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 .
50-528: The Loud Tour was the fourth overall and third world concert tour by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna . Performing in over twenty countries in the Americas and Europe, the tour was launched in support of Rihanna's fifth studio album Loud (2010). Critics acclaimed the show for its liveliness and higher caliber of quality when compared to Rihanna's previous tours. The Loud Tour was a large commercial success, experiencing demand for an extension of shows in
100-463: 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 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
150-465: A Bow " and says goodbye to the audience. The encore begins with " Love the Way You Lie (Part II) " which Rihanna performs on top of a piano, before moving into the final song, " Umbrella ", with Rihanna in a gold outfit, dancing with her dancers, with confetti falling from the ceiling and golden rain drops falling in the backdrops. A performance of " We Found Love " was added to the setlist and closed
200-510: A fan onstage and gives him/her a lap dance as she descends back beneath the stage for a costume change. A brief guitar solo follows performed by Nuno Bettencourt . Rihanna returns to the stage atop a pink tank shooting puffs of smoke, with her and her dancers dressed in military gear, to perform " Raining Men ". After climbing out the tank, Rihanna then performs " Hard " dancing around the stage while her dancers wield pink rifles. A mashup of "Breakin' Dishes" and Sheila E. 's " The Glamorous Life "
250-473: A lighter and ironic touch". Claiming that Rihanna is "at her steamy-best" in the "sultry" piece, the Hindustan Times said that the piece "is a must-watch, not just for its steam factor but for its visual and aesthetic sense too". Grazia also gave a positive review by saying that the advert was, among other things, "saucy" and "exciting". Though the song has never been performed live as part of
300-461: A neon-tuned bubble, the Barbadian singer delivered an enthralling performance that never let up." The tour grossed $ 90 million overall, making it the 7th highest-grossing tour of 2011. Average ticket price of the ticket was $ 74.95, and the average tickets sold were 15,395. The total tickets sold were 1,200,800 and the average gross was $ 1,153,846 per show. Rihanna's performance during Rock In Rio
350-768: 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. Skin (Rihanna song) " Skin "
400-423: A platform behind purple neon bars. The song then moves into a solo version of " Hate That I Love You " with Rihanna sitting in a chair next to the guitarist. The segment ends with " California King Bed " with smoke covering the stage floor, followed by another guitar solo by Bettencourt. The third and final interlude features a remix of " Pon de Replay " with images from Rihanna's music videos. " What's My Name " opens
450-505: A platform raising her from below stage and back down when needed, a moving section of the floor to convey her from one side of the stage to another, videos, writhing dancers, a cannon, arena-rock guitar solos, umpteen costume changes and maybe a record for the amount of times a performer has screamed 'Montreal!' in the centre. The fans ate it up." Jon Brean of the Minneapolis Star Tribune remarked, "The Barbadian singer
500-451: 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) is a retrospective of her career to that point, where each act of
550-515: A televised performance, the song was featured on the set list of the Loud Tour . Before she performed "Skin", Rihanna appeared on stage with a set similar to that of her performance of " S&M " remix with Britney Spears at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards , wearing a black tuxedo and pink tie to perform a cover of Prince ' s " Darling Nikki ", before transitioning into "S&M". As "S&M" started, Rihanna removed her tuxedo to reveal
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#1732781142129600-438: A white PVC body suit. After performing "S&M", Rihanna performed "Skin" while laying on raised platform, and at near the end of the performance said "this is the part of the show when we like to have a little fun – who wants to come up here and get freaky with me?" and takes a man out of the audience and pins them down on the platform, where she provocatively and sexually gyrates and grinds him as they are lowered under
650-485: 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
700-400: 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,
750-408: Is 'Skin,' a contender for anti-gravity slow jam of 2010 – a match for Trey Songz 's 'Red Lipstick' and Usher 's 'Mars vs Venus. ' " USA Today ' s Steve Jones also put the song in his list of tracks from Loud to consider downloading. Jerry Shriver of the same publication found "down-and-dirty-ness" in the chorus of the song. James Skinner of BBC Online said that the line "I like it rough"
800-439: 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
850-605: Is a song by Bajan recording artist Rihanna from her fifth studio album , Loud (2010). The song was written by Kenneth Coby , Ursula Yancy and Rihanna with production helmed by Soundz . Musically, "Skin" is a R&B song that contains influences from pop , dance-pop and dubstep genres, while lyrically, the song is about being in a relationship with someone and wanting to feel their skin. The song received generally positive reviews from critics, as part of their overall review of Loud , praising "Skin " 's compositions as well as Rihanna's sensual vocal performance. The song
900-531: Is more visually and vocally dynamic than she has ever been before." Amanda Ash of the Vancouver Sun stated, "Rihanna knows how to throw a party -a sexy, steamy, tight and-bright bash where yesterday's troubles are crushed beneath mile-high stilettos and drowned by intoxicating club beats", and added, "Rihanna turned Rogers Arena into a giant dance club on Friday night." Nation News Barbados commented, "The name of Rihanna's world tour adequately described
950-427: Is performed next, followed by another mashup of " Run This Town " and " Live Your Life " with Rihanna leaving the stage for another costume change. The second video interlude features Rihanna wearing a red dress while waving sheets of chiffon in the air and ends with the spoken line: "I hate that I love you." Rihanna returns to the stage wearing a bright yellow dress in brown thigh high boots to perform " Unfaithful " on
1000-514: The United Kingdom due to popularity. In London, Rihanna played a record-breaking 10 dates at The O2 Arena . The tour ultimately grossed an estimated value of US$ 90 million from 98 reported shows and a total audience of 1,200,800. The Loud Tour became the seventh-highest-grossing tour of 2011. The tour was officially announced on February 9, 2011 during her Last Girl On Earth Tour (2010-11), when North American dates were revealed. The tour
1050-476: The "slow, torrid buildup". Colin Gentry of 4Music noted that Rihanna appears to be transitioning from singing songs about partying and dancing in clubs to singing about her sexual fantasies and desires, writing "Rihanna swaggers through the album as a woman on the prowl, taking her conquests from the clubs to the bedroom. Demanding to know 'why are you standing over there with your clothes on?' on sultry track Skin,
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#17327811421291100-407: The Barbadian clearly means business." Ryan Dombell of Pitchfork concurred with Stern with regard to "Skin" being the singer's most mature song to date, writing " ' Skin' is her sexiest song yet, a haunted, near-dubstep stunner that wouldn't sound totally out of place on Massive Attack 's Mezzanine ." Ryan Burleson of Consequence commented that Rihanna's combines different emotions in
1150-455: The advert, "Rihanna wears a short blonde wig and enters a vintage car with a bag of clothing, changing in the car and visible in her underwear while a bodyguard keeps watch. She then leaves the car wearing a dark leather jacket and Armani jeans and takes an elevator out of the underground parking lot to meet her partner-in-crime or love interest". Giorgio Armani said that Rihanna was a "pleasure to work with" and said that she "perfectly embodies"
1200-543: The audience was evacuated and the concert was forced to end early. The show wasn't rescheduled. The show began with a short video introduction featuring Rihanna sitting on a throne wearing a black coat and a short red wig. The middle screen splits revealing Rihanna inside a purple ball wearing an electric blue dress. She begins singing " Only Girl (In the World) " surrounded by her dancers all wearing bright neon costumes. The next song, " Disturbia ", follows with Rihanna taking off
1250-452: The blue dress and dancing around in a colorful daisy duke, leading into " Shut Up and Drive " where a car covered in graffiti is present in the middle of the stage. The first segment ends with " Man Down " where Rihanna gets inside the car and descends beneath the stage. The first video interlude titled "Le Sex Shoppe" features Rihanna dressed in white dress and a suit smoking a cigar while the words "sex" and "temptation" are whispered throughout
1300-408: 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 is a concert tour intended to signal
1350-464: The experience at the biggest show to come to Barbados to date. It took a long time in coming, but Rihanna's first major showing in her hometown was definitely well worth the wait. From the endless hits including 'S&M', 'Man Down', 'Hard', 'Pon De Replay' and 'Unfaithful'; the spectacular stage and props to her playing a solo piece on drums, the girl who grew up in nearby Westbury Road was awesome." Irish Independent concluded that, "Strutting across
1400-484: The final section with Rihanna wearing a colorful sequined bra and jean shorts, dancing with her dancers. The next song, " Rude Boy ", features Rihanna surrounded by her male dancers with various television screens in the background. Rihanna then puts on a pair of sunglasses and chants with the audience for " Cheers (Drink to That) ", followed by " Don't Stop the Music " with vigorous choreography. Rihanna then performs " Take
1450-434: The lap dance at the end of the "Skin" routine was "a move that had parents covering their children's eyes". Catriona Stewart Lotte Jeffs, editor of ES Magazine , was one of the audience members who received a lap dance from Rihanna and reacted positively, saying "[i]t was a night I will never forget". Credits and personnel adapted from the liner notes of Loud . Upon the release of Loud , "Skin" charted at number 66 on
1500-465: The lyrics "I got secrets that I wanna show you". Thomas Conner of Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the singer "teases her man" and "lets him at her" as she sings the line "You've waited long enough" before instructing "Don't hold back/you know I like it rough". "Skin" was met with rave reviews. Of the multiple music critics who commented on the song, the majority praised "Skin " 's musical structure and Rihanna's vocal performance. Apart from writing about
1550-486: 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 the local level by concert promoters or by performing arts presenters . Usually, small concert tours are managed by
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1600-406: 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
1650-525: The show starting on November 14. The tour has gained critical acclaim from music critics citing it as "Rihanna's best tour yet". Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun commented that "the two-hour, larger-than-life show lived up to the billing. And then some." Bernard Perusse of the Montreal Gazette stated that the tour was a visual spectacle saying, "Pods, dry ice, sparklers, plumes of smoke,
1700-461: The singer spoke about the tour's development. Rihanna addressed rumors about a special performance to be included on the setlist in order to fully incorporate her fans into the experience, saying: When asked by Seacrest about the fan experience, she joked ""You always know the inside scoop!" before continuing to say "Right now, we just designed the stage. I'm really not supposed to say this, but I want to get you excited... We're building two sections on
1750-555: The song to increase the level of provocativeness, writing "For its part, the Soundz-produced 'Skin' combines these emotions into a five-minute space-hop excursion into the boudoir, driving deep into the id with an austere, though undeniably potent amount of minor chords and bass." Andy Kellman of AllMusic chose "Skin" as one of the highlights on Loud , writing, "One song that sounds nothing like anything else in Rihanna's past
1800-462: The song's "real" hook is "the fuzzy electric guitar" that begins sawing through the melody about three minutes in, and continues building until it reaches "a, er, climactic solo at the very end." Rihanna's vocal range in the song spans from the low note of G 3 to the high note of B♭ 4 . As noted by Emily Mackay of NME , her vocals sound "restrained" and "controlled". Throughout the song, Rihanna sounds "suspenseful" and "sultry" as she sings
1850-409: The song's composition, Daw called the ballad "smoldering" and compared the last minute of the song to Sade ' s " No Ordinary Love " for the song's sensual content, but noted that Adu's song is not as lyrically graphic as "Skin". Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that Rihanna's sensuality in the song is evoked though her use of sexually suggestive moaning and heavy breathing, adding to
1900-546: The spirit of his company. The advert, which was filmed in New York City and shot in monochrome , was also used to launch Armani ' s e-commerce site. The advertisement received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, with The Huffington Post claiming that it was "sizzling". The magazine Stylist called the advert "saucy" and praised the fact that it "combines traces of metropolitan storytelling, cops 'n robbers movies with an ode to film noir, but with
1950-621: The stage [for the fans. They'll be] closer than they've ever been. It's real VIP." CeeLo Green was confirmed to be the support act for the North American leg of the tour in February 2011. Rihanna spoke about Green joining her on tour in a press statement, saying "I'm a huge fan of Cee Lo since his days with Goodie Mob and with Gnarls Barkley. He's a musical genius, continually reinventing himself, and I'm thrilled to have him join me on tour." However, he decided to pull out of performing on
2000-482: The stage as the song's instrumental ends and the lights go out. Rihanna has caused controversy by occasionally opting to perform the act with a woman instead. The sexually suggestive performances of "Skin" have been met with mixed reactions from critics. A review for the Evening Herald argued that Rihanna should strip out the sex. The Daily Record praised Rihanna's Glasgow performance but argued that
2050-542: The stage surrounded by backing dancers, the 23-year-old seemed at home singing in Ireland. 14,000, mostly female, fans enjoyed the set which kicked off at 9.15pm when the singer emerged to thunderous sound effects and a "blitzkreig" [ sic ] of video from a silver shell wearing a luminous blue jacket." Scottish tabloid Daily Record remarked, "R&B superstar Rihanna blew the roof off Glasgow's SECC last night with her aptly-titled Loud tour. Exploding on stage in
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2100-520: 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 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
2150-512: The tour, and cited schedule conflicts for his reason. For his replacement, J. Cole , B.o.B. and DJ Dummy were enlisted to be support acts for the North American leg. For the European leg of the tour, DJ Calvin Harris served as the support act. After a late start to her July 8, 2011, Dallas show, a fire broke out following Rihanna's performance of " California King Bed ." For safety reasons,
2200-499: 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
2250-420: The video. The second segment begins with a cover of Prince 's " Darling Nikki " where Rihanna, dressed in a suit and holding a cane, rubs against her female dancers. The song moves into " S&M " where her female dancers remove her suit to reveal a tight black leotard and chain her to the stage. After a pillow fight with her male dancers, Rihanna then performs "Let Me", followed by " Skin " where Rihanna brings
2300-459: Was a little "uncomfortable in the light of her personal history". Thomas Conner of Chicago Sun-Times commented on Rihanna's sex appeal in the song, writing "the art of her seduction is oh-so slow and merciless". The song was also used in Rihanna's advertisement campaign for Armani Jeans and Emporio Armani Underwear . The advert, which launched the brand's Fall 2011 line, was directed by Johan Renck and photographed by Steven Klein . In
2350-546: Was broadcast live in Brazil on Multishow , Globo.com and Rede Globo , and aired internationally on YouTube . A clip of Rihanna performing "We Found Love" on tour was aired on the Grammy Nominations Concert. Concert tour Different segments of longer concert tours are known as "legs". The different legs of a tour are denoted in different ways, dependent on the artist and type of tour, but
2400-607: Was described as an "all new production, costumes and stage design creating a visual and audio event with the once in a lifetime excitement her fans around the world have come to expect from one of the brightest stars in music today." Speaking about the tour, Rihanna stated that "We're creating an incredible ride with this tour. I'm excited to get out on the road and share my new music from this album. We are going to have an amazing time and I know my fans are ready to get LOUD!" During an interview with Ryan Seacrest after she performed " California King Bed " on American Idol April 14, 2011,
2450-412: Was included on the set list of the Loud Tour (2011), where Rihanna retrieves a man or woman from the audience near the end of the song, and performs a lap-dance whilst on an elevated platform. "Skin" was also used in Rihanna's advertisement campaign for Armani Jeans . "Skin" was written by Kenneth Coby , Ursula Yancy and Rihanna, with production helmed by Coby under his stage name Soundz . The song
2500-541: Was recorded at Studio at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas , Nevada . "Skin" is written in the key of G minor and is set in common time with a moderate groove of 62 beats per minute . "Skin" is a R&B song, that contains elements of dance-pop and dubstep , while the song is composed with bass instruments, synthesizers and an electric guitar. As commented by Robbie Daw of Idolator ,
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