, a live hookup was established during the concert and Elton's Oscars charity benefit, which he had not missed in 30 years of hosting, but opted to perform in Lincoln on that date because of the postponements. During the 24 September 2022 performance at Washington, D.C., United States President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden invited John to perform at
528-587: The United Kingdom and Ireland was announced on 8 November 2018. The original announcement detailed sixteen concerts taking place across England, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. It was later postponed to 2021, along with the rest of the second European leg and the third North American leg, due to the COVID-19 pandemic . On 15 September 2021, the European leg was postponed to 2023 after John sustained
561-596: The White House, where he was presented with the National Humanities Medal . On 2 December 2022, John announced the final show of his UK Tour would be headlining Glastonbury Festival in 2023 saying "There is no more fitting way to say goodbye to my British fans". The show was watched by 120,000 people on site and with an average of 7.3 million viewers on BBC One , breaking the record of Diana Ross , who held it with 3.1 million viewers, making him
594-602: The Years That Made His Legend , directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish . The film is slated to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival as Elton John: Never Too Late . Before that, the Dodger Stadium concert on 20 November 2022 was livestreamed on Disney+ as Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium . That concert featured guest appearances by Brandi Carlile , Kiki Dee and Dua Lipa . The recording would go on to win
627-403: The early 21st century, tour revenue skyrocketed as record sales collapsed and musicians began relying on live shows for their income. The first tours to surpass $ 100 million in revenue, according to reports, were Michael Jackson 's Bad World Tour and Pink Floyd 's A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour , which both ran from 1987 to 1989. In 2023, Taylor Swift 's Eras Tour allegedly became
660-412: The first tour to collect US$ 1 billion in revenue, based on estimates by Pollstar . In October 2024, Forbes estimated the tour's gross at US$ 1.93 billion from 121 shows, though Swift has yet to officially report the gross. In 2024, Coldplay 's Music of the Spheres World Tour became the first to gross over US$ 1 billion in revenue based on officially reported boxscores. While the touring industry
693-434: The local level by concert promoters or by performing arts presenters . Usually, small concert tours are managed by a road manager whereas large concert tours are managed by a tour manager . The main challenge in concert tours is how to move the performance's logistics from one venue to another venue, especially for a transcontinental tour. Tour logistics should be very organized and everything has to happen on time and in
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#1732798097632726-908: The most watched festival act ever. The tour ended in Stockholm, Sweden, on 8 July 2023. John announced the farewell tour in January 2018 with arena legs in both North America and Europe, to begin in Pennsylvania in September 2018. By the end of the first leg of the tour in North American arenas, on 18 March 2019, it had grossed over $ 125 million and won a Billboard Music Award in the category Top Rock Tour. The tour's first three North American legs combined to $ 268.2 million over 116 shows, while his North American stadium run from July – Nov. 2022 brought in $ 222.1 million across 33 shows. The tour's 2019 European arena leg grossed $ 49.9 million, while
759-555: The only act to have the highest-grossing tour of the decade twice, in the 1990s and the 2000s. U2 has mounted the highest-grossing tour of the year at least eight times, more than any other act. This list represents the top-grossing tour of each year according to either Pollstar or Billboard Boxscore (formerly Amusement Business ). The two publications may differ on their annual figures due to different total of dates reported or different year-end tracking period. For example, Pollstar listed Madonna 's Sticky & Sweet Tour as
792-635: The reason for his retirement. Tickets went on sale on 24 February and within hours tickets for the first 60 shows were sold out. Further North American tour dates were announced on 26 September 2018. John's official website stated: "Salt Lake City, Tacoma, Memphis, Charlotte and Western Canada as well as return dates in Toronto, Philadelphia, Nashville, Cleveland and more". Thirteen days later, concerts were revealed for Lille, Paris, Bordeaux and Nîmes, taking place in Summer 2019. A Winter 2020 tour taking place in
825-449: The record for highest-grossing tour in history. On 30 May 2018, it was announced that Elton John had partnered with Peex to personalise the volume for fans' concert experiences, plus recording the show to relive it. On 18 May 2022, Disney Original Documentary and Disney+ announced that John's November 2022 shows at Dodger Stadium would be recorded for a documentary titled Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and
858-410: The right order as planned. Autoweek magazine estimated 30 to 50 trucks were required by Taylor Swift 's The 1989 World Tour to bring all the stage, sound equipment, instruments, props, and clothes. When Beyoncé visited the United Kingdom with her 2016 The Formation World Tour , it took seven Boeing 747 air freighters and a fleet of more than 70 trucks to get her stage set and other gear to
891-563: The set list after the lockdown. The first set list is from the concert in Stuttgart , Germany where the first set list was played, which was used in this form until John's last concert before the lockdown. This set list is characterized by the use of more deep cuts than the others. John played songs such as " Indian Sunset ", " All the Girls Love Alice " and " Believe ", which were rarely played live by John. The second set list
924-501: The top tour of 2008 with $ 281.6 million, but Billboard ranked it third on their year-end chart whose tracking period ended on November 11, 2008, thus excluding 20 shows by Madonna. In 2019, Billboard listed Ed Sheeran 's ÷ Tour as the top tour of the year ($ 223.7 million), instead of Pink 's Beautiful Trauma World Tour ($ 215.2 million) as reported by Pollstar . However, Billboard ' s figure included Sheeran's gross from November 2018 shows; therefore, Pollstar ' s figure
957-470: The tour has grossed $ 817.9 million from 278 shows and over 5.3 million tickets sold, making it the highest-grossing tour of all-time after surpassing the previous record-holder, Ed Sheeran 's ÷ Tour at $ 776.2 million. It became the first tour in history to surpass $ 800 million, and $ 900 million. By the final show in July 2023, the tour surpassed $ 939.1 million in gross and 6.1 million ticket sales, extending
990-444: The touring business suffered in the early 2020s because of the COVID-19 pandemic . Pollstar estimated the total lost revenue for the industry in 2020 at more than $ 30 billion. The mobility of concert tours requires a lot of costs, time, and energy. It is very common for musicians to not see family members for over a year during their touring. British singer Adele expressed her unhappiness of concert tours, saying "Touring
1023-577: The venues. The logistics phase of that tour did not include transportation of the backstage staff, musicians, performers, and the singer herself. The majority of concert tours are part of a promotional campaign to support an album release. Hence, new songs from the respective album are included on its tour's setlist . Some tours are known as "greatest hits tours" or "reunion tour" without any new material or specific album release, such as Fleetwood Mac 's 2009 Unleashed tour and No Doubt 's 2009 Summer Tour . Taylor Swift 's The Eras Tour (2023–2024)
Farewell Yellow Brick Road - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-573: Was announced in January 2022 that the tour would resume, music director Davey Johnstone stated that the band would wear masks and have tests every two days during the tour. John's first show back took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. He had to temporarily postpone two shows in Dallas after testing positive for COVID-19 and experiencing mild symptoms, and resumed the tour again after making a full recovery. John would go on to perform tour dates across
1089-615: Was used from the first concert after the lockdown to the last concert of the tour, except for the Glastonbury Festival performance. This set sticks with John's greatest record and live hits, with the exception of the deep cut " Have Mercy on the Criminal ". This set list is from Elton John's concert at the Glastonbury Festival, which was also his last concert in the UK. Concert tour Different segments of longer concert tours are known as "legs". The different legs of
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