Sir Elton John could set an all-time touring record with his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour.
The lengthy tour first began more than four years ago – though a global pandemic got in the way – and is on track to beat Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ tour, which currently holds the all-time record.
According to Pollstar, box-office grosses from his performances since the tour began on September 8, 2018, are within reach of the Divide tour, which spanned almost two-and-a-half years from March 2017 until August 2019. Sheeran’s tour grossed over $776m (£631m/€714m) from 257 shows and sold more than 8.8 million tickets.
The ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour started in North America and included 42 performances in 2018, 111 in 2019 and 25 in 2020 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. After returning a year ago, the artist completed another 93 concerts in 2022.
This year, Sir Elton Elton has returned to tour throughout Oceania, with six stadium shows in Australia. He has so far performed in Newcastle, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and performed in Christchurch today (Tuesday). The singer will then perform in Auckland for two nights on Friday and Saturday.
During the first round of Oceania dates in early 2020, the Melbourne shows at AAMI Park grossed $4.5m, while his appearance at Bankwest Stadium – now called CommBank Stadium – grossed $4.2m.
Sir Elton’s previous shows in Auckland brought in $4.8m and the gross average across the initial Oceania leg was $3.13m. Other events he performed at also averaged about $2m each.
Using these averages, Pollstar has predicted that the run could potentially add another $30m to the tour. If the Australia and New Zealand stint does not place Sir Elton on top, his final arena run in Europe beginning in spring should do it.
The ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour will end at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.