Central Jersey and PA Born Artists Among Top Tours of the Year
BARCELONA, SPAIN - APRIL 28: (L-R) Nils Lofgren, Max Weinberg, Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt perform on stage at Estadi Olimpic the first concert of his European Tour on April 28, 2023 in Barcelona, Spain.
We are almost halfway through 2023 and Pollstar has looked back and examined the past six months of concert touring, and as expected has been extremely beneficial for Bruce Springsteen, and Taylor Swift.
One of my favorite moments of the Bruce tour is when for the first time since February 2017, Bruce and the band played “My Hometown” after a bunch of fans in the audience held up signs requesting that they play the song.
According to their midyear report, Springsteen and The E Street Band’s 2023 tour is the second-highest-grossing tour of the year, behind only Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at number one. Springsteen lands at two, with a gross of over $142 million, selling a total of 673,277 tickets in the first half of the year for an average gross per show of just under $4 million.
Other tours include Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour which is at number four, behind Harry Styles’ Love On Tour at number three. Elton’s tour has grossed over $110 million in the first six months of the year, with an average gross per show of over $3.3 million. Elton’s tour will end on July 7 and 8 in Stockholm, Sweden, and has already broken the record for the highest-grossing tour of all time.
However, our very own Bruce Springsteen still has plenty of shows to go on his tour, which means he’ll be raking in a whole lot more money and can surpass Elton’s total. He’ll play the second of two nights in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Wednesday, June 28, with the European leg wrapping July 25 in Monza, Italy. Plus he’ll bring the tour back to the U.S., kicking off with a two-night stand at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on August 9 and 11. Bruce and the band will perform shows in Philly and Jersey in August. A complete list of dates can be found at brucespringsteen.net.
Ariana Grande’s 5 Most Powerful Songs
Ariana Grande is perhaps the quintessential pop star of the last half of the 2010s. With her four-octave vocal range, it is no wonder that Grande has received numerous accolades throughout her career as a pop icon. Grande began her music career at age 15 in the 2008 Broadway musical 13. She rose to fame for playing Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon series Victorious from 2010 to 2013. In 2011, Grande signed with Republic Records in after label executives saw YouTube videos of her covering songs by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
Success In Business
With six studio albums under her belt, Grande is one of the world’s best-selling music artists. She has sold over 90 million records globally, and all of her studio albums have been certified platinum or higher. The Florida native is also the most streamed female artist of all time. Besides music, Grande has worked with many charitable organizations and advocates for animal rights, mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality. She also has a successful cosmetics company, R.E.M. Beauty, which she launched in 2021. Tapping into the perfume industry, Grande has released 13 fragrances and is the most-searched celebrity fragrance.
Ariana will play Glinda in the upcoming film adaptation of Wicked, which will hit theaters on November 27, 2024. Over ten years in the making, Grande was signed on in 2021 along with Cynthia Erivo, who will be playing Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. The second installment of Wicked will premiere one year later on November 25, 2025. Earlier this year, fans asked why Ariana isn't a singer anymore. In response, she sang a beautiful rendition of “Over the Rainbow” on TikTok. She told fans she “wanted to sing you a little something but don’t want to sing anything that is not ‘Ozian’ at the moment [smiley face emoji] keeping to my little bubble for now … done with lots of love.”
We’ve ranked Ariana Grande’s 5 most powerful songs. See how they rank below:
