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Kenny Chesney, Kelly Clarkson, Post Malone Top Elite 100
It’s only fitting that country music touring powerhouse Kenny Chesney leads this week’s Pollstar Elite 100 Artists chart following the release of the Live In No Shoes Nation live album, dwarfing the competition despite strong LP releases from Kelly Clarkson (No. 2) and Chris Brown (No. 4).
Jill Trunnell – Kenny Chesney
AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX
Chesney, with a score of 223.2 on the chart this week, sells out stadiums at will and regularly finds himself near the top of Pollstar’s Year End Top Worldwide Ticket Sales Charts.
Just in recent times, he’s sold more than 1 million tickets for three consecutive years in 2011, 2012 and the 2013 Tim McGraw co-bill, and did again in 2015. And 2016 was no slouch, with more than 910,000 tickets sold.
Recent Chesney box office reports submitted to Pollstar include Aug. 25-26 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., which sold 121,642 tickets and grossed a staggering $12.09 million. He did almost the same exact thing last year, Aug. 25-26 at the same venue, where he moved 121,399 tickets and grossed $11.45 million. No shoes, no problem?
The 49-year-old country singer has another full slate of stadiums lined up for 2018, starting at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa April 21, and taking in venues including Mapfre Stadium in Columbus and Ford Field in Detroit and ending at Nashiville’s Nissan Stadium on Aug. 11.
Chesney is booked by Clint Higham at Dale Morris & Associates.
Meanwhile, Post Malone and Drake remain in the top 5 almost solely on the strength of singles and streaming, with streaming sales scores of 62.3 for Post and 58.4 for Drake.
Post Malone shattered Apple Music’s single-week streaming record with more than 25 million streams of his “Rockstar” single featuring 21 Savage, which dropped in September.
Pollstar, with the BuzzAngle Music-powered Elite 100 Artists Chart, gives a snapshot of the week’s top-selling artists based on music sales and streaming, counting data from the U.S. and Canada.
All product, not just current releases, by that artist are included in the figures and the total for ranking purposes is based on an album sale equaling 1, 10 song sales equal 1 album, and 1,500 on-demand streams equal 1 album.
See: This week’s Elite 100 Artists chart
Post Malone’s manager, Dre London of London Ent, told Pollstar a new album will be coming from the red-hot 22-year-old rapper near the end of the year or early next year.
London said the recent “Stoney” tour could have sold out twice, with upgrades including the 7,800-capacity Saltair in Salt Lake City, which sold out and grossed $212,890 according to Pollstar data. London said the tour sold out during presale.
Other sellouts included 2,400 at the Uptown Theatre in Kansas City Sept. 25, which grossed $79,005, and Sept. 15 at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia at 2,700 tickets and $82,600.
Malone is booked by UTA, with RA Cheryl Paglierani, Noah Simon booking Europe/International and Adam Sylvester for Canada.
Post’s reach goes clear to Australia, where upcoming shows were upgraded to the 5,000- to 7000-capacity range – both selling out.
“It’s crazy!” London said, adding that amphitheatres are the plan for next year.