Grammy Nominations & The Road: Beyoncé Leads As Fans Await Tour

The announcement from The Recording Academy unveiling the nominees for the 65th annual Grammy Awards brought jubilation for some artists, disappointment for others, while inspiring some fierce debate among fans. For Pollstar, the list of nominations serves as documentation of some of the biggest tours of the year – and the treks yet to come.  

Beyoncé leads with nine Grammy nods, tying the record as most-nominated musician ever. With 88 nominations spanning her career, she shares the record with her husband, Jay-Z, who earned five nominations this year. 

Beyoncé’s nominations include Album of The Year for her seventh studio album, Renaissance, and her first nominations in the dance category.

While dates are yet to be announced, it’s looking like Beyoncé is planning to hit the road in the summer. News recently broke that one of the items up for grabs at WCO Theater’s Wearable Art Gala 2022 was a prize package including “a chance to see Beyoncé on her ‘Renaissance’ tour starting in the summer of 2023,” according to Variety. 

 Beyoncé – who was named Touring Artist of the Decade at the Pollstar Awards in 2021 – last toured in 2018 with Jay-Z on their “On The Run II Tour.” The co-headline stadium trek played 48 shows in 39 cities that year, grossing $254.1 million, ranking No. 3 on Pollstar’s Year End Worldwide Tours chart. 

Kendrick Lamar is up for eight Grammy nominations including a nod for Album of the Year for Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The rapper has been supporting his fifth studio album with “The Big Steppers Tour,” an arena trek that played North America this summer, wrapping with four nights at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena Sept. 14-17 that sold 50,402 tickets and grossed $7.1 million. After touring Europe in October and November, Lamar heads to Australia next. 

Adele and Brandi Carlile are tied with seven nominations each, followed by six nods for Mary J. Blige, The-Dream, Future, DJ Khaled, Harry Styles and mastering engineer Randy Merrill. 

Carlile has supported her 2021 album, In These Silent Days, with an amphitheater tour that kicked off June 11 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. Most recently she played NYC’s Madison Square Garden Oct. 22, grossing nearly $1.6 million. She’s set to return to the Gorge in June for the three-night “Echoes In The Canyon” featuring Joni Mitchell’s “Joni Jam.” And next summer Carlile will join P!nk on select dates on her stadium tour. 

Adele is gearing up to launch her long-awaited and rescheduled Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, starting Nov. 18 with dates booked through late March. Her 2016 tour ranked No. 5 on Pollstar’s Year End Worldwide Tours chart with $167.7 million grossed. 

Styles has been playing a traveling residency of his own in support of his third solo album, Harry’s House, including 15 shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden and 15 nights at Inglewood, California’s Kia Forum. He closes out the year in Mexico and South America, with 2023 dedicated to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia. 

Styles’ 2021 tour ranked No. 2 on the Year End Worldwide Tours chart with a gross of $86.7 million.

Blige’s busy year included playing the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February and headlining arenas in the fall on her “Good Morning Gorgeous” tour. Recent box office reports for Blige include an Oct. 23 show at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, that sold 12,851 tickets and grossed more than $1.8 million. 

We’ll have to wait and see if tours will be announced soon for Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and some of the other Grammy nominees including Drake – who didn’t submit his 2022 album, Honestly Nevermind, for consideration but still received four nods including Album of The Year as a songwriter for Beyonce’s Renaissance. 

Drake’s 2019 tour boasted multiple nights at arenas around the world including three shows at Dublin, Ireland’s 3Arena March 19-22 that sold 31,054 tickets and grossed $4 million.  

 The 65th annual Grammy Awards will air live on Feb. 5 from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena