Concert Pulse: Timberlake, Pink Still Tops, Santana Debuts

Brett Schauf – Pink
Pink and her “Beautiful Trauma World Tour” stops at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan.

Justin Timberlake and Pink continue to top the Pollstar Global Concert Pulse, while new entries to the chart include legendary guitarists in Santana and Tommy Emmanuel.

Justin Timberlake continues to put up impressive numbers on his Man Of The Woods tour, with multiple nights in many arenas putting his average gross per city beyond the 20,000-ticket mark, with grosses around $5 million for two-night stays at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and selling out everything so far.

Most recently he’s hit Amway center in Orlando ($2.38 million), Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Ga., ($2.19 million), Bridgestone Arena in Nashville ($2.55 million), Nationwide Arena in Columbus ($2.57 million) and BOK Center in Tulsa ($2.46 million) in May.

These shows come as it was just announced that Timberlake had to postpone the beginning of his UK tour, with three shows canceled. A statement from promoter Live Nation did not specify a reason but said, “‘The Man Of The Woods’ European tour start has been slightly delayed resulting in the following changes to the UK performances.” He still has a plethora of European dates, including nine arena shows in Germany alone.

Pink is on a similar tear of North American arenas, although with not quite as many doubles as JT. Her recent reports include American Airlines Center in Dallas May 1-2 ($3.6 million combined), Philips Arena April 21 ($1.66 million) and two shows at Madison Square Garden Arena in New York City April 4-5, which sold a combined 30,286 tickets and grossed $5.32 million. Pink had a viral moment when she invited a 12-year-old to sing onstage with her in Vancouver.

While Pink hasn’t plotted a European tour just yet, she has another absurdly long Australia/New Zealand run coming as only she can, with 42 dates including nine at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne and six at Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The entire population of New Zealand is fewer than 5 million.

Pink’s manager Roger Davies, Australian himself, told Pollstar last year about Pink’s appeal downunder.

“I think for Australians, they really relate to her as sort of what you see is what you get, and she has a very broad audience, probably from 7 to 70-plus,” Davies said previously. “They strongly relate to her personality and she’s very honest, and I think that is very appealing to Australians.

“We have a good time here,” Davies added, laughing. At the time, Davies said they would get to Europe eventually.

She has another North American run coming after the Down Under trip, taking her into May of 2019.

Derek Green / Gallo Images / Getty Images – Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana plays Cape Town Stadium in South Africa April 11.

Santana enters the chart at No. 28, with an average gross of $409,225. The band fronted by Carlos Santana has been sprinkling in mostly theatre dates between a standing residency at the House of Blues Las Vegas. Most recently Santana has played Canada and South Africa, with two shows at Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg, South Africa, selling 13,883 tickets and grossing $835,510 April 13-14 on the co-promote between Live Nation and South Africa’s Big Concerts. 

Santana also did 6,759 tickets at Cape Town Stadium April 11, which grossed $378,739.  Canadian reports include Bell Centre in Montreal March 21, which sold out 8,202 tickets and grossed $476,634, and March 20 at FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, which sold 6,585 tickets and grossed $376,593. Santana starts a lengthy European tour in June after another House of Blues Las Vegas residency.

The other guitar maestro debuting on the chart this week is Tommy Emmanuel, who enters at No. 84 with an average gross of $38,843. Reports include 2,072 tickets sold to Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, which grossed $97,570, as well as sellouts at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta ($31,680) and two dates at Thalia Hall in Chicago ($30,835). 

The acoustic fingerstyle wizard has dates sprinkled throughout the rest of the year in markets as varied as the UK, Canada and Hawaii.