Ed Sheeran Among Top Movers On APX

The Artist Power Index sees movement from several high-profile touring artists including pop superstar Ed Sheeran who makes a 16-position leap to land at No. 21. Even though he has the highest Streaming rank of the week and the fourth highest in Airplay, the move up the chart was strengthened by his appearance at a series of warmup dates in small venues in the U.K. and Ireland ahead of his stadium tour.

The first run of dates was held at London’s Electric Ballroom, March 21-23, while shows at Concorde 2 in Brighton and London’s Alexandra Palace are also on tap. Then in April, he heads to Ireland for appearances at Whelans and Vicar Street in Dublin. The singer-songwriter stated on Instagram earlier this year that the shows are a chance to try out his new songs before taking them into stadiums, and he will remain in Dublin for the first of those: an April 23 event at Croke Park where he is set to launch his new “The Mathematics” tour (stylized The + – = ÷ x Tour). It is currently booked in U.K. and European markets through September and also in New Zealand and Australia beginning next February.

Nine artists make their debut on APX with Shawn Mendes scoring the highest ranking among them at No. 12. He earns that slot largely due to his March 19 appearance at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, performing at the Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park to close out the event. Also performing was Colombian Latin pop artist Sebastián Yatra, who scores the 20th ranking on APX.

Also making a debut is R&B star Khalid with the 17th ranking on APX based on his performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on March 16. As one of the annual event’s 21 headlining artists who performed at NRG Stadium between Feb. 28 and March 20, his concert at the venue was attended by more than 68,000 fans.

Marc Anthony’s two-show engagement in Mexico City at the Palacio de los Deportes March 11-12, gives him an APX ranking of No. 25 in his first week on the chart. The multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy winner performed for a total of 28,832 fans at the Mexican capital city’s sports arena for a gross totaling $2.7 million. Promoted by OCESA, the shows were part of the singer’s “Pa’lla Voy” tour that launched last summer with an Aug. 27 performance at San Antonio’s AT&T Center. The tour is booked stateside through April 3.

On the LIVE75 chart, rapper Bad Bunny takes his “El Ultimo Tour del Mundo” back to No. 1 after spending one week in the second position behind Billy Joel, who debuted last week with a ticket average based on two sold-out stadium events. In this issue, the Puerto Rico native returns to the top spot with an average ticket count of 16,362 from 17 sold-out concerts at 11 arenas.

Among them was Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., where he played three nights for 50,778 fans. As the only three-show engagement in the mix, the Chicago-area venue logged his highest attendance among all the venues as well as the only gross topping $10 million. He averaged $3.48 million from all the performances in the tally, earning him “Heavy Hitter” status for the week.

Singer-songwriter Mitski makes her LIVE75 debut at No. 22 as the “Hot Shot” artist, scoring the highest ticket average for a new entry on the chart. She had three shows reported during the past 30-day period including a two-show engagement at Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif. where she performed for 6,051 fans at sellouts on March 4 and 5. A single performance followed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Ore., the next week, drawing a crowd of 2,692.

Meanwhile, pop artist Still Woozy earns the “Breakthrough” tag based on sellouts at all five of the venues he played during the past month.

Check out this week’s APX chart here: https://www.pollstar.com/Chart/2022/03/pdfforapx_1016.pdf

& LIVE75: https://www.pollstar.com/live75