20 highest grossing female tours of all time (adjusted in February 2019 gross)

Enjoy wow @ Beyoncé, Taylor and Madonna

How do they make so much money per show? Are tickets $200? Do ALL the venues fit 50,000 + fans? Do they include gross sales of souvenirs, booze, food and memorabilia?

No surprises there and pretty much as it should be. Overall, Celine was the top female money maker for a whole decade due to French and English record sales, tours, tv specials and residencies. Madonna put on gorgeous live tours and Beyonce can make more money in less than 50 shows than it takes others 3 times as many dates to do. She fills STADIUMS around the world. Tina Turner's stats are impressive because she did all after 45 years of age. I think she still holds the record for the largest concert audience ever?

I think Beyoncé's stadium dates are done, as are Madonna's

[quote]Tina Turner's stats are impressive because she did all after 45 years of age

A baby. I did it twice after 50.

Me too

And your point is what R4? Does is change their accomplishments? Beyonce is incredible, the greatest live entertainer of our time. Cher doesn't do concerts, she lip syncs and changes wigs. Tina started large scale tours at 45 was my point. She finished at 70. She fucking SANG.

[quote]Cher doesn't do concerts, she lip syncs and changes wigs.

Oh, OK, my bad

It's fine to like everyone for who they are and what they do. Except for Taylor Swift of course.

What about Babs?!?!?!

I think that female stars can be broken into 2 (at least) groups - the great singers and the great performers. What Beyonce, Britney and Madonna lack with singing ability they make up in spades with performance - they are amazing and athletic showmen. Whitney (in her glory days), Celine and even Gaga fall into the great singers category. One is neither better nor worse than the other - but one or the other is needed to put on a successful tour. As for Taylor....well, she is a bit of a phenomenon I suppose.

This is crazy

6. Beyoncé- The Formation World Tour - $267,340,630 - 49 shows ($5.46M per show)

2. Taylor Swift- The Reputation Stadium Tour - $345,600,000 - 53 shows ($6.52M per show)

1. Madonna - Sticky and Sweet Tour - $476,474,639 - 85 shows ($5.61M per show)

It is interesting looking at these numbers OP and R12. One thing that stands out to me is how absurdly ticket prices skyrocketed through the decades. I remember in the mid-late 1990's, one could attend an A-list concert for $45 or so (semi-decent seats, not great but OK). By the 2000's it was more like $150 for nose-bleed seats. I have no clue what tickets would cost you now. Absurd.

Taylor is a very pretty girl who writes and sings songs about being rejected/awkward/ugly.

So she gives hope to an entire generation of geeks.

R14 did you say Taylor is a “very pretty girl”?

Taylor can't sing and not pretty,her performance is laughable. I do think she is a talented song writer.

true, Madonna's shows are the best ive seen. the bitch can rock out....

Taylor and Beyoncé have already reached their peaks. Public is kind of over them by now.

What about Miss Warwick?

Bump

I don't care what the numbers say. None of these trucks worked as hard, long, and consistently as Miss Diana Ross. She loved on stage, dammit!

OP is trying to taunt Jabba.... hehehehe

Maybe R22. But it is just what it is. Not reflective of even pure popularity. More of timing and ticket prices with some consideration to the production cost of the show. Whitney's Bodyguard Tour sold out all over the world when she was the biggest star on the planet. She's not on the list. I saw her at Radio City and in Montreal. Can't remember what it cost, just know most every moment of those nights. I've seen everyone in concert on this top list but Taylor, Katy Perry and Shakira. Adele kept her ticket prices down considering her enormous popularity and lack of touring. Greed is very possible now. I have paid more than $300 for a top ticket, but I wouldn't spit dimes for Streisand or 70 year old Bruce Springsteen. Taylor Swift and Katy Perry don't surprise me because they rode the wave of enormous sales and youth at just the right time. But the tickets were very expensive for their young fans. I loved seeing Janet J up close for 85 bucks. I am almost 50, but this was just last summer.

Which is why I haven’t been to a major concert in 20 years. $200 ticket to sit in a stadium and view a singer on a large screen TV? And I can’t even smoke pot? No way.

No Miss Ross? Where did your love go?

A lot of the money is in the GA floor now. Reputation tour they started at 800 a ticket for the venues I looked at (ATL, DC, DENVER). There’s probably 30,000 just in the little sections they do that with right by the stage. Anything on the floor is at least $250.

A lot of them charge for meet and greets too. Those get you a floor seat and 45 seconds to take a photo. I’ve seen those run $1500+.

I’m not sure who’s buying those tickets. Indulgent parents maybe?

Nosebleeds are at least $80.

Some of us remember going to venues a few hours before concert and getting a great scalped seat for not much more than cost. Often less. But to buy tickets, and plan with friends to see someone you love, no matter how you accomplish it - the cost is long forgotten when the lights go down and the crowd roars. I've never been much for bad seats, but you're not ONLY seeing a performer on a screen R24. If it's a good night you're part of a strangely beautiful collective experience with thousands of people you don't know. Listening to that one moment in time rendition, for better or worse. Smoke or edibles. Times change but big stars always played big venues. Costs a lot of money to sit your ass down now.

What's ruined even the stadium concert experience is weirdos (the majority) filming the fucking projection SCREEN with their fucking PHONES and singing along to every song, LOUDLY.

I saw Miss Ross once when I was very young and dating this dude who loved her......she arrived in a helicopter and TOLD the audience when they could or couldn't sing along. Numerous times, ha. God bless miss ross and her half arsed show.

Adele did something similar, but she just asked that people not ruin the concert for others by narrating their phone vids and singing along. She was a bit disappointing vocally but overall the whole concert was fantastic, because she was so funny and charming. And her voice resonated in my gut like a marching band. She really does have an orchestral sound, all by herself. So the $200 was worth it.

If you don't like Beyonce, don't go see her. If you like Beyonce....she would blow your damn mind on the Run The World and Mrs. Carter tours. Impossible to describe such a mind blowing immersive experience. Way less people try to sing along....

I was in the audience in the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, 1985, Madonna's "Virgin Tour"; Seattle was where she kicked off her first world tour - her first ever tour.

I think my ticket was $10.00.

" . . . You've got style; that's what all the Gurls say . . . "(!)

Meanwhile, Janet Jackson's most recent tour , StateOfTheWorldTour, grossed around $38 million in 72 shows ($0.53M per show) 🤣😂🤣🤣

Bump

Bump

Bump

High ticket prices aren’t purely driven by greed. As other income streams dried up, artists rely more and more on touring. No one tours to “promote” an album anymore.

Has Janbot's head exploded?

I just saw Cher. She does not lip synch. Messed up the lyrics to one of her songs and laughed.

What kind of bullshit is this?

What's the point in posting lies?

This is obviously nothing but a racist list packed with lies upon lies.

EVERY fucking person on DL knows that QUEEN Janet has the top 5 grossing concerts of ALL TIME of ANY recording act, MALE or FEMALE, grossing upwards of 8 Billion dollars.

STAY PRESSED!

R35 Cher most certainly does lip synch. I watched her take a tumble on stage and the vocals kept going.

I watched Cher eat a grilled panini and keep on singing.

[R37]

Cher needs to stop and retire.An enjoy her golden years.

Ah,Dusty Springfield didn't make the cut.Laughs loudly at Dusty's DL crazies.

There are dozens of videos of Cher's current tour showing her singing live on YouTube.

Why should Cher retire? If she can still sell out arenas, people obviously want to see her.

Connie Francis's "I Left My Heart at HoJo's" Tour netted over a trillion dollars.

[R41]

Ah ,a Dusty Springfield fanatic runs in thread So funny.

I didn’t know that p!nk was that big.

Madonna and Beyoncé rule the world

But but but... where’s Janet Jackson?????

Pinks latest tour is set to gross nearly 400 million! She is doing amazingly well!

Ticket prices are so high because promoters and artists know scalpers will be the ones who make money on tickets if they don't. Can't say I blame them.

Cher is a god. Gaga is close. Madonna is a third.

How much of that does the performer actually get?

While I know that it depends on a great many things, what's the general ballpark range?

Swift is known for buy backs or whatever they're called right? She buys unsold tickets and then gives them out to charities or as prizes to radio stations. This way she gets the ticket sales and fills seats. Do other artists on the list do this?

Bump

I don't know about MGM, but when Cher was doing her 3 year CP residency it was in her contact that the all seats must be filled. Not usually a problem, but any unsold tickets were given to employees of the hotel that wanted to go. Same with Celine.

Concert ticket prices are outrageous.

I was pricing Korn/Alice In Chains over the weekend and seats were around $300 each.

INSANE!

I did fork out $100 to see Diana Ross in July, though. Bucket list.

Bump

Bump up your ass. You have no comment on any of the singers on this list?

Bump

Janet was robbed!!!!!

Britney made coin by sort of moving around a stage, and occasionally moving her mouth to the words. Talk about easy money.

Concerts got more expensive as they made less from CDs from illegal downloading, low streaming reimbursements, etc... but that being said, people are willing to pay the price, so they probably always were willing. The performers just figured it out now, I guess.

R28 you didn't say what you thought of The Virgin Tour

No mariah on the list>? bahaha. Thats right, HER SHOWS ARE SO MEDIOCRE! and r11. You are white arent you? Beyonce can SAANG! STFU

R59 Madonna got in quite late to the expensive prices, and didn't even tour much in her heyday

The tour that Tina Turner broke world records with was the Twenty Four Seven tour in 2000- It was the one that was the highest grossing tour of 2000 by a wide margin. AND it is not included in the list above. The largest paying crowd to attend a concert was her Break Every Rule tour in Rio in the late 80s the video at R9 is taken from.

The 50th anniversary tour in the list above was where she came out of retirement in 2008 at the age of 69 to do 10 dates that were well attended and seeing that, more dates were added, as Tina and management had doubts she would still be a major draw, as well as her age made her tentative about committing to a full blown world tour in advance. But Tina was decidedly past her prime, being 70 by the end of the tour, significantly heavier and her voice lacked it's former power.

Interesting that Tina and Cher have the same manager.

And he used to be Oliva Newton John's manager r64. Tina was a guest on Oliva's TV special and remembered Oliva's manager and eventually a couple years later convinced him to take her on. From there he added Cher.

Judy Garland performed in arenas in the early 1960s.

Our show is FREE! and we can't accept tips! Visit our website, guys!

R67, nasty and blocked.

Slimy gash warning at R-67

OMG I LOVE THAT JANET IS NOWHERE ON THIS LIST. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

what about alam wernick's live shows at the strip clubs????

Janet isn't on the list because $8.99 Groupon deals don't count.

I've said this on other threads. A friend had an extra ticket to the Gaga show a little over a year ago. I was absolutely blown away by her. Total live singing. Good choreo. Great banter. She owned the crowd. It was shockingly fun!