The 10 biggest music tours in history
For music artists, touring has always been a reliable source of income. That remains the case to this day. In a world where even well-known artists are struggling to earn a living from Spotify streams, live tours are an essential source of revenue – even if they frequently cost more money than they make. Of course, there are always artists that take things to the extreme. Over the years, artists have embarked on seemingly neverending tours that have made them huge amounts of money and left them completely exhausted.
Bruce Springsteen is one artist known for embarking on extended jaunts. His Magic Tour, which took place between 2007 and 2008, was one of the biggest tours of the year and ended up winning the singer-songwriter the Billboard Touring Award in 2008.
The outing followed the practice Springsteen established in his 2002-2003 Rising Tour, which saw him visit cities in North America and Western Europe. The Boss had a lot to pack in, so he ended up cutting down the duration of his performance, much to the chagrin of dedicated fans. The venture earned a huge amount of money and saw Bruce play to 2.1 million people. It’s a testament to the scale of the shows on the list below that the Magic Tour doesn’t even make the top ten.
In fact, The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour makes Springsteen’s outing look like a brisk walk in the park. The 2005-2007 tour saw Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts hit the road on August 10th with a surprise show in Toronto. The group then set off for Boston, where the tour began in earnest at Fenway Park on August 21st. The final show occurred at London’s O2 arena on August 26th, 2007. At some point during the outing, Keith Richards fell from a coconut tree in Fiji and suffered a serious injury, leading to the cancellation of six $1 million shows.
It’s not just rockers who have a penchant for extended tours. From 2008-2009, pop deity Madonna travelled the world for her Sticky And Sweet Tour, which was held in support of her album, Hard Candy. The tour began in Cardiff on August 23rd, 2008 and culminated with a show in Tel Aviv on September 2nd, 2009. The outing attracted 3.5 million attendees, the same as Cher’s Living Proof Farewell Tour, which lasted between 2002 and 2005. You can check out the full list below.
The ten biggest music tours in history
- U2’s 360 Degree Tour (2009-2010) – 7 million attendees
- The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge Tour (1994-1995) – 6.3 million attendees
- The Rolling Stones’ Bridges To Babylon/ No Security Tour (1997-1999) – 5.5. million attendees
- AC/DC’s Black Ice Tour (2008-2010) – 4.8 million attendees
- The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour (2005-2007) – 4.6 million attendees
- U2’s PopMart Tour (1997-1998) – 3.9 million attendees
- Cher’s Living Proof Farewell Tour – (2002-2005) 3.5 million attendees
- Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008-2009) – 3.5 million attendees
- The Rolling Stones’ Forty Licks Tour (2002-2003) – 3.4 million attendees
- The Police’s Reunion Tour (2007-2008) -3.3 million attendees
