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Join The Celebration – Madonna Sells Out 35+ Shows Across Global Run

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THE BIGGEST FEMALE ARTIST OF ALL TIME JUST GOT BIGGER WITH OVER 600,000 TICKETS SOLD AND COUNTING

Today,  Madonna , the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time, announced that  The Celebration Tour  has sold-out  36 shows  and counting across Toronto, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and more, with over 600,000 tickets sold. Due to overwhelming demand, 23 new dates were added this week across North America and Europe. The global run now includes second shows in Miami, Las Vegas, Milan, Barcelona and more as well as three nights in Paris and four nights in New York, Los Angeles and London, with multiple added dates already sold-out. 

The Celebration Tour will kick off on Saturday, July 15th at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC with stops in Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, and more before making its way to Europe where she will perform in 11 cities throughout the fall, including Antwerp, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, among others. The tour will now wrap on Saturday, December 2nd at Ziggo Dome with a second show in Amsterdam, NL.

Following Madonna’s   viral video  that announced the tour earlier this week, the response has been outstanding, with fans looking forward to seeing the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time perform her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40 plus years in a live setting. Building off the excitement of this week’s announcement, Madonna has turned directly to her fanbase as she builds out her Celebration Tour setlist,  asking  her fans “What song would you like to dance to at my show?” on her social platforms. 

The Celebration Tour will offer a one-of-a-kind experience with special guest  Bob the Drag Queen  a.k.a.   Caldwell Tidicue across all dates on the global tour.

TICKETS:  Tickets are now on sale for select cities at  madonna.com . As previously announced, tickets for performances in Phoenix, Denver, Tulsa, St. Paul, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Atlanta will go on sale Friday, January 27 th  at 10am local time. Citi is the official card of Madonna The Celebration Tour. 

CITI:  Citi is the official card of Madonna The Celebration Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets starting Tuesday, January 24 at 10am local time through Thursday, January 26 at 6pm local time. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com . 

FAN CLUB:  Legacy members of Madonna’s Official Fan Club will have a pre-sale opportunity starting Monday, January 23 at 10am local time through Wednesday, January 25th at 5pm local time. Visit   madonna.com  for complete tour and ticketing information.

VIP:  Fans can also purchase VIP Packages, which may include premium tickets, exclusive access to a behind the scenes tour, group photo on-stage, pre-show reception, limited edition lithograph & more. For more information, visit   vipnation.com .

THE CELEBRATION TOUR NORTH AMERICAN DATES:

Sat Jul 15         Vancouver, BC            Rogers Arena                                      SOLD OUT

Tue Jul 18        Seattle, WA                  Climate Pledge Arena                         SOLD OUT

Wed Jul 19     Seattle, WA               Climate Pledge Arena

Sat Jul 22        Phoenix, AZ                 Footprint Center                                   On sale Jan. 27/23

Tue Jul 25       Denver, CO                  Ball Arena                                             On sale Jan. 27/23

Thu Jul 27       Tulsa, OK                     BOK Center                                           On sale Jan. 27/23

Sun Jul 30       St. Paul, MN                 Xcel Energy Center                              On sale Jan. 27/23

Wed Aug 02    Cleveland, OH             Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse              On sale Jan. 27/23

Sat Aug 05      Detroit, MI                    Little Caesars Arena                             On sale Jan. 27/23

Mon. Aug 07   Pittsburgh, PA              PPG Paints Arena                                 On sale Jan. 27/23

Wed Aug 09    Chicago, IL                   United Center                                     SOLD OUT

Thu Aug 10     Chicago, IL                United Center

Sun Aug 13      Toronto, ON                 Scotiabank Arena                                 SOLD OUT

Mon Aug 14    Toronto, ON              Scotiabank Arena                        SOLD OUT

Sat Aug 19       Montreal, QC               Bell Centre                                            SOLD OUT

Sun Aug 20     Montreal, QC           Bell Centre                                SOLD OUT

Wed Aug 23    New York, NY              Madison Square Garden                      SOLD OUT

Thu Aug 24     New York, NY              Madison Square Garden                      SOLD OUT

Sat Aug 26     New York, NY          Madison Square Garden                   SOLD OUT

Sun Aug 27     New York, NY          Madison Square Garden

Wed Aug 30    Boston, MA                  TD Garden                                          SOLD OUT

Thu Aug 31     Boston, MA                TD Garden

Sat Sep 02      Washington, DC          Capital One Arena                                On sale Jan. 27/23

Tue Sep 05     Atlanta, GA                   State Farm Arena                                 On sale Jan. 27/23

Thu Sep 07      Tampa, FL                    Amalie Arena                                        SOLD OUT

Sat Sep 09      Miami, FL                      Miami-Dade Arena                               SOLD OUT

Sun Sep 10     Miami, FL                   Miami-Dade Arena

Wed Sep 13     Houston, TX                 Toyota Center                                     SOLD OUT

Thu Sep 14     Houston, TX              Toyota Center

Mon Sep 18     Dallas, TX                     American Airlines Center                    SOLD OUT

Tue Sep 19     Dallas, TX                  American Airlines   Center

Thu Sep 21      Austin, TX                    Moody Center                                     SOLD OUT

Fri Sep 22        Austin, TX                    Moody Center

Wed Sep 27    Los Angeles, CA          Crypto.com Arena                               SOLD OUT

Thu Sep 28     Los Angeles, CA        Crypto.com Arena                       SOLD OUT

Sat Sep 30     Los Angeles, CA       Crypto.com Arena                       SOLD OUT

Sun Oct 01     Los Angeles, CA       Crypto.com Arena

Wed Oct 04     San Francisco, CA       Chase Center                                      SOLD OUT

Thu Oct 05     San Francisco, CA     Chase Center                            SOLD OUT

Sat Oct 07       Las Vegas, NV             T-Mobile Arena                                   SOLD OUT

Sun Oct 08     Las Vegas, NV          T-Mobile Arena

THE CELEBRATION TOUR EUROPE DATES:

Sat Oct 14        London, UK                  The O2                                                  SOLD OUT     

Sun Oct 15     London, UK               The O2                                          SOLD OUT

Tue Oct 17      London, UK               The O2                                          SOLD OUT

Wed Oct 18    London, UK               The O2            

Sat Oct 21        Antwerp, BE                 Sportpaleis                                            SOLD OUT

Sun Oct 22     Antwerp, BE              Sportpaleis

Tue Oct 24      Copenhagen, DK         Royal Arena                                          SOLD OUT

Sat Oct 28       Stockholm, SE             Tele2 Arena                                          

Wed Nov 01     Barcelona, ES              Palau Sant Jordi                                   SOLD OUT

Thu Nov 02    Barcelona, ES           Palau Sant Jordi

Mon Nov 06    Lisbon, PT                    Altice Arena                                        SOLD OUT

Sun Nov 12      Paris, FR                       Accor Arena                                          SOLD OUT

Mon Nov 13     Paris, FR                       Accor Arena                                          SOLD OUT

Sun Nov 19     Paris, FR                    Accor Arena                                     On sale Jan. 27/23

Wed Nov 15     Cologne, DE                Lanxess Arena                                      SOLD OUT

Thu Nov 23     Milan, IT                        Mediolanum Forum                              SOLD OUT

Sat Nov 25     Milan, IT                     Mediolanum Forum                      SOLD OUT

Tue Nov 28     Berlin, DE                     Mercedes-Benz Arena                         SOLD OUT

Fri Dec 1           Amsterdam, NL            Ziggo Dome                                          SOLD OUT

Sat Dec 2       Amsterdam, NL          Ziggo Dome

Additional dates are in bold.

To connect with Madonna: Website  //  Instagram  //  YouTube  //  TikTok  //  Facebook  //  Twitter

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Spice Girls turn 25: world's best-selling female group marks quarter-century milestone

As the celebrated british band marks 25 years since the release of ‘wannabe’, we look back at the group and solo careers of ginger, baby, posh, scary and sporty.

Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' performance of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' at the Brits in 1997 became one of fashion's most famous and emulated moments. Shutterstock

Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' performance of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' at the Brits in 1997 became one of fashion's most famous and emulated moments. Shutterstock

With accolades including the title of best-selling female group of all time under their belts, the Spice Girls have another reason to celebrate this week.

The British five-piece celebrates 25 years in the spotlight on Friday, marking a quarter-century since their debut song Wannabe was released.

Geri Horner, Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown and Melanie Chisholm, aka Ginger, Baby, Posh, Scary and Sporty, were formed in 1994 after they answered an advertisement seeking “streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated” women who could sing and dance.

The Spice Girls became household names after instant hit Wannabe was released in July 1996, reaching the No 1 spot in 37 countries and shifting more than 7 million copies.

Their debut album Spice sold more than 23 million copies to become the best-selling album by a female group in history.

The group later became a quartet when Horner, nee Halliwell, quit in May 1998 citing exhaustion amid rumours of a falling out with Mel B.

Years later, during the Spice World 2019 tour at Wembley Arena, she told the audience: “I need to say something I should have said a long time ago. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I left. I was just being a brat. It is so good to be back with the girls that I love.”

Following the release of their third album, Forever , the group went on hiatus in December 2000, with each of the women releasing separate material. Of all their solo careers, Mel C enjoyed the most success, releasing eight albums altogether, while her debut album, Northern Star, sold more than four million copies worldwide.

On June 28, 2007, all five of the Spice Girls held a press conference to reveal they were reuniting for a world tour, with each pocketing a rumoured $20 million.

They next reunited for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics, arriving on top of black London taxis and performing a medley of their biggest hits.

For the Spice World – 2019 UK Tour , the group continued as a four-piece after Victoria Beckham declined to take part to focus on her fashion business.

“We’ve had so many ups and downs in our friendships, in our careers, in our lives as Spice Girls,” Mel C recently told the NME . “And just that acceptance that we are all absolute pains in the backside, but we love each other dearly.”

Scroll through the gallery for 25 photos of the Spice Girls through the years …

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MADONNA SELLS OUT 35+ SHOWS ACROSS GLOBAL RUN

Today, Madonna, the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time, announced that The Celebration Tour has sold-out 36 shows and counting across Toronto, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and more, with over 600,000 tickets sold . Due to overwhelming demand, 23 new dates were added this week across North America and Europe. The global run now includes second shows in Miami, Las Vegas, Milan, Barcelona and more as well as three nights in Paris and four nights in New York, Los Angeles and London, with multiple added dates already sold-out. The Celebration Tour will kick off on Saturday, July 15th at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC with stops in Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, and more before making its way to Europe where she will perform in 11 cities throughout the fall, including Antwerp, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, among others. The tour will now wrap on Saturday, December 2nd at Ziggo Dome with a second show in Amsterdam, NL. Following Madonna’s viral video that announced the tour earlier this week, the response has been outstanding, with fans looking forward to seeing the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time perform her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40 plus years in a live setting. Building off the excitement of this week’s announcement, Madonna has turned directly to her fanbase as she builds out her Celebration Tour setlist, asking her fans “What song would you like to dance to at my show?” on her social platforms. The Celebration Tour will offer a one-of-a-kind experience with special guest Bob the Drag Queen a.k.a. Caldwell Tidicue across all dates on the global tour. TICKETS: Tickets are now on sale for select cities at madonna.com . As previously announced, tickets for performances in Phoenix, Denver, Tulsa, St. Paul, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Atlanta will go on sale Friday, January 27th at 10am local time. Citi is the official card of Madonna The Celebration Tour. CITI: Citi is the official card of Madonna The Celebration Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets starting Tuesday, January 24 at 10am local time through Thursday, January 26 at 6pm local time. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com . FAN CLUB: Legacy members of Madonna’s Official Fan Club will have a pre-sale opportunity starting Monday, January 23 at 10am local time through Wednesday, January 25th at 5pm local time. VIP: Fans can also purchase VIP Packages, which may include premium tickets, exclusive access to a behind the scenes tour, group photo on-stage, pre-show reception, limited edition lithograph & more. For more information, visit vipnation.com .

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Looks Like She Made It

How Shania Twain found love, her voice, and her rightful place in the pop music pantheon.

Shania Twain in a white Carolina Herrera dress and Stetson hat

“Sorry, I have to keep moving,” the country-pop legend Shania Twain says in the middle of our conversation, uncrossing her legs and stretching them out on the ivory sofa in front of her. Twain, who is the best-selling female country artist of all time, has just wrapped a photo shoot on the top floor of The Standard hotel, and she kicks off the Amina Muaddi platform stilettos she’s still wearing and drops an aside worthy of one of her sassy, universally beloved anthems: “It’s been a long day in these shoes.”

Of course, she says it in that famous, arched-eyebrow deadpan, the same one that launched a million bachelorette parties, karaoke nights, and drag shows with the rallying cry “Let’s go, girls.” At the height of her powers, on her 1997 global blockbuster album, Come On Over , Twain’s voice was at once withering enough to turn once-and-future Sexiest Man Alive Brad Pitt into a punchline (on her strutting send-up of the male ego, “That Don’t Impress Me Much”) and affecting enough to reduce an entire wedding guest list to tears (on timeless soft-rock ballads like “You’re Still the One” and “From This Moment On”). After a series of personal and professional setbacks, though — including illness that left her wondering whether she’d ever sing again — she nearly lost her voice for good.

That Twain is a fighter, though, is abundantly clear to anyone who has watched her recent Netflix documentary, Not Just a Girl . Or listened to her new song of the same name, which finds her triumphantly reclaiming that low, twangy croon of hers. Since she recovered from open-throat surgery in 2019, her voice has been feeling “way stronger,” she says, even if she’s accepted that it has undergone some changes. As she prepares to release her first new album in five years, she’s enjoyed getting reacquainted with her instrument. “I’ve had to relearn my voice in a lot of ways, because there are a lot of different elements to it that I didn’t even have before, that I play on and that I enjoy.”

Twain showcased her rich, resonant new sound in April, when Coachella headliner Harry Styles brought her out for an electric guest appearance at the festival. “In the car, with my mother as a child, this lady taught me to sing,” Styles gushed to a crowd of more than 100,000 people.

He added, to raucous cheers, “She also told me that men are trash.”

Shania Twain in Issey Miyake top and a Eugenia Kim hat all in black

Styles honoring Twain in such public, headline-generating fashion crystallized something too often left unspoken: Twain’s massive influence on the current generation of pop stars. Twain paved the way for Taylor Swift’s country-to-pop crossover, of course, but artists as disparate as Rihanna , Post Malone , Rina Sawayama , Orville Peck , and Halsey have all claimed Twain as an inspiration.

“I admire her confidence in her path, because she really just loved bringing people together,” Maren Morris — a country star who knows a thing or two about pop crossovers herself — says in an email. “She owned her femininity, but she didn’t hide behind it either. She had the songs to back it up.”

The author Marissa R. Moss says Twain’s influence came up constantly in her interviews for her recently released book, Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be .

“When [artists like Morris, Miranda Lambert, and Mickey Guyton] were younger, Twain was a very empowering force,” Moss says. Not only for her straight-talking songwriting, but also for her embrace of fashion and her demand that her “visual expression be taken seriously as a part of the art form.” (Hello, iconic leopard-print catsuit .)

I was never a pushover, ever in my life.

“I didn’t realize it until these kids became young adults and were actually in the public eye, talking about it,” Twain says back at The Standard. She sips from one of the glasses of chilled champagne that an assistant has put in front of us so unobtrusively it seems to have manifested out of the ether. “When I crossed over [from country to pop], they were part of an age group that, on the way to school, had the music on repeat. Or maybe it was the music that, as a kid, they wanted on repeat, that sort of annoying, ‘Oh no, play that again!’”

Masked country singer Orville Peck, who collaborated with Shania on their 2020 duet “Legends Never Die,” says in the Netflix documentary, “She reached through the stereo and made me feel safe when I was a young kid.” He’s alluding to her ubiquity during that era, and to the fact that queer listeners have long been drawn to Twain’s music, with its infectious confidence and playful, campy take on gender. (In her lively 2011 autobiography, From This Moment On , Twain notes that the first seeds of inspiration for “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” were planted in the mid-1980s, when she and her friends frequented Toronto’s gay bars and marveled at the local drag queens’ style.) As Katie Gavin, the lead singer and primary songwriter of the pop band Muna, told me in an email, Shania “has a really strong sense of self, and was probably so underestimated because of her genre and her gender, which queer people can definitely relate to.”

These days her influence is reciprocal, and Twain finds herself listening just as obsessively to the music of some of her disciples — Styles in particular. “I like the floating feeling the music gives off, this happy, peaceful, almost levitating feeling. And I love his voice, he’s a great vocalist.” Coachella was hardly the beginning of their friendship, though; Twain and Styles have been texting sporadically for years. After they met backstage at one of his early solo shows in New York City, Styles called Twain and asked if she would wish his mom a happy birthday. Naturally, she obliged. (Did Harry’s mum freak out? “No, she was very cool,” Twain says. “Very sweet and very cool.”)

Now 57, Twain is a petite but forceful presence: “I was never a pushover, ever in my life,” she says at one point in our conversation. She is exacting with her words, editing as she goes. Speaking of her early career, she tells me, “I took control wherever I could,” but then quickly revises. “Maybe control’s not the right word. I took charge . That’s way better. I took charge.”

Shania Twain posing in a black Harris Reed jumpsuit

That’s something she had to learn how to do long before she arrived in Nashville. Born Eileen Regina Edwards and raised mostly around Timmins, Ontario — a small city seven hours northwest of Toronto — Twain had the sort of hardscrabble childhood that made her relate deeply to the songs that Dolly Parton wrote about her own impoverished youth in the mountains of East Tennessee. When Twain was around four years old, her mother married Jerry Twain, a man of Ojibwa descent; young Eileen took his last name and recognized him as her father for the rest of her life. (“Stepfather, stepbrothers, we never used that vocabulary in our home,” Twain once said .) Their marriage was abusive, though, and from a young age, Eileen witnessed her father’s physical and emotional violence toward her mother. Her parents split up briefly when Eileen was a teenager — the so-called “Twain Gang” of four of her five siblings temporarily relocated to a women’s shelter in Toronto — but they eventually reconciled. Tragically, in 1987, Twain’s parents both died in a car accident while driving to bring food supplies to a camp at their reforestation company. At 22, Twain was suddenly the head of the household, left to support her three younger siblings.

She had been singing songs in local bars long before she could have been served there, and, after her parents’ passings, she found a steady gig performing at Deerhurst Resort in Ontario’s version of Vegas. There, she met a wardrobe mistress with a mellifluous name she’d never heard before, and which she’d later borrow as a stage name, Shania . Someone told her it meant “on my way,” and sure enough, she was: An influential music attorney saw her perform at Deerhurst and got her demo tape into the right hands. She was offered a deal if she’d move to Nashville. So she packed up her pickup and drove south, her first time leaving Canada.

The music industry loves a naive ingenue — the better to exploit you, my dear — but by the time she arrived in Music City, Twain had already survived more tribulations than most people do in a lifetime. “I think the maturity did help a lot,” she tells me now. “They didn’t mold me. I just showed up and I was already who I wanted to be. I was a bit older so I was not impressionable at that point. It was too late. I was already fully formed. I was open, but I was convinced of what I was made of and what were my greatest inspirations.”

Those inspirations included Parton and Willie Nelson, but also the glamorous and sensual Madonna, the hard-rocking, ass-kicking sisters of Heart. The Nashville of the early 1990s was not exactly a playground for cross-genre experimentation, though — especially if you were a woman. Recalls Twain, “I thought I was walking into a much more all-encompassing space, artistically.” Her first music video, for “What Made You Say That,” featured a gloriously early-’90s look that revealed, as she puts it in her autobiography, “maybe four inches” of midriff. Apparently this was enough to set off an epidemic of pearl clutching in Nashville: CMT briefly refused to play the video at all. (Adds Maren Morris, recalling this incident, “People were such prudes.”)

“There’s this belief that to be here in Nashville, you have to be constantly paying your dues in a very specific way,” says Moss. “You’re supposed to be humble, especially if you’re a woman — or God forbid a Black artist or a queer artist. You have to follow every mark on the path to ‘authenticity’ to even have a chance to be considered country enough for Music Row.”

Shania Twain posing in an orange-black Dries Van Noten dress

Suffice it to say that didn’t impress Shania Twain much. Her clear-eyed confidence, unapologetic sexuality, and ownership of her artistic vision had a way of rankling the suits. “To me, [writing] was everything,” she says, recalling her dismay when she realized that she wasn’t expected to write her own material, especially as a female artist. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’”

So she started working on some of her own songs, not with the usual squad of country songwriters but with a rock producer who’d gotten in contact with her out of the blue, Mutt Lange. Nobody at her label knew she was writing songs (let alone with Lange) until it was too late to turn back. “I’m like, ‘If I lose my deal, I lose my deal,’” Twain says. “That’s how convinced I was that it was time to make something more original.”

Her first single to reach No. 1 on country radio was “Any Man of Mine,” co-written with Lange, from her 1995 album, The Woman in Me . “Any Man” is flirtatious but assertive — a grown-ass woman’s come-hither song. “Any man of mine better disagree when I say another woman’s lookin’ better than me,” she sings amid a boot-stomping beat and a flurry of fiddles. “And when I cook him dinner and I burn it black, he better say, ‘Mmm, I like it like that.’” It was her first true hit, and she was about to turn 30, which gave her songs a lived-in, no-more-bullshit realism. Twain hadn’t needed to look far for a man who fit her description, though; after a whirlwind romance, in December 1993, she and Lange married.

Record executives didn’t mold me. I just showed up and I was already who I wanted to be.

Like CD-ROMs, the Spice Girls, and VH1’s Behind the Music , it is impossible to explain to someone born after the 1990s what an unavoidable cultural phenomenon Twain’s next album, Come on Over , was in the latter part of that decade. It was basically the Rumours of the CD era. Its seemingly endless run of 12 singles — on a 16-track album! — helped it sell more than 40 million copies worldwide. It is still one of the best-selling records of all time, which means it probably made some of the people who’d initially been skeptical of Twain’s vision a hell of a lot of money.

At least it made Twain and Lange buy-a-mansion-in-Switzerland money, which is exactly what they did. (“I think there were a lot of people who resented her for doing that and thought she was saying she was too good for Nashville or country music or something,” Moss says. She adds, “A lot of people take things personally here, strangely.”) Twain’s next album, 2002’s Up!, was also a huge success — it made her the first and only female artist in history to have three consecutive diamond-selling records in the United States — but after the 2001 birth of her son, Eja, Twain felt she’d earned a small retreat from the spotlight, making a quieter domestic life in a country where her every move wasn’t tabloid fodder.

Unfortunately, melodrama found her anyway. In 2008, she discovered that Lange was having an affair… with her best friend. They divorced shortly afterward, sending Twain into a tailspin of depression. “When I lost Mutt,” she says in the Netflix documentary, “the grief of that was similarly intense to losing my parents. It was like a death — a permanent end to so many facets of my life.”

Shania Twain in a black Comme des Garcons jacket, D.bleu.dazzled tights and Amina Muaddi heels

As shattering as the breakup was, she had an even greater trial to endure around that time: the loss of her voice. “I don’t think I’ll ever meet a challenge like that again,” Twain tells me. When she first started experiencing dysphonia — a condition in which the vocal cords seize up and the voice becomes hoarse — she wasn’t sure what was going on. She later learned it was likely a somewhat rare long-term side effect of Lyme disease, which she contracted in 2003.

These were some of the darkest days of Twain’s life, and in the documentary she admits she didn’t “see any point in going on with a music career.” But in 2012, an unexpected opportunity arose: Lionel Richie, who didn’t realize Twain was struggling with dysphonia, asked her to appear on an upcoming duets album. He wanted to sing “Endless Love” with her, but Twain initially turned him down, doubting that her voice would be strong enough. Richie was persistent enough that she finally gave it a shot. “I had to be very vulnerable. I didn’t want to do it — I was like, ‘Would somebody just push me over the edge?’ But only I could jump off it.”

Working with Richie gave her the confidence to launch her spectacular Vegas residency, Shania: Still the One , and release her first studio album in 15 years, 2017’s Now . By the end of the Now tour, though, her voice was beyond fatigued. “I realized I couldn’t physically sustain the vocal workout I had to do every day,” she says. A doctor had been telling her for years about a drastic option that might help: open-throat surgery. Once again, she leapt.

“Not knowing what I was going to sound like when I was able to speak again was really scary,” Twain says. After the operation, she was instructed not to make a sound for three weeks. “The anticipation was crazy,” she recalls. “It wasn’t the three weeks of silence, it was the three weeks of waiting to see if it worked.” Happily, she was pleased with the results. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I can yell! I can be loud!’ It was so glorious.”

Shania Twain posing in a Norma Kamali bodysuit with leopard print and a vintage hat.

The story of her divorce has a happy — if wild — ending, too. Twain and Frédéric Thiébaud, the former husband of the woman Lange cheated with, comforted each other through their respective heartbreaks, fell in love, and got married. Thiébaud is there at The Standard for the photo shoot, flitting around in sneakers and a hoodie, making sure everyone on set is taken care of and, adorably, sneaking photos on his phone of each one of Twain’s looks like a doting Instagram husband.

Twain, Thiébaud, and his daughter still live in Switzerland, but Vegas has been Twain’s home away from home for the past few years, during her second residency. She appreciates the glitz as much as the next person, as well as the access to nature. “Vegas has a big personality, but it’s a very small city, so you can be out of the city very quickly,” she says. “All of a sudden you’re in the desert, and you’re hiking in the canyons. So I can spend my time there outside of the Strip, as if all of the party doesn’t even exist, and I really love that.”

I was like, ‘Would somebody just push me over the edge?’ But only I could jump off it.

Twain tells me she’s still in contact with Lange: “We raise our son together,” she says, though that’s less of a full-time job since 21-year-old Eja moved to Los Angeles. Again, she seems to choose her words carefully. “We don’t work together anymore,” she says of her ex-husband. “But we’re very… in proximity.”

Now was the first album she made without Lange since her debut, and though she felt “intact creatively,” she was haunted by old, sexist rumors that Lange had written all the songs himself. Making her forthcoming album, her second without Lange, was a more carefree experience. “I wanted there to be joy in it, I wanted it to be very uplifting sonically,” she says. “There’s a lot of cheekiness, a lot of bold, tongue-in-cheek humor, which I’m never afraid of anyway.”

Shania Twain walking in a white Carolina Herrera dress and Stetson hat

Twain exercises that signature prerogative to have a little fun on her new single, the upbeat pop tune “Waking Up Dreaming.” The music video answers the song’s call to “dress up crazy like superstars,” as Twain embodies a glam-rock goddess, a hair metal star, and a diva in the style of Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy. She promises that a new album and tour are soon to follow.

Twain also just made a guest appearance on Fox’s new country music drama series Monarch , which stars Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins. As she did (hilariously) on a 2017 episode of Broad City , Twain played a cartoonish version of herself. Both roles have made her “realize it’s fun to laugh at myself and not take Shania so seriously,” she says. Of her delightfully catty turn as Sarandon’s character’s longtime rival, Twain adds, “Take the persona out of context, if you will — I would never act like that for real! But that’s what makes it fun.”

A sense of possibility is once again opening up for Twain. “I’m having more fun with fashion than I did when I was younger,” she says. “Maybe with age I’m just less apologetic for how I look and I let fashion do its job.” She hints that there might someday be a sequel to that Coachella performance. She says of Styles, “He wanted to do a couple of my songs, and that was good and fun. But I just love his music too, so maybe I’ll do the reverse and get him up on my stage to do his songs.”

As ever, Twain is looking ahead. “From a very young age, I had to let a lot roll off my back,” she says, once again stretching her legs to get the blood flowing. “Fear, my insecurities. These are things that are not allowed to get in the way of my dreams and my forward motion.”

Top Image Credit: Carolina Herrera dress, Stetson hat, Nikos Koulis earrings, De Beers necklace, Alaïa belt courtesy of FWRD, talent’s own briefs, Falke tights, Amina Muaddi boots

Photographer: Beau Grealy

Stylist: Tiffany Reid

Hair: Frankie Foye

Makeup: Susana Hong

Manicure: Mo Qin

Production: Kiara Brown

Talent Bookings: Special Projects

Video: Jasmine Velez

best selling female tour

Guinness World Records

Highest-grossing music tour by a female artist (current year)

Highest-grossing music tour by a female artist (current year)

Taylor Swift’s (USA) The Eras Tour , the first billion-dollar music tour, grossed an estimated $1,039,263,762 (£840,238,516) from 60 shows played in the USA, Mexico and Argentina between 17 March and 12 November 2023, according to figures published by Pollstar.

With an average gross of $17,321,063 (£14,003,976) per show and 4,349,363 tickets sold (at an average price of $238.95, or £193.19, per ticket), The Eras Tour comfortably topped Beyoncé’s 56-date Renaissance World Tour ($579,813,546; £468,775,773) and the 44 European and North American dates on P!nk’s Summer Carnival Tour ($231,681,720; £187,313,281) in 2023.

Pollstar’s 2023 chart year ran from 17 November 2022 to 15 November 2023, which excluded the final six dates of the South American leg of The Eras Tour in Brazil on 17–26 November 2023. Including these shows, Pollstar estimates that The Eras Tour generated about $1.14 billion (£903.99 million) in 2023 alone.

best selling female tour

TicketNews

Madonna Cements Status as Biggest-Selling Female Recording Artist of All Time 

Madonna has officially been crowned the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time.

The “Vogue” singer, who is currently on her Celebration Tour, revealed on the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2022 that she sold over 400 million records throughout her career, spanning five decades. According to the Guinness World Records, precise sales are difficult to obtain, though the only artists who have sold more records worldwide include The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson, securing Madonna’s spot as the best-selling female singer.

Madonna has held this record since 2009, and is followed by pop heavyweights Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce.

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In terms of gross sales, the 65-year-old is ranked fifth, behind the rockers of The Rolling Stones, U2, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen, though her ongoing tour will see those numbers rise. She also holds the title of highest-grossing female touring artist, bringing in $1,389,746,222 from her tours as of last year.

She’s not new to breaking records; Madonna also holds the most U.S. multi-platinum albums by a female artist — shared with Barbra Streisand — the most No. 1 hits on the U.S. Dance Club songs chart, and the highest-ranked female on Billboard’s “Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists” chart.

The Celebration Tour kicked-off earlier this month in London, while Madonna’s North American dates were postponed due to a hospitalization. The first leg of the tour was pushed back, launching the trek with dates across Europe and the U.K. this fall. She’s slated to appear next in Stockholm, followed by a pair of shows in Barcelona. The North American tour will begin with a three-night run at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on December 13.

The full rundown of Madonna’s rescheduled tour and links to ticket marketplaces is available below:

Ticket Links

Madonna tickets at MEGASeats | 10% for TicketNews readers Madonna tickets at ScoreBig Madonna tickets at SeatGeek Madonna tickets at StubHub Madonna tickets at Ticket Club  |  Free membership for TicketNews readers Madonna tickets at Vivid Seats

Madonna Celebration Tour Dates

EU/UK Dates

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October 28 — Stockholm, SE | Tele2 Arena November 1 — Barcelona, ES | Palau Sant Jordi November 2 — Barcelona, ES | Palau Sant Jordi November 6 — Lisbon, PT | Altice Arena November 7 — Lisbon, PT | Altice Arena November 12 — Paris, FR | Accor Arena November 13 — Paris, FR | Accor Arena November 15 — Cologne, DE | Lanxess Arena November 16 — Cologne, DE | Lanxess Arena November 19 — Paris, FR | Accor Arena November 20 — Paris, FR | Accor Arena November 23 — Milan, IT | Mediolanum Forum November 25 — Milan, IT | Mediolanum Forum November 28 — Berlin, DE | Mercedes-Benz Arena November 29 — Berlin, DE | Mercedes-Benz Arena December 1 — Amsterdam, NL | Ziggo Dome December 2 — Amsterdam, NL | Ziggo Dome December 5 — London, UK | The O2 December 6 — London, UK | The O2

North American Dates

Original dates scheduled are indicated where applicable

December 13 — Brooklyn, NY | Barclays Center  (no change) December 14 — Brooklyn, NY | Barclays Center  (no change) December 16 — Brooklyn, NY | Barclays Center  (Originally scheduled for MSG 8/27/23) December 18 — Washington, DC | Capital One Arena  (no change) December 19 — Washington, DC | Capital One Arena  (9/2/2023)

2024 January 8 — Boston, MA | TD Garden  (8/30/2023) January 9 — Boston, MA | TD Garden  (8/31/2023) January 11 — Toronto, ON | Scotiabank Arena  (8/13/2023) January 12 — Toronto, ON | Scotiabank Arena  (8/14/2023) January 15 — Detroit, MI | Little Caesars Arena  (8/5/2023) January 18 — Montreal, QC | Bell Centre  (8/19/2023) January 20 — Montreal, QC | Bell Centre  (8/20/2023) January 22 — New York, NY | Madison Square Garden  (8/23/2023) January 23 — New York, NY | Madison Square Garden  (8/24/2023) January 25 — Philadelphia, PA | Wells Fargo Center  (12/20/2023) January 29 — New York, NY | Madison Square Garden  (8/26/2023) February 1 — Chicago, IL | United Center  (8/9/2023) February 2 — Chicago, IL | United Center  (8/10/2023) February 5 — Pittsburgh, PA | PPG Paints Arena  (8/7/2023) February 8 — Cleveland, OH | Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse  (8/2/2023) February 13 — Saint Paul, MN | Xcel Energy Center  (7/30/2023) February 17 — Seattle, WA | Climate Pledge Arena  (7/18/2023) February 18 — Seattle, WA | Climate Pledge Arena  (7/19/2023) February 21 — Vancouver, BC | Rogers Arena  (7/15/2023) February 24 — Sacramento, CA | Golden 1 Center  (1/13/2024) February 27 — San Francisco, CA | Chase Center  (10/4/2023) February 28 — San Francisco, CA | Chase Center  (10/5/2023) March 1 — Las Vegas, NV | T-Mobile Arena  (10/7/2023) March 2 — Las Vegas, NV | T-Mobile Arena  (10/8/2024) March 4 — Los Angeles, CA | Kia Forum ( Originally scheduled for   Crypto.com arena on 9/27/23) March 5 — Los Angeles, CA | Kia Forum ( Originally scheduled for   Crypto.com arena on 9/28/23) March 7 — Los Angeles, CA | Kia Forum ( Originally scheduled for   Crypto.com arena on 9/30/23) March 9 — Los Angeles, CA | Kia Forum ( Originally scheduled for   Crypto.com arena on 10/01/23) March 11 — Los Angeles, CA | Kia Forum ( Combines shows originally scheduled on 1/7 & 1/8/24) March 13 — Palm Desert, CA | Acrisure Arena  (1/11/2024) March 16 — Phoenix, AZ | Footprint Center  (7/22/2023) March 19 — Denver, CO | Ball Arena  (7/25/2023) March 24 — Dallas, TX | American Airlines Center  (9/18/2023) March 25 — Dallas, TX | American Airlines Center  (9/19/2023) March 28 — Houston, TX | Toyota Center  (9/13/2023) March 29 — Houston, TX | Toyota Center  (9/14/2023) April 1 — Atlanta, GA | State Farm Arena  (9/5/2023) April 4 — Tampa, FL | Amalie Arena  (9/7/2023) April 6 — Miami, FL | Kaseya Center  (9/9/2023) April 7 — Miami, FL | Kaseya Center  (9/10/2023) April 14 — Austin, TX | Moody Center  (9/21/2023) April 15 — Austin, TX | Moody Center  (9/22/2023) April 20 — Mexico City | Palacio De Los Deportes  (1/25/2024) April 21 —Mexico City | Palacio De Los Deportes  (1/27/2024) April 23 — Mexico City | Palacio De Los Deportes  (1/28/2024) April 24 — Mexico City | Palacio De Los Deportes  (1/30/2024)

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best selling female tour

Madonna remains the 'Queen of Pop,' officially biggest-selling female recording artist of all time

Madonna has been recertified as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time for the fourteenth year in a row.

Listen to Madonna Radio and more on the free Audacy app 

The Guinness Book of World Records announced just yesterday that “Material Girl” and “Madame X” Madonna remains the top-selling female act of all time. “Queen of Pop Madonna seems to be unreachable when it comes to music sales,” the publication said, seemingly validating the 400 million units sold that the artist mentioned on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon just last year. Madonna has now maintained this #1 spot since 2009, and comes in fourth place for best selling musical artist overall (beaten only by The Beatles , Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson ). While the publication acknowledged that, “precise sales figures are difficult to obtain” between all albums, singles, and digital sales, Guinness acknowledged that she maintains a significant stride ahead other female artists, with, “no one else coming close to beating her.”

Though powerhouses, Rihanna , Mariah Carey , Taylor Swift and Beyoncé make up the top five female sales after Madonna, and her 40-year career in the music industry makes her sales and influence nearly untouchable. She has 17 studio albums, 6 live albums, an impressive list of chart-topping singles and all still rack in profit.

Add the records don't stop there, as Madonna is also certified as the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time. As the first woman to earn $1 billion in concert revenue, Guinness counted the singer’s concert box-office sales as a massive $1,389,746,222 as of July 2022. It’s worth noting, however, that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour has yet to be counted by Guinness, with some outlets estimating it sold $2.2 billion in North American sales already. At the same time, Madonna’s currently running Celebration Tour has yet to be counted either, making this record one to watch for next year.

Whatever records she earns, there’s one thing the world can never take away from this Queen of Pop - “B****, She's Madonna!”

Madonna

Highest-Grossing Concert Tours of All Time

Madonna

Old hippies love to brag about the time they paid a mere $6.50 to see Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in 1973. How times have changed. Today, when your favorite marquee act comes to town, you'll plunk down the equivalent of a new car payment (plus those fun processing fees) for a pair of seats you hope are in the same zip code as the concert stage.   

Now more than ever, major concert tours translate to megabucks for superstar artists who otherwise earn only fractions of a cent per digital song download or stream. To help ensure arena and stadium sellouts, today's stage sets and audio-visual razzle-dazzle must go bigger than ever, which means obscenely high production costs that are passed on to ticket buyers.     

The result is box-office numbers that routinely reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. To give you an idea of how much scratch there is to be made from playing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" for the thousandth time, we've rounded up the highest-grossing concert tours ever.

47. Depeche Mode 'Global Spirit Tour'

Depeche Mode

Years: 2017-18

Number of shows: 130

Gross: $202 million

Note: The numbers are from Pollstar and Billboard . Each gross amount is in the original U.S. dollars and hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

Bottom Line: Depeche Mode 'Global Spirit Tour'

Depeche Mode

Fans just couldn't get enough of this Depeche Mode tour that spanned the globe and mined their back catalog for '80s New Wave gems like "Black Celebration" and "Everything Counts."

The Mode made a mint and in 2020 were welcomed to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

46. Bon Jovi 'Lost Highway Tour'

Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi

Years: 2007-08

Number of shows: 99

Gross: $210.7 million

Bottom Line: Bon Jovi 'Lost Highway Tour'

Jon Bon Jovi

The final full Bon Jovi tour to feature lead guitarist Richie Sambora was originally intended as a greatest hits outing. But the surprise success of the band's "Lost Highway" LP turned it into an album-support affair.

Among the band's faithful, it's remembered as the tour when an over-excited female fan jumped Jon Bon Jovi onstage at a concert in Ireland, smothered him with hugs and kisses, and had to be dragged off stage by security.   

45. Metallica 'World Magnetic Tour'

Metallica

Years: 2008-10

Number of shows: 187

Gross: $217.2 million

Bottom Line: Metallica 'World Magnetic Tour'

James Hetfield

Headbangers celebrated the 2008 release of Metallica's "Death Magnetic."

After years of subpar albums and radio-friendly hits like "Enter Sandman," the LP signaled a return to the band's bone-crunching, thrash-tastic roots.

On the record's supporting tour, arenas packed with longhairs wearing faded "Kill 'Em All" T-shirts helped make this the 12th highest-grossing endeavor of the 2000s.

44. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'The Rising Tour'

Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band

Years: 2002-03

Number of shows: 120

Gross: $221 million

Bottom Line: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'The Rising Tour'

Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Patty Scialfa

In the aftermath of 9/11 and hot off the first new album recorded with the E Street Band since "Born in the U.S.A.," Bruce and company hit the road for a cathartic world tour that had fans in Boss-induced bliss.

Notable gigs included the first concerts held at Boston's Fenway Park since 1973, plus a 10-night stand at New Jersey's Giants Stadium that grossed $38.8 million alone.

43. Justin Timberlake 'The Man of the Woods'

Justin Timberlake

Years: 2018-19

Number of shows: 115

Gross: $226.3 million

Bottom Line: Justin Timberlake 'The Man of the Woods'

Justin Timberlake

The pop superstar's tunes aren't everyone's cup of tea, but like his hero Michael Jackson (Justin Timberlake has called him "untouchable"), there's no question the man puts on one of helluva an entertaining show.

This tour for the 2018 album "Man of the Woods" played to more than 1.75 million fans and won raves from even the snobbiest of music critics.

42. Lady Gaga 'The Monster Ball Tour'

Lady Gaga

Years: 2009-11

Number of shows: 203

Gross: $227.4 million

Bottom Line: Lady Gaga 'The Monster Ball Tour'

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga's "Little Monsters" (as her fans are known) came out of the woodwork for this extensive worldwide arena tour the diva described as "the first-ever pop electro opera."

The high-concept show, with its over-the-top costumes and stage sets, sold so many tickets it set a record for the highest-grossing ever by an artist making their tour-headlining debut. 

41. Justin Timberlake 'The 20/20 Experience World Tour'

Justin Timberlake

Years: 2013-15

Number of shows: 134 

Gross: $231.6 million

Bottom Line: Justin Timberlake 'The 20/20 Experience World Tour'

Justin Timberlake

Bottom line: Smooth as silk, Justin Timberlake knocked 'em dead on this tour that's his biggest moneymaker to date.

If you missed it in person, the final show in Las Vegas was captured by director Jonathan Demme for the highly entertaining concert film "Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids" — available for streaming on Netflix.

40. Bon Jovi 'This House Is Not for Sale Tour'

Bon Jovi

Years: 2017-19

Number of shows: 95

Gross: $232.1 million

Bottom Line: Bon Jovi 'This House Is Not for Sale Tour'

Bon Jovi

No Bon Jovi devotee will ever rank the band's 14th studio album "This House Is Not for Sale" up there with the likes of "Slippery When Wet."

Yet that didn't stop the '80s hair-metal stalwarts from selling some 2.26 million tickets on this trek that traveled the globe from Las Vegas to Lima, Peru.

39. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'Magic Tour'

Bruce Springsteen

Number of shows: 100

Gross: $235 million

Bottom Line: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'Magic Tour'

Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt

The Boss blew away audiences in North America and Europe on this outing that would sadly be the last for founding E Street Band member and organist Danny Federici, who passed away in spring 2008.

Though the shows clocked in at just over two hours (shorter than usual for Springsteen), the band brought it with a mix of greatest hits, tunes from the underappreciated "Magic" album, and covers of rock 'n' roll oldies like "Gloria" and "Wooly Bully."

38. The Eagles 'An Evening With The Eagles'

The Eagles

Number of shows: 87

Gross: $248.6 million

Bottom Line: The Eagles 'An Evening With The Eagles'

Don Henley

Following the 2016 passing of founding band member Glenn Frey, the Eagles' touring juggernaut seemed done for.

"I did say that I thought that was the end of the band," Don Henley told the Los Angeles Times in 2017, "But I reserve the right to change my mind."

Don never met a dollar he didn't covet, and later that year, the group hit the road with a revamped lineup, including Frey's son Deacon and country star Vince Gill.

36. Pink Floyd 'The Division Bell Tour' (Tie)

David Gilmour and Pink Floyd

Number of shows: 110

Gross: $250 million

Bottom Line: Pink Floyd 'The Division Bell Tour'

David Gilmour

The last-ever tour under the Pink Floyd banner saw sold-out stadium crowds spacing out to early psychedelic jams like "Astronomy Domine" and, on occasion, "The Dark Side of the Moon" album played in its entirety.

Though chief songwriter and bassist Roger Waters had quit the band nearly a decade earlier, that didn't deter some 6 million fans from turning up to hear guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour play "Comfortably Numb" through a 232,000-watt quadraphonic sound system, blowing their minds — and eardrums.

36. Cher 'Living Proof: The Farewell Tour' (Tie)

Cher

Years: 2002-05

Number of shows: 326

Bottom Line: Cher 'Living Proof: The Farewell Tour'

Cher

For this marathon retirement tour, the self-dubbed "Cher-est show on earth," the diva pulled out all the stops.

She made a flamboyant, grand entrance atop a giant crystal chandelier; rode a paper-mâché pachyderm on stage; and in her late 50s, wore her infamous fishnet/thong outfit for " If I Could Turn Back Time ."

In 2008, those who believed they'd already seen "Believe" performed for the last time were ecstatic when Cher re-emerged to launch a lengthy Las Vegas residency and, in 2014, embark on yet another farewell tour.

35. Taylor Swift 'The 1989 World Tour'

Taylor Swift

Number of shows: 85

Gross: $250.7 million

Bottom Line: Taylor Swift 'The 1989 World Tour'

Taylor Swift

You doubted Tay-Tay's drawing power? Shame! Form a heart with your hands and show love for the country-turned-pop superstar's mega-grossing tour in support of her mega-selling album "1989."

How could your average "Swiftie" afford an average $380-per-ticket price for the tour's North American legs? Only the Visa and Mastercard collections departments know for sure. But no doubt the selfies were worth it.  

34. Eagles 'Long Road Out of Eden Tour'

The Eagles

Years: 2008-11

Number of shows: 161

Gross: $251.1 million

Bottom Line: Eagles 'Long Road Out of Eden Tour'

Joe Walsh

Like your local classic rock radio station still getting mileage out of spinning "Life in the Fast Lane" for the millionth time, this aptly named Eagles tour had legs for four long years.

Just two years prior, the band had completed its third wildly successful reunion tour and certainly wasn't strapped for cash.

But if fans were willing to pony up for "Desperado" one ... more ... time, Don Henley and the gang were happy to oblige.  

33. The Eagles 'History of the Eagles — Live in Concert'

Glenn Frey and Don Henley

Number of shows: 147

Gross: $253 million

Bottom Line: The Eagles 'History of the Eagles — Live in Concert'

Timothy B. Schmit, Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh

Bottom line: The last tour to feature guitarist/vocalist Glenn Frey before his death in 2016, this lucrative Eagles' flight was launched not to promote a new album, but rather a DVD documentary chronicling the band's history.

It paid off big-time with more than 2 million fans turning out to hear a nightly setlist of hits and early rarities like "Train Leaves Here This Morning."

32. Beyonce and Jay-Z (aka The Carters) 'On The Run II Tour'

Beyonce and Jay-Z

Number of shows: 48

Gross: $253.6 million

Bottom Line: Beyonce and Jay-Z (aka The Carters) 'On The Run II Tour'

Beyonce and Jay-Z

The hip-hop/pop power couple — known as The Carters when performing as a duo — played to packed stadiums on this European and North American trek, ringing up one of 2018's most lucrative tours.

Forbes estimates Bey and Jay have a combined worth of $1.255 billion. "My great-great-grandchildren already rich," Beyoncé sings on the track "Boss" from The Carters' latest album "Everything Is Love," adding, "That's a lot of brown children on your Forbes list."

31. Beyoncé 'The Formation World Tour'

Beyonce

Number of shows: 49

Gross: $256.1 million

Bottom Line: Beyoncé 'The Formation World Tour'

Beyonce

Only time will tell, but in the eyes of many Beyonce fans, known as "The Beyhive," this stadium-tour extravaganza to promote the acclaimed "Lemonade" album will go down as her most iconic and visually stunning.

Not only did Queen Bey serve up "Lemonade" songs and greatest hits with intensity, but she did so on a massive stage set featuring a revolving, 60-foot-high video-screen cube nicknamed the "Monolith."

Just as impressive was the conveyor-belt catwalk extending into the audience, where Bey and her dancers stomped and splashed in a pool of water for the encore numbers.  

30. Justin Bieber 'Purpose World Tour'

Justin Bieber

Years: 2016-17

Number of shows: 162

Gross: $256.5 million

Bottom Line: Justin Bieber 'Purpose World Tour'

Justin Bieber

Doing his part to crush the spirits of true musical artists everywhere, this two-year Bieb parade proves there's a boatload of bucks to be made from reportedly lip-synching at least half the setlist and pouting like a spoiled teen through every other dance routine.

"Beliebers" were prepared to shovel even more cash into the pop star's coffers, but he canceled the final 14 shows, citing physical and mental exhaustion.

29. Bon Jovi 'Because We Can'

Bon Jovi

Number of shows: 102

Gross: $259.5 million

Bottom Line: Bon Jovi 'Because We Can'

Bon Jovi

This list's only 1980s hair metal band, Bon Jovi raked it in on a busy 11-month tour that'd technically be the last for lead guitarist Richie Sambora, who called it quits after a single show — the tour opener in Washington, D.C.

Jon Bon Jovi and the band pressed on, playing "Livin' on a Prayer" to some 2.65 million ticket buyers and winding up with the No. 1 grossing tour of 2013.

Perhaps the tour should've been renamed "Because We Can ... Still Make a Fortune Sans Sambora"?

28. The Rolling Stones 'Bridges to Babylon Tour'

The Rolling Stones

Years: 1997-98

Number of shows: 97

Gross: $274 million

Bottom Line: The Rolling Stones 'Bridges to Babylon Tour'

The Rolling Stones

Fans forever remember this stadium tour for the surprise spectacle of the Stones sprinting over a 150-foot-long telescoping bridge that extended from the main stage to a smaller "B stage' where they'd rock a three-song set of rarities.

Mechanical catwalks are common now, but in the 1990s, it was a fairly new gimmick dreamt up by Mick Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts and the late great stage designer Mark Fisher , who spent his long career creating elaborate concert backdrops for everyone from Madonna to Metallica.    

27. Paul McCartney 'Out There! Tour'

Paul McCartney

Number of shows: 91

Gross: $275.7 million

Bottom line: In support of the album "New," Sir Paul traveled a long and winding tour road that featured his first-ever performances in Poland, Costa Rica and South Korea.

Another memorable first happened on stage in Goiânia, Brazil, where Macca was swarmed by grasshoppers , one of which he introduced to the audience as "Harold."

Bottom Line: Paul McCartney 'Out There! Tour'

Paul McCartney

In support of the album "New," Sir Paul traveled a long and winding tour road that featured his first-ever performances in Poland, Costa Rica and South Korea.

26. Celine Dion 'Taking Chances World Tour'

Celine Dion

Years: 2008-09

Number of shows: 132

Gross: $279.2 million

Bottom Line: Celine Dion 'Taking Chances World Tour'

Celine Dion

Celine Dion temporarily left the comfy confines of her Caesars Palace Las Vegas residency for this worldwide jaunt that hit the box-office jackpot.

Like her Sin City shows, the production razzle-dazzle and chest-thumping vocal thrills were off the charts.

And as sure as the Titanic sits at the bottom of the Atlantic, every performance climaxed with a soaring "My Heart Will Go On."  

25. One Direction 'Where We Are Tour'

One Direction

Number of shows: 69

Gross: $290.1 million

Bottom Line: One Direction 'Where We Are Tour'

One Direction

The English boy band made serious bank on this stadium tour that incredibly managed to fill massive venues like London's Wembley Stadium; Foxborough, Massachusetts's Gillette Stadium; and Pasadena's Rose Bowl for three nights each.

Take that, 'N Sync!

24. Madonna 'The MDNA Tour'

Madonna

Number of shows: 88

Gross: $305.1 million

Bottom Line: Madonna 'The MDNA Tour'

Madonna

When fans griped that ticket prices for this tour were too high, Madge famously told Newsweek, "So work all year, scrape the money together and come to my show. I'm worth it." Hmm. Has someone forgotten their starving-artist days, working at a New York City Dunkin' Donuts to pay the rent?

Those who saved their pennies saw the Material Girl stage a series of provocative, big-budget production numbers that were at turns violent, campy, political and, of course, sexual.

Fans and critics ate it up. Every date sold out. Madonna was in box-office ecstasy.  

23. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'The River Tour'

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Number of shows: 89

Gross: $306 million

Bottom Line: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'The River Tour'

Jake Clemons, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt

For most (if not all) of the tour's U.S. leg, after opening with an outtake from the "The River" LP, Bruce and cohorts played the much-loved 1980 double album in its entirety — fulfilling the wildest dreams of so-called "Bruce Tramps," as hardcore fans are known.

Along with rarely played gems "Stolen Car" and "Wreck on the Highway," the faithful also rocked out to old faves like "Hungry Heart" and "Out in the Street."

Many gigs ran more than 3-1/2 hours, offering lots of bang for your Bruce bucks.  

22. The Rolling Stones 'Licks Tour'

Mick Jagger

Gross: $311 million

Bottom Line: The Rolling Stones 'Licks Tour'

Mick Jagger

This hit parade in support of the Stones' 40th anniversary "Forty Licks" compilation album found "The World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band" rocking a mix of small theaters, indoor arenas and stadiums. Yet no matter the venue's size, then as now, Mick and the gang charged among the steepest ticket prices in the biz.

A treat for Stones freaks, the setlists occasionally featured deep cuts like "Loving Cup" and "Neighbours." And lucky fans at a handful of gigs saw AC/DC's Malcolm and Angus Young join the band for a cover of the blues classic " Rock Me Baby ."   

21. The Rolling Stones 'Voodoo Lounge Tour'

The Rolling Stones

Years: 1994-95

Number of shows: 124

Gross: $320 million

Bottom Line: The Rolling Stones 'Voodoo Lounge Tour'

Mick Jagger

Following the release of "Voodoo Lounge" — the Stones' first album sans original bassist Bill Wyman — the band embarked on a global trek that would become the highest-grossing tour of the 1990s.

Replacement bassist Darryl Jones (still playing with the Stones to this day) joined drummer Charlie Watts in laying down the beat as Keith Richards riffed and Mick Jagger aerobicized across stages in 31 countries.

Also earning nice tour paychecks were the variety of opening acts (Blind Melon, Spin Doctors, Stone Temple Pilots), now buried in a mid-'90s time capsule.

20. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'Wrecking Ball World Tour'

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Years: 2012-13

Number of shows: 133

Gross: $340.6 million

Bottom Line: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 'Wrecking Ball World Tour'

Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren

This was the first outing after the death of Bruce Springsteen's legendary saxophonist Clarence "The Big Man" Clemons, and the tour was a cathartic experience for the band and fans alike.

With Clemons' nephew Jake taking over sax duties, and backed by a larger-than-usual ensemble — including backup singers and a horn section — The Boss showcased several tracks from 2012's "Wrecking Ball" album, which featured some of his rawest songwriting in years.

During the encore, fans heard classics like " Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out ," performed as a tribute to the late Clemons.

19. Taylor Swift 'Reputation Stadium Tour'

Taylor Swift

Number of shows: 53

Gross: $345.7 million

Bottom Line: Taylor Swift 'Reputation Stadium Tour'

Taylor Swift

In the process of topping the take from her own 2015 tour (see this list's No. 35), Tay-Tay traveled to seven countries, averaged an eye-popping $6.5-million gross per show, and solidified her reputation as one of the most bankable acts in the biz.   

18. Elton John 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road'

Elton John

Years: 2018-present (in progress, on hiatus)

Number of shows: 272 (scheduled)

Gross: $358.6 million (and counting)

Bottom Line: Elton John 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road'

Elton John

After more than half a century on the road, in 2018 Sir Elton announced he'd be hanging it up, but not before a marathon retirement tour to let fans sing along to "Tiny Dancer" one last time.

Though John shelved his Donald Duck costume back in the '80s, the show is still packed with enough production bombast and greatest hits to ensure his yellow brick tour road is paved with box-office gold.   

17. The Police 'Reunion Tour'

Sting

Number of shows: 151

Gross: $362 million

Bottom Line: The Police 'Reunion Tour'

Sting

After enduring the band's 21-year hiatus, not to mention Sting's string of snoozer solo albums, Police devotees were ultimately rewarded with a reunion tour that revisited all the hits — from "Roxanne" to "Every Breath You Take."

Early in the tour, it seemed as if old rivals Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland might soon be back at each other's throats, but there's nothing like big box-office bucks to help smooth troubled waters.

16. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood 'World Tour'

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood

Years: 2014-17

Number of shows: 390

Gross: $364.3 million

Bottom Line: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood 'World Tour'

Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks

After the country superstar's 13-year "retirement," fans again got the chance to hoist a $14 cup of Bud Light and sing along to " Friends in Low Places " on this extensive North American tour co-headlined by Brooks' wife, Trisha Yearwood.

If you're wondering why it took four years of gigs for this tour to gross what others earn in a year or two, it's largely due to Brooks' longstanding policy to charge the same price for every ticket in a given venue, regardless of seat location.

15. Bruno Mars '24K Magic World Tour'

Bruno Mars

Number of shows: 215

Gross: $367.7 million

Bottom Line: Bruno Mars '24K Magic World Tour'

Bruno Mars '24K Magic World Tour'

Channeling the likes of Prince and James Brown, Mars' uber-slick stage show pumped a pretty penny into his treasure chest as it circled the planet, including a penultimate string of stadium concerts in his hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii.

14. U2 'Vertigo Tour'

Bono

Years: 2005-06

Number of shows: 131

Gross: $389 million

Bottom Line: U2 'Vertigo Tour'

Bono and The Edge

Bono counting off " Uno, dos, tres, catorce! " kicks off this hugely successful tour's title song, "Vertigo." Want more numbers? The tour sold some 4.6-million tickets across five continents. During Vertigo's Latin American leg, more than 700 hours of footage were shot for the concert film "U2 3D."

Throughout the endeavor, the band played 60 different songs, including rare tracks from their 1980 debut album "Boy." And for concertgoers who arrived early, the tour featured 17 different opening acts, including The Killers, Kanye West and Arcade Fire, who at the time were arguably a hotter band than U2.   

13. U2 'The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019'

U2

Year: 2017 and 2019

Number of shows: 66

Gross: $390.8 million

U2 'The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019'

The Edge,Bono,Larry Mullen Jr.,Adam Clayton

In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, U2 realized the themes of their signature 1987 album, "The Joshua Tree," were as relevant as ever. So the band embarked on a five-month string of stadium concerts that featured the platter played in its entirety, plus some of their early hits.

Snooty critics charged U2 had become a nostalgia act, but those who missed the album's original tour clearly weren't concerned — snapping up more than 2.7-million tickets for a joyous journey through the past.

In 2019, the tour was revived for 15 dates in Oceania and Asia.

12. Pink 'Beautiful Trauma World Tour'

Pink

Number of shows: 159

Gross: $397.3 million

Bottom Line: Pink 'Beautiful Trauma World Tour'

Pink

The pop diva took her powerhouse vocals and Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics to arenas for this wildly successful jaunt that did notably huge business Down Under — where Pink's rabid Aussie fan base cheered an impressive run of 27 shows.

11. Madonna 'Sticky and Sweet Tour'

Madonna

Gross: $408 million

Bottom Line: Madonna 'Sticky and Sweet Tour'

Madonna

While M maniacs generally agree nothing can ever touch the controversial, legendary heights of 1990's "Blond Ambition Tour," this worldwide jaunt in support of the underrated "Hard Candy" album was no slouch.  

Performing in front of more than 3.5 million fans in 32 countries, Madge underwent countless costume changes and worked a monster stage backed by dazzling video screens and a platoon of dancers.

A sweet treat for longtime fans, the stripped-down "Old School" segment of the show featured Miss Ciccone strapping on an electric guitar for a head-banging version of " Borderline ."   

10. Rolling Stones 'No Filter Tour'

The Rolling Stones

Years: 2017-present (in progress, on hiatus)

Number of shows: 60 (scheduled)

Gross: $415.6 million (and counting)

Bottom line: The Stones keep rolling — rocking stadiums from Dublin to Detroit. In 2019, Mick Jagger underwent a heart-valve surgery that sidelined the tour for months.

But the band made good on the postponed dates, culminating in a Miami show where "Gimme Shelter" was played right on cue as rain began to pour with Hurricane Dorian knocking on Florida's door.

Bottom Line: Rolling Stones 'No Filter Tour'

Ronnie Wood,Mick Jagger,Charlie Watts,Keith Richards

The Stones keep rolling — rocking stadiums from Dublin to Detroit. In 2019, Mick Jagger underwent a heart-valve surgery that sidelined the tour for months.

9. Metallica 'WorldWired Tour'

Metallica

Years: 2016-present (in progress, on hiatus)

Number of shows: 178 (scheduled)

Gross: $416.9 million (and counting)

Bottom Line: Metallica 'WorldWired Tour'

James Hetfield

The thrash metal legends have come a long way since their live debut in 1982 at a small club in Anaheim, California. The cover charge was $15. Attendance numbered around 200 (mostly the band's friends). And the only Metallica originals played were "Hit The Lights" and "Jump in the Fire."

Flash forward to this monster tour in support of 2016's "Hardwired ... to Self-Destruct" album. The average ticket price is nearly $100, and you're more likely to be sitting in a football stadium's nosebleed seats than crackin' ribs in a mosh pit.

8. AC/DC 'Black Ice World Tour'

AC/DC

Number of shows: 168

Gross: $441.6 million

Bottom line: AC/DC may do dirty deeds done dirt cheap, but when it comes to concert tickets, you'll pay through the nose.

The Aussie rockers averaged a $2.6 million per-show gross on this tour, which would be the last for founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young (he passed in 2017) and longtime drummer Phil Rudd. It was also the last full tour for lead singer Brian Johnson, forced to quit the subsequent "Rock or Bust Tour" due to serious hearing damage.

The band's future is up in the air. So consider yourself lucky if you attended, no matter the cost, and played air guitar to "T.N.T." and "Hells Bells" for what may have been the last time.   

Bottom Line: AC/DC 'Black Ice World Tour'

Brian Johnson

AC/DC may do dirty deeds done dirt cheap, but when it comes to concert tickets, you'll pay through the nose.

7. Billy Joel 'Billy Joel in Concert'

Billy Joel

Years: 2014-21 (in progress)

Number of shows: 182 (scheduled)

Gross: $448.2 million (and counting)

Bottom line: Joel hasn't released an album of new pop/rock material in more than 25 years, and hasn't needed to. Not when he continually packs arenas with boomers belting out "Piano Man" in karaoke mass.

This current tour, scheduled to wrap in 2021, birthed Joel's NYC Madison Square Garden residency, in which he plays his hometown venue at least once a month. Since his first MSG gig in 1978, he's headlined the arena more than 100 times. That's a lot of "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant."

Note: Joel's inclusion on this list is subject to debate. This tour is not in support of a specific album and has been extended every year in seeming perpetuity since it began. However Pollstar and Billboard consider it a single tour, hence its inclusion.

Bottom Line: Billy Joel 'Billy Joel in Concert'

Billy Joel

Joel hasn't released an album of new pop/rock material in more than 25 years, and hasn't needed to. Not when he continually packs arenas with boomers belting out "Piano Man" in karaoke mass.

6. Roger Waters 'The Wall Live'

Roger Waters

Years: 2010-13

Number of shows: 219

Gross: $458.6 million

Bottom Line: Roger Waters 'The Wall Live'

Roger Waters

A politically charged concert spectacle showcasing Pink Floyd's landmark 1979 concept album "The Wall," the tour found the band's chief lyricist and bassist traveling to four continents and playing before some 4 million fans to the tune of nearly half a billion dollars in ticket sales.

While that's an unfathomable fortune to the layman, all in all, it's just another brick in Waters' behemoth financial wall.

5. Coldplay 'A Head Full of Dreams Tour'

Coldplay

Number of shows: 122

Gross: $523 million

Bottom Line: Coldplay 'A Head Full of Dreams Tour'

Coldplay 'A Head Full of Dreams Tour'

If you gambled this slot would belong to yet another Cher or KISS "retirement tour," you lose.

The winners are Chris Martin and company, who put on a massive laser/pyro extravaganza that sold over half a billion tickets worldwide, including four sellouts at London's 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium.

4. The Rolling Stones 'A Bigger Bang Tour

Mick Jagger

Years: 2005-07

Number of shows: 144

Gross: $558.3 million

Bottom Line: The Rolling Stones 'A Bigger Bang Tour

Mick Jagger

This Stones tour was so hot, even then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was scalping tickets — charging his political donors $100,000 to join "The Terminator" in his VIP box for the opening concert at Boston's Fenway Park.

Mick and Keith were not happy, but by journey's end, it was all smiles as a "Bigger Bang" busted all box-office records and became the top-grossing tour of all time. Until ...    

3. Guns N' Roses 'Not in This Lifetime ... Tour'

Guns N' Roses

Years: 2016-19

Number of shows: 175

Gross: $584.2 million

Bottom Line: Guns N' Roses 'Not in This Lifetime ... Tour'

Guns N' Roses

In the '80s, when up-and-coming GNR was hitchhiking home from their own gigs, they surely never imagined becoming the biggest metal band in the world, let alone splitting up and ultimately regrouping for one of rock history's most lucrative tours.

Sure, Axl Rose has a potbelly, but he's still got the pipes (sort of) to belt out " Welcome To The Jungle ," bringing more than 5 million fans to their sha-na-na-na-na-knees-knees!  

2. U2 '360° 'Tour'

U2 "360° Tour"

Gross: $736.4 million

Bottom Line: U2 '360° 'Tour'

Bono, Adam Clayton

Behold " The Claw "! That's the nickname given to the gargantuan, 165-foot-high arachnid-like structure that towered over U2's stage on this monumentally successful tour.

Loaded with video screens and stacked with an ear-splitting sound system, The Claw cost an estimated $25 to $30 million, and was so massive it took 120 semi-trucks to move it between stadium concerts where seating was in the round — hence the tour's "360°" moniker.

Over three years, more than 7.2-million fans enjoyed a setlist spanning the band's formidable catalog, including Bono donning a laser-light suit for encore numbers like " Ultraviolet ." And if you're wondering whatever became of The Claw, in 2019 it was permanently installed at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah .

1. Ed Sheeran '÷ Tour'

Ed Sheeran

Number of shows: 255

Gross: $776.2 million

Bottom line: Step back, Bono. After touring six continents, 2019 saw Ed Sheeran leap over U2's "Claw" and land in the top-grossing slot.

"Sheerios" obsessed with the English singer-songwriter's syrupy-sweet ditties bought an estimated 8.9 million tickets, leading to his crowning as the all-time king of concert cash.

What, you thought number one would be another Rolling Stones tour? You're not alone.

Bottom Line: Ed Sheeran '÷ Tour'

Ed Sheeran

Step back, Bono. After touring six continents, 2019 saw Ed Sheeran leap over U2's "Claw" and land in the top-grossing slot.

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HAIM delivered everything I expected at this show, and more! This band has so many different things going for it, that it is hard not to see them having a long successful career. As a matter of fact, in the music business of old, when there were not 10 zillion bands out there, HAIM would be playing arenas and probably making Fleetwood Mac kind of money…The Wiltern isn't the best sounding venue for sure, but HAIM overcame this and totally kicked ass, playing the tunes off of "DAYS ARE GONE" with passion and skill. As good as they all are, (and special kudos also to drummer Dash and keyboardist Tommy) it is hard not to focus on Danielle Haim and her major rock star charisma. It doesn't hurt that she rips it up on guitar and is a pretty kick ass drummer too…All in all, HAIM was amazing, and I would go back tonight if I could get a ticket...

dan-rosman’s profile image

The most incredible, angelic, beautiful person to ever grace this earth. I've never been more stunned by a performance. SZA met and exceeded all of my expectations, I cannot put into words how amazing she is live. It's an experience you don't want to miss if you get the chance to see her. She was so happy and humble and was continuiously appoligizing for being sick and I honestly couldn't tell, that's how great she is. Also the experience brought me life not only because I got to see her preform but because everyone was singing every single word to every song with her. Truly incredible when you are surrounded in a room full of people singing your favorite songs at the top of their lungs. Needless to say I want a live version of ctrl after all of this so I can reminisce.

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The. Best. Night. Of. My. Entire. Life. This was the second time for me to see Adele. Last time I was quite high up, this time I was in Golden Circle. The atmosphere was incredible, Adele made me feel like I was the only one there in a packed out stadium. The banter she has with her audience in hilarious, she includes everyone and t feels like you're hanging out with your best mate you've known for years. As for her songs, the emotion and passion she sings with is just so raw and heart warming, I cried so many tears. You can tell she has an absolute ball on stage and she has so many upbeat songs and the sass she has is unreal- it cracks me up every time! I feel so grateful to have been apart of this tour and so happy that Adele decided to share this experience with every single one of us. I hope she has the most relaxing break with her family and hope she knows we'll always be here for her whenever/ if she decides to come back. Xx

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Moses Sumney

Moses was amazing. Very enigmatic but still approachable, and he had a lot of fun with the crowd. The performance was incredible, his voice is truly something to behold. I've listened to "Worth It" a million times but still got chills when he hit the high note. Would highly recommend seeing Moses live, especially before he gets really famous and expensive to see.

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Arcade Fire

They say perfection doesn't exist, well that's wrong when it comes to Arcade Fire. The show was perfect, almost surreal- definitely the concert of the year by far. The set list on the Wednesday show was as of it was made for me, playing songs I never thought I would hear live, it was an emotional experience. The lighting, costumes, music transitions, props was amazing, and the boxing type ring stage was incredibly clever, allowing them to be closer to the fans and yet providing a different show on every side. Words can't explain what I felt during and after the concert, it was playful, clever, emotional, energetic- Such an amazing band, I'm so glad I found them- I don't know how I was alive before finding them. They have such an incredible stage presence, I really truly recommend seeing them if you have the chance- they unite all ages and create magic and unity.

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Ethereal, hopeful, humble, powerful... just absolute ART. The show was focused on everyone, a celebration of culture, love, identities, and struggle. I love that she made it more about the group on stage as a whole than just her- Tons of stage presence nonetheless. Beautiful band, beautiful backup singers. The lighting was amazing and the stage was so well done and simple. Solange holds her own and I cannot wait to see her when she comes back. You can tell she was feeling it when she got down on the left side of the stage and started singing to us, beautiful moment that reminds me why I love going to live shows/concerts. Flying Lotus was an absolute trip as well. I wish she would've brought Kelela out on this date... Scales is such a beautiful song and I'd of loved to see it live with them two.

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Rolling Out

TLC celebrated as bestselling girl group in America

  • By Christal Jordan
  • Apr 06, 2023

TLC celebrated as bestselling girl group in America

The 2023 iHeart Music Awards in Los Angeles on Monday, March 27 at the Dolby Theatre was heavy with superstar sightings. From Taylor Swift, to Kelly Clarkson and sexy hip-hop star LL Cool J, it was jam-packed with A-list performers. However, the arrival of the originators of girl power, TLC, added an element of frenzied excitement to the red carpet as members of the media scrambled to get a moment with the two legends. 2023 is cued to be the year the icons receive their flowers from the entertainment industry as a week later the group was honored with the inaugural Legacy Award at Variety’s Power of Women luncheon.

TLC holds the record for being the bestselling U.S. girl group of all time, according to a VH1. The chemistry between the three diverse artists Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes, coupled with R&B, hip-hop and pop leanings was nothing short of magical. Their fashion-forward presentation wrapped in a socially conscious package orchestrated by legendary producer L.A. Reid gave fans a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Many have attempted to replicate TLC’s signature sound for decades, but their efforts have fallen far short. Hopeful music execs have tried to recreate and remanufacture the blueprint with countless girl groups to no avail. Even after losing Lopes tragically in a freak car accident in 2002, TLC remains unduplicated, unmatched and undefeated in sales, strategy and star power. For the first time ever, Watkins and Thomas will tell their story, in their own words and on their own terms on Lifetime and A&E on June 3, 2023, in a two-hour documentary aptly titled, “TLC Forever.”

“This documentary is special because it’s the first time we’ve gotten the chance to tell our story, just us. No screenwriters or storytellers, it’s just us giving our experience and giving our fans our truth,” Thomas says.

The public continues to be fascinated with TLC more than 30 years after the group was introduced to fans with their debut single, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” From high-profile court cases to Hollywood romances, heartbreak, serious illness, consistent hot topic drama, and most importantly, the unexpected heart-wrenching loss of Lopes, TLC has weathered the storm and continues delivering for their fans. “Lisa is our sister and she is always with us. We’ve always said we will never replace her,” Watkins says.

“That’s what makes TLC different than other groups. There is no way to replace anyone. TLC will always be the three of us,” Thomas affirms.

With Lopes’ spirit in their hearts and her image and voice worked into their stage sets, fans get the full TLC experience at each and every performance. Showmanship is the lifeblood of TLC and that’s obvious for fans who attend their concerts. Known for elaborate stage shows, including energetic dance sets complete with dancers, a full band and high-tech graphics and pyrotechnics, the group approaches each and every performance as if it is the most important performance of their careers.

TLC celebrated as bestselling girl group in America

“We have some of the most loyal fans in the business. They’ve stuck by us from the first album until now and many of them introduced their children to us also. The least we can do is give them a great show when they spend their money to come out and support us,” Watkins says.

Thomas, a trained dancer, says the group is acutely aware of the importance of giving not just a good, but a great performance. “Our very first show, we opened for MC Hammer, so we had a chance to see how important a great stage show was in connecting with your audience. I remember watching his shows on that tour and thinking we’ve got to bring it just like this every time. Performance is so important, and making sure your fans are getting their money’s worth [is essential]. We give our all when we are out on that stage, and I think our fans know that,” she says.

Fans will get a chance to see that TLC magic soon on the Hot Summer Nights tour, which begins June 1 and runs through mid-July. TLC will headline and be joined on the tour by Jamaican icon Shaggy, R&B royalty En Vogue and millennial powerhouse Sean Kingston.

“We love and have so much respect for Shaggy, En Vogue and Sean Kingston. It’s cool because fans get a lot of culture with this show and each artist brings a different flavor. We know audiences are really going to have a good time at every show. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Watkins says.

Lifetime and A&E will simulcast the new two-hour documentary “TLC Forever,” on June 3, 2023, at 8 p.m. EDT. TLC’s Hot Summer Nights tour will kick off June 1, 2023, in Pelham, Alabama.

Photography by Dennis Leupold

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These 20 Rappers Are the Top-Grossing Hip-Hop Touring Acts of All Time

From Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj and beyond, here are the highest grossing artists, according to Billboard Boxscore.

By Eric Frankenberg

Eric Frankenberg

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Jay-Z

Billboard Boxscore has been tracking touring data and ranking the top live acts around the world across various musical genres since the mid-1980s. We’ve already run down the biggest live artists in country and Latin music, and now it’s time to present the 20 highest grossing rappers in the Boxscore archives.

Hip-hop was still in its adolescence when Boxscore charts started in the mid-’80s. But in the nearly 40 years since, rap has exploded, becoming a (or the ) dominant force in popular music. What began in a community rec room of a Bronx apartment complex has graduated to theaters, arenas and stadiums.

This list is based on global figures reported to Billboard Boxscore as of Nov. 2. Final numbers are based on headline engagements only – no festivals – plus 50% of any co-headline grosses.

That last part is important. As in the studio, collaboration has been key on the road for the rappers on our list and beyond. From Jay-Z and Kanye West to Eminem and 50 Cent , hip-hop acts have co-headlined in various arrangements over the last few decades, using one another’s shared star power to sell out venues worldwide.

A note about eligibility for this list: We’re including rap artists who have charted on Billboard ’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. That means that artists who rap instead of sing, but don’t fall within the genre of hip-hop, are excluded. For acts that have straddled the line, we’ve made splits — tours supporting pop or alternative albums for Post Malone or Machine Gun Kelly don’t count toward their totals.

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj

Gross: $26.9 million

Attendance: 472K

Total Shows Reported: 42

First Reported Show(s): $491K at Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Australia, on May 16, 2012

Biggest Reported Show(s): $1.4 million at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on July 26, 2015

Chance the Rapper

Chance the Rapper

Gross: $28.1 million

Attendance: 577K

Total Shows Reported: 64

First Reported Show(s): $18K at Club Soda in Montreal, Quebec, on Nov. 3, 2013

Biggest Reported Show(s): $2.2 million at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago on Sept. 24, 2016

$uicideboy$

$uicideboy$

Gross: $32.3 million

Attendance: 423K

Total Shows Reported: 60

First Reported Show(s): $83K at Palladium in Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 11, 2017

Biggest Reported Show(s): $1.4 million at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., On Oct. 31-Nov. 1, 2022

Beastie Boys

Beastie Boys

Gross: $36.1 million

Attendance: 1.2 million

Total Shows Reported: 148

First Reported Show(s): $31K at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Ariz., on Feb. 10, 1987

Biggest Reported Show(s): $3.4 million at Robert F. Kenedy Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C., on June  13-14, 1998

Future

Gross: $44.7 million

Attendance: 838K

Total Shows Reported: 73

First Reported Show(s): $23K at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, on May 27, 2014

Biggest Reported Show(s): $1.9 million at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich., on Jan. 29, 2023

Lil Baby

Gross: $45.1 million

Attendance: 705K

Total Shows Reported: 61

First Reported Show(s): $105K at Express Live! in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 29, 2018

Biggest Reported Show(s): $1.7 million at American Airlines Center in Dallas on July 29, 2023

Wiz Khalifa

Wiz Khalifa

Gross: $45.2 million

Attendance: 2 million

Total Shows Reported: 226

First Reported Show(s): $18K at 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., on March 28, 2010

Biggest Reported Show(s): $670K at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., on April 22, 2023

Tyler, the Creator

Tyler the Creator

Gross: $56.8 million

Attendance: 812K

Total Shows Reported: 108

First Reported Show(s): $28K at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, on March 12, 2013

Biggest Reported Show(s): $2.9 million at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y., on March 13-14, 2022

Travis Scott

Travis Scott

Gross: $65.9 million

Attendance: 910K

Total Shows Reported: 78

First Reported Show(s): $42K at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 2015

Biggest Reported Show(s): $3.2 million at O2 Arena in London on Aug. 6-7, 2022

Snoop Dogg

Gross: $73.7 million

Attendance: 2.6 million

Total Shows Reported: 343

First Reported Show(s): $21K at Cane’s in San Diego on Dec. 9, 2000

Biggest Reported Show(s): $2.9 million at Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash., on Dec. 16-17, 2022

50 Cent

Gross: $81.7 million

Attendance: 1.9 million

Total Shows Reported: 174

First Reported Show(s): $153K at Constant Center in Norfolk, Va., on Feb. 15, 2003

Biggest Reported Show(s): $3.1 million at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 9-10, 2023

J Cole

Gross: $91.7 million

Attendance: 1.4 million

Total Shows Reported: 146

First Reported Show(s): $9K at Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 3, 2010

Biggest Reported Show(s): $2.3 million at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 24-25, 2018

Lil Wayne

Gross: $111.7 million

Total Shows Reported: 234

First Reported Show(s): $18K at House of Blues in New Orleans on Sept. 17, 2004

Biggest Reported Show(s): $2.2 million at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., on March 27-28, 2011

Black Eyed Peas

Black Eyed Peas

Gross: $119.4 million

Total Shows Reported: 193

First Reported Show(s): $17K at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Conn., on Feb. 15, 2001

Biggest Reported Show(s): $4.8 million at O2 Arena in London on May 5-6 and 27-28, 2010

Eminem

Gross: $151.7 million

Attendance: 2.3 million

Total Shows Reported: 103

First Reported Show(s): $19K at The Odeon in Cleveland on April 8, 1999

Biggest Reported Show(s): $10.4 million at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 2 and 4, 2011

Kanye West

Gross: $161.2 million

Total Shows Reported: 240

First Reported Show(s): $61K at House of Blues in Chicago on Feb. 11, 2004

Biggest Reported Show(s): $8.3 million at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. on Oct. 25-27 and Nov. 1-3, 2016

Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar

Gross: $164.5 million

Attendance: 1.7 million

Total Shows Reported: 142

First Reported Show(s): $26K at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on March 27, 2012

Biggest Reported Show(s): $8.1 million at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sept. 14-17, 2022

Post Malone

Post Malone

Gross: $245.7 million

Attendance: 3.4 million

Total Shows Reported: 225

First Reported Show(s): $16K at Emo’s in Austin, Texas, on Sept. 20, 2016

Biggest Reported Show(s): $5.3 million at the O2 Arena in London on May 4 and 6-7, 2023

Jay Z

Gross: $430.5 million

Attendance: 7.4 million

Total Shows Reported: 402

First Reported Show(s): $205K at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on July 27, 2001

Biggest Reported Show(s): $7.4 million at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept. 28-Oct. 1 and Oct. 3-6, 2012

Drake

Gross: $472.9 million

Attendance: 3.9 million

Total Shows Reported: 304

First Reported Show(s): $191K at Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Penn., on April 9, 2010

Biggest Reported Show(s): $13.5 million at the O2 Arena in London on April 1-2, 4-5, 8-9 and 11, 2019

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From Beyoncé to Taylor Swift to Dua Lipa, women artists are ushering in ‘Pop Girl Spring’

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour - Singapore

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Recently reinstated Beautycounter CEO is purchasing the company back from The Carlyle Group, Democrats in Congress are growing frustrated with abortion rights groups over efforts to repeal a 1873 law, and women pop artists are giving fans plenty to celebrate this spring. Have a restful weekend! – Pop girl spring. Taylor Swift’s newest album The Tortured Poets Department is here, and it is anticipated to be one of the biggest releases of the year. While Swift is likely to rack up more sales and streaming records this week, she is in good company among other women pop artists on the Billboard charts. In fact, a chorus of the biggest names in music dropped or will drop albums in March, April, and May, including Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Maggie Rogers, Beyoncé , Dua Lipa, and Billie Eilish. Fans have begun to refer to this season of notable releases as Pop Girl Spring .

For pop fans, the bevy of high-profile drops has solidified a trend that became evident during last year’s summer of Swift and Beyoncé , and was further reinforced at this year’s Grammy awards , where women swept nearly all of the televised categories: Culturally, women are dominating pop music.

But that public-facing influence hasn’t translated behind the scenes, says Tonya Butler, chair of the music business and management department at Berklee College of Music. Women in the C-suite remain a rarity in the music world , as do female producers . Sexual harassment is still rampant in the industry, according to a report from MIDiA Research , and the pay gap between men and women industry-wide remains pronounced. Swift and Beyoncé may run empires that eclipse many male artists’, but they are anomalies, she says. 

“It’s definitely exciting,” Butler tells me of all the female chart-toppers of recent weeks. “But I would love for us to get to a point where it’s not a surprise that so many women in the industry are doing so phenomenally well.”

There’s long been a perception in the music industry that women can’t lead a successful tour, since they only appeal to other women consumers (meanwhile, both men and women will pay to watch men perform). The past few years—and especially 2023’s record-breaking Renaissance and Eras tours —have been notable for defying that perceived wisdom—women are flocking to see their favorite acts, and they’re paying big money to do so. 

Still, reaching true parity in the industry will require constant, sustained effort and attention, says Butler, not just cheering on the handful of female artists who have managed to reach the summit in this moment. While it’s exciting to see women dominating the charts, she wants to make sure that extends beyond the headliners: That labels are investing the money that female artists generate (from their female fan bases) into developing the next generation of female acts, and that those women have access to mental health resources, for example.

“I don’t want us to get distracted by all the hoopla,” she says. “For every Beyoncé, there’s 10,000 wannabe Beyoncés who are working their butts off and not getting any support and might even be exploited. Where are the mechanisms to support them?”

Alicia Adamczyk [email protected]

The Broadsheet is Fortune’ s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here .

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Full circle. Beautycounter CEO Gregg Renfrew is purchasing the cosmetics company back from The Carlyle Group months after she was reinstated as CEO. The Carlyle Group, which initially ousted Gregg as CEO after purchasing Beautycounter three years ago, said it was selling the company because it “continued to lose ground” despite investments.   Ad Age

- Acting out. Congressional Democrats are frustrated with abortion rights groups that are blocking efforts to repeal centuries-old laws that Democrats worry could be used to introduce a nationwide abortion ban. Abortion rights groups say repealing the 1873 Comstock Act, which bans the shipment of goods related to abortion, would complicate ongoing reproductive rights lawsuits and bring the wrong attention to the law .   NOTUS

- Called out. An Indianapolis Star columnist apologized to basketball star Caitlin Clark for comments he made to her at a press conference following the WNBA draft. Gregg Doyel imitated Clark's trademark heart hands gesture during the press conference, and then told her to “start doing it to me and we'll get along just fine.” Doyel apologized for the “clumsy and awkward” exchange after fans called him out for being inappropriate. The Athletic

- Account closed. Sex workers in the U.K., where it is legal for consenting adults to sell or purchase sexual services, are blasting banks for refusing them as customers. The workers, most of whom are women, argue that lacking financial services makes them more vulnerable to exploitation. The banks say that it is their duty to identify and block earnings from potential financial crimes like sex trafficking.   Financial Times

- Teeing off. New and seasoned designers are pivoting into golf wear to accommodate a rush of women into the sport and a burgeoning women's professional tour. Former Warby Parker executive Amy Anderson and A. Putnam designer Ali Putnam are just a few to capitalize on the trend by releasing their own pieces to better suit women on the course.   Wall Street Journal

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Chief technology and innovation officer Leigh-Ann Russell and Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath , executive vice president of gas and low carbon energy, are leaving BP.

ON MY RADAR

There are plenty of power publicists. But only one works for Taylor Swift Wall Street Journal

Is the 'rest gap' why women are so exhausted? HuffPost

“I never, ever had an issue with being confident”: How Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg turned teen “delusion” into Hollywood domination British Vogue

PARTING WORDS

“You have to make room for joy. The world can be burning down, but…if you didn’t spend any of your life trying to be happy, I don't know what you’ve done.”

— Singer Dua Lipa on looking for fun in everything on her busy schedule

This is the web version of  The Broadsheet , a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.

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Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

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Bernadette Doykos

Best-selling Albums by Female Rappers of All Time

best selling female tour

As the 50th anniversary of hip-hop celebration comes to a close, Boardroom breaks down the top-selling female emcees in history.

From coast to coast, 2023 marked the celebration of 50 years of hip-hop . Since Day 1, the women of rap have inspired the game, providing a soundtrack worthy to be put on repeat.

To round out the year, Nicki Minaj returned with her fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2. While it’s too soon to tell what the lasting impact of her newest album will be, Minaj stands as the highest-selling female rapper of all time, having moved over 100 million units throughout her career. She finds herself in good company alongside Iggy Azalea, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, and more as the highest-selling global rap queens.

However, when it comes to the best-selling albums by female rappers, a trio of women from the tristate take over the top ranks. Boardroom breaks down the top five of all time.

Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.

NOTE: Ranking is based on total claimed sales derived by industry analysts and reportage rather than purely those sales certified by organizations like the RIAA .

Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday (2010)

Total   sales : Over 27 million RIAA Status: 3X Platinum Top Streamed Song:  “Super Bass”  (758,922,551 streams)

After gaining widespread support as the most desired feature contributor, Minaj’s first studio album lived up to the hype. Pink Friday moved over 27 million units. The 21-track album featured appearances from Eminem , Rihanna , Drake , will.i.am, Kanye West , and Natasha Bedingfield. The top-performing track took the form of “Super Bass,” which has over 750 million streams on Spotify alone and joined the elite billions club on YouTube .

It took home the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album in 2011 and was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album but lost to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which features debatably Minaj’s best feature on “Monster.”

Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint (2014)

Total   sales : Over 25 million RIAA Status: 2X Platinum Top Streamed Song:  “Only”  (528,498,048 streams)

Never not hustling, Minaj also boasts the second highest-selling rap album by a female artist. The Pinkprint debuted in December 2014. Usually a dark period for the record industry, Minaj burst forward with her third studio album, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, moving 244,000 units in the first week.

The album’s single “Anaconda” surged to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012)

Total   sales : Over 22 million RIAA Status: 2X Platinum Top Streamed Song:  “Starships” (998,560,146 streams)

Well, it seems that we’re seeing a pattern here. Minaj’s sophomore album rounds out the hat trick of top-selling albums. Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded dropped in April 2012. It debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, moving more than 253,000 units in the first week. Thirteen years after the release, the top single, “Starships,” is inching towards the billions club on Spotify with more than 998 million streams.

Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)

Total   sales : Over 20 million RIAA Status: Diamond Top Streamed Song:  “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (402,750,614 streams)

Lauryn Hill changed the game for women in hip-hop. The former member of the Fugees released her first solo album in 1998 to widespread acclaim. The 16-track album took home five Grammy Awards , including serving as the first rap album to take home the Album of the Year prize.

Cardi B, Invasion of Privacy (2018)

Total   sales : Over 19 million RIAA Status: 4X Platinum Top Streamed Song:  “I Like It” (1,564,682,429 streams)

Cardi B burst on the scene and made an immediate impact. Invasion of Privacy moved 253,000 units in the first week to easily take over the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. Ever since, The Bronx rapper’s highly anticipated debut album moved over 19 million units following its 2018 release. While the lead single “Bodak Yellow” has been streamed over 864 million times, its track “I Like It” took residence on the Billions List, netting more than 1.5 billion streams.

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best selling female tour

Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever jersey becomes top-selling jersey for a draft pick

Caitlin Clark

Basketball superstar Caitlin Clark has broken another yet another record — her Indiana Fever jersey is the top-selling jersey ever for a draft pick. 

Clark, 22, has had quite the year shattering records on the court for the Iowa Hawkeyes and boosting women’s basketball viewership . It was no surprise this week when she was selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever. 

Her Fever jersey with the number 22 is already the top-earning jersey ever for a draft pick, according to the licensed sportswear retailer Fanatics. 

The Fanatics website said Wednesday that it was “sold out” of its initial batch of the jersey but that pre-orders were still available and that restock is expected to ship in August. 

Clark’s star power also set a television milestone — ESPN coverage of the WNBA draft averaged a record 2.45 million viewers, with viewership peaking at 3.09 million, the network said in a news release . That’s four times the viewership of the 2023 draft, which drew an audience of 572,000, ESPN reported, and it eclipses the previous draft record of 601,000, in 2004. 

The Clark effect has also led to a pickup in ticket sales.

Even before the draft, soon after Clark announced her plans to enter the WNBA draft, the Fever had a spike in ticket inquiries, The Associated Press previously reported. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Aces announced their July 2 game against the Fever would move from the 12,000-seat Michelob Ultra Arena to T-Mobile Arena, which seats 18,000 for basketball.

“This is a dream. This is something I wrote down on a piece of paper when I was in, like, second grade. Get a basketball scholarship. Play in the WNBA,” Clark previously told NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk. 

At her introductory news conference with the Fever on Wednesday, Clark said: “I can’t think of a better place to start off my career.”

Asked how she hopes to inspire the next generation, she said: “A lot of the reason I am who I am today is that I had this constant confidence in myself. I think that’s a thing a lot of young girls struggle with today.

“It’s really the support system around them that instills that confidence in them. That’s what I'm so lucky for, whether it was youth coaches I had growing up, whether it was high school coaches, whether it was my parents, whether it was my family, they never told me I couldn't achieve something," she said.

"It was always like, 'If you want it you can go get it; you just have to earn it,'" she said. "And I think that’s the biggest thing I would tell the younger generation.” 

Breaking News Reporter

IMAGES

  1. Top 15 Best Selling Female Artists of All Time

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  2. Top 20 Highest-Grossing Female Artist Tours In History

    best selling female tour

  3. Best Selling Female Artists Of All Time

    best selling female tour

  4. Top 50 Best Selling Female Albums Ever: Comparison

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  5. The 5 Best Selling Female Artists of All Time

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  6. 25 Best-Selling Female Artists Of All Time

    best selling female tour

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COMMENTS

  1. List of highest-grossing concert tours by women

    Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.. The following is a list of the highest-grossing concert tours by women (soloists and all-female groups), divided in all-time terms and by decade.Many reported figures are taken from Billboard and Pollstar, two major publications that regularly provide the official figures of concerts' gross revenue ...

  2. Highest-Grossing Concert Tours by Women, Ranked

    While women were always part of the equation, they've become some of the top earners in the music business in recent years. The following tours have set new benchmarks for women in the industry and have redefined what it means to deliver a truly unforgettable concert experience. 10. Ariana Grande. Tour name: Sweetener World Tour. Tour total ...

  3. Highest-grossing music tour by a female artist

    The highest-grossing music tour by a female artist is Taylor Swift's (USA) career-spanning The Eras Tour, which, from 60 shows staged between 17 March and 12 November 2023, raked in an estimated $1,039,263,762 (£840,238,516), according to Pollstar.. After 14 years as the highest-grossing music tour by a woman, Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour ($411,000, or £252.9 million, in 2008-09) was ...

  4. List of highest-grossing concert tours

    The Eras Tour by Taylor Swift is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time and the first to yield over $1 billion in revenue. The following is a list of concert tours that have generated the most gross income, largely from ticket sales.The rankings are based largely on reports by trade publications Billboard and Pollstar. Billboard, which launched the boxscore ranking in 1975 through its ...

  5. The 30 Best-Selling Female Artists of All Time

    Britney was the best-selling female artist of the 2000s, and has countless awards to her name including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, a Grammy Award, 15 Guinness World Records, six MTV Video Music Awards and seven Billboard Music Awards. ... Her Eras Tour became the highest-grossing of all time in 2023, and she was also the most ...

  6. Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour Shatters Record For Highest-Grossing

    Forbes Valuation. We estimate Beyoncé's net worth to be $540 million and rank her among the top 50 of America's richest self-made women.. Key Background. The Renaissance World Tour kicked off ...

  7. Madonna Sells Out 35+ Shows Across Global Run

    THE BIGGEST FEMALE ARTIST OF ALL TIME JUST GOT BIGGER WITH OVER 600,000 TICKETS SOLD AND COUNTING. Today, Madonna, the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time, announced that The Celebration Tour has sold-out 36 shows and counting across Toronto, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and more, with over 600,000 tickets sold.Due to overwhelming demand, 23 new dates were ...

  8. Beyoncé Re-Sets Monthly Boxscore Record With $179 Million ...

    In terms of attendance, the Renaissance World Tour is up to 2.247 million tickets, narrowly eclipsing the Formation World Tour's 2.242 million to become her best-selling tour yet.

  9. Spice Girls turn 25: world's best-selling female group marks quarter

    Shutterstock. With accolades including the title of best-selling female group of all time under their belts, the Spice Girls have another reason to celebrate this week. The British five-piece celebrates 25 years in the spotlight on Friday, marking a quarter-century since their debut song Wannabe was released. Geri Horner, Emma Bunton, Victoria ...

  10. Madonna Sells Out 35+ Shows Across Global Run

    Today, Madonna, the best-selling female solo touring artist of all time, announced that The Celebration Tour has sold-out 36 shows and counting across Toronto, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and more, with over 600,000 tickets sold.Due to overwhelming demand, 23 new dates were added this week across North America and Europe. The global run now includes second shows in Miami, Las ...

  11. Madonna Re-Certified as Guinness World Records' Top-Selling Female Artist

    According to Guinness, Madonna is outsold only by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. She's held the record of the top-selling female artist since 2009, succeeded by Rihanna, Mariah ...

  12. Shania Twain On A New Album, Tour, & Life As A Music Legend

    As Shania Twain prepares a new album and tour, the country-pop legend talks finding love, her voice, and her rightful place in the pop pantheon. ... Twain, who is the best-selling female country ...

  13. Shania Twain

    Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain OC (/ aɪ ˈ l iː n ... ʃ ə ˈ n aɪ ə / eye-LEEN... shə-NY-ə; née Edwards; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter.She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time and the best-selling female artist in country music history. Her success garnered her several titles, including the "Queen of ...

  14. Highest-grossing music tour by a female artist (current year)

    When. 12 November 2023. Taylor Swift's (USA) The Eras Tour, the first billion-dollar music tour, grossed an estimated $1,039,263,762 (£840,238,516) from 60 shows played in the USA, Mexico and Argentina between 17 March and 12 November 2023, according to figures published by Pollstar. With an average gross of $17,321,063 (£14,003,976) per ...

  15. Madonna Cements Status as Best-Selling Female Artist of All Time

    Olivia Perreault , 6 months ago. Madonna has officially been crowned the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time. The "Vogue" singer, who is currently on her Celebration Tour, revealed on the "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in 2022 that she sold over 400 million records throughout her career, spanning five decades.

  16. Madonna remains the 'Queen of Pop,' officially biggest-selling female

    The Guinness Book of World Records announced just yesterday that "Material Girl" and "Madame X" Madonna remains the top-selling female act of all time. "Queen of Pop Madonna seems to be ...

  17. Highest-Grossing Concert Tours of All Time

    Highest-Grossing Concert Tours of All Time. By Eli Ellison, updated on November 22, 2022. Eduardo Verdugo / AP Photo. Old hippies love to brag about the time they paid a mere $6.50 to see Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in 1973. How times have changed. Today, when your favorite marquee act comes to town, you'll plunk down the equivalent ...

  18. Top Artists on Tour, dates & tickets 2024-2025

    See the tour dates and buy tickets for concerts from the most popular rock, hip-hop, pop, r&b, indie artists around the world and their music events in your area. ... Among the top searches and best-selling music artists on our global roster, you might find anyone from Rhianna, Coldplay, Eminem and Ed Sheeran, through to Drake, U2, Kanye West,

  19. TLC celebrated as bestselling girl group in America

    TLC holds the record for being the bestselling U.S. girl group of all time, according to a VH1. The chemistry between the three diverse artists Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Rozonda "Chilli ...

  20. List of best-selling girl groups

    The Spice Girls (here in 2008) are the best-selling girl group in history.. A girl group is a popular music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. Girl groups have been popular at least since the heyday of the Boswell Sisters beginning in the 1930s, but the term "girl group" also denotes the wave of American female pop singing groups who flourished in the late ...

  21. The Eras Tour is officially the highest grossing female tour of all

    She doesn't have the top spot for top-grossing tour nor the top spot for streaming. So if a news outlet wants to make a story for her they have to include the female category. OR, alternatively, they could just make the story "one of the highest grossing tours of all time" or "one of the top streamed artists" so it's less gendered ...

  22. Biggest Rap Tours of All Time: Top-Grossing Hip-Hop Artists

    These 20 Rappers Are the Top-Grossing Hip-Hop Touring Acts of All Time. From Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj and beyond, here are the highest grossing artists, according to Billboard Boxscore. By Eric ...

  23. Taylor Swift's new album ushers in 'Pop Girl Spring'

    Swift, Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish all have new albums out, but is it translating to female power behind the scenes?

  24. Best-selling Albums by Female Rappers of All Time

    Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint (2014) Total sales: Over 25 million. RIAA Status: 2X Platinum. Top Streamed Song: "Only" (528,498,048 streams) Never not hustling, Minaj also boasts the second highest-selling rap album by a female artist. The Pinkprint debuted in December 2014. Usually a dark period for the record industry, Minaj burst forward ...

  25. Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever jersey becomes top-selling jersey for a

    Even before the draft, soon after Clark announced her plans to enter the WNBA draft, the Fever had a spike in ticket inquiries, The Associated Press previously reported. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas ...