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Concert Pulse: Lana Del Rey, NF, Ty Dolla $ign Debut; Agents Talk Tickets
Theo Wargo/Getty Images) – Lana Del Rey
at the Prudential Center in New Jersey Jan. 19.
Lana Del Rey leads the charge on a flurry of new entries on this week’s Global Concert Pulse, largely thanks to added reporting with Pollstar’s First Quarter Ticket Sales Charts being compiled this week.
Also new are Michigan-based rapper NF, whose agent tells Pollstar he will be headlining big venues in the fall after selling all 78,000 tickets on his current tour, and Ty Dolla $ign, whose tour had 22 sold-out shows according to WME agent Peter Schwartz.
For the week, Lana Del Rey charted at No. 10 with an average gross of $778,972 per show and 9,498 tickets sold on her recent U.S. arena touring.
Lana Del Rey wrapped up a headline run of American arenas recently, with reports to Pollstar including 12,771 tickets sold to Air Canada Centre in Toronto Jan. 15, which grossed $1.05 million, 7,178 tickets sold to Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, which grossed $568,702, and Feb. 10 at the Toyota Center in Houston, which sold 9,202 tickets and grossed $868,366 on the Live Nation tour. Her average ticket price was $82.01.
The tour had an alarming moment when an apparent kidnapping threat was thwarted before her Feb. 2 concert at the Amway Center in Orlando. An apparently deranged fan hinted on social media that he was running away with “his queen” and that they would be united at the show.
The arena’s chief venues officers Allen Johnson told VenuesNow Senior Editor Don Muret what happened.
“About 11 a.m. [day of show], I received a call from my security team and from my Orlando police liai-son, informing me that they had received via social media a credible threat to the artist’s safety,” Johnson said.
“What’s important in a situation like this is to have complete, transparent communication,” Johnson said. “Law enforcement sometimes isn’t willing to share a lot of stuff because they feel like it hinders them from doing their job. I can call the police chief [directly], whereas if you’re at a venue that’s pri-vately managed, they may not have that same relationship.”
In the end, “take every threat seriously and don’t discount it,” Johnson said. “If you get a credible threat, you have to handle it with a high degree of importance.”
NF, who has been climbing the Pollstar Elite 100 Artists consumption chart steadily over recent months, has continued doing strong business on the road, entering the chart at No. 59 for the week with an average gross of $45,212 and 1,757 tickets sold per night on 11 reports.
Tim Mosenfelder / Getty Images – NF
“Austin City Limits Music Festival,” Zilker Park, Austin, Texas.
After already doing strong business last spring and surprising many when his LP went to No. 1, NF’s “Perception” tour has, predictably, also done well. Recent reports to Pollstar include a March 14 sellout at the Roseland Theatre ($37,565 gross), House of Blues Boston Feb. 10 ($68,245) and Feb. 25 at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, which sold out 2,200 tickets and grossed $60,535.
CAA’s Jeff Krones told Pollstar that NF’s total Perception tour sold out all 78,000 available tickets “with every show sold out at least a month in advance.” Krones added that the Michigan-based rapper, real name Nate Feuerstein, will be playing “5000-7000 cap” venues in the fall. That’s after he has a lengthy Europe run from April into May, and then he hops onto the Logic summer North American amphitheatre tour.
Ty Dolla $ign, after huge streaming activity in 2017, has been doing well on his “Don’t Touch Me Tour” which wraps April 12 at The Novo in Los Angeles, with reports to Pollstar including 1,394 tickets sold to First Avenue in Minneapolis March 7 ($39,830), selling out the Showbox in Seattle March 1 (1,130, $33,335), and two sellouts as part of the multi-venue Bay Area Noise Pop Festival– Feb. 25 at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz (1,000, $29,500) and Feb. 24 at the UC Theatre in Berkeley, which sold out 1,350 tickets and grossed $37,125.
“We are very excited about the success of Ty’s current tour,” WME’s Peter Schwartz told Pollstar. “It was his first headlining tour in a few years and we really wanted to prove Ty can sell tickets, and we surely accomplished our goal. The tour sold out over 22 shows, many of them well in advance, and the shows themselves were awesome. Ty is a super live performer and it was great to showcase that.”
Marc Fong – Ty Dolla $ign
Ty Dolla $ign mixes it up with the crowd during Noise Pop Festival at The UC Theatre in Berkeley, Calif., Feb. 22.
WME says the Irving Plaza show sold out at the onsale, with other notable advance sellouts including Dallas HOB, Seattle’s Showbox, Chicago HOB, The Fillmore Maryland and the Norva in Norfolk (both co-bills with Big KRIT).
Ty has has 10 college shows confirmed for the spring, and is on the new AEG/Superfly Grandoozy festival in Denver, with European festival plays this summer including Summerjam in Germany and Frauenfeld in Switzerland, and he joinsthe G-Eazy / Lil Uzi Vert summer amphitheatre tour as direct support.
“It has been a great touring year for Ty and we look forward to building on this further,” Schwartz added.