Chart Scene: SZA Hits Artist Power Index With New Arena Tour

SZA makes a return appearance on the Artist Power Index for the first time since kicking off her new arena headlining tour at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Feb. 21. With Warner recording artist Omar Apollo onboard as the tour’s opening act, she currently has events booked in North American cities through the end of March.

The R&B star is touring in support of her chart-topping second studio album, SOS, a December debut via Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records, with its recent smash single “Kill Bill” that was released in January. She takes the second highest Airplay score among Mediabase’s top artists of the week and also earns the 16th highest Live rank based on the first six arena performances from her tour. In Chartmetric’s Streaming category, she ranks as the 12th highest of the week.

The first box-office figures reported from SZA’s Live Nation-produced tour come from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. where she performed for 13,335 fans. The concert on Feb. 27 racked up a gross that topped $1.5 million.

On LIVE75, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are the dominant touring act of the week, landing at No. 1 based on eight recent stadium shows in Australia and New Zealand. They earn both the “Hot Shot” and “Heavy Hitter” classifications as the highest-ranked debut in this issue with the best gross average on the chart.

The band’s eight performances, staged in four Australian cities and two in New Zealand during January and February, produced an overall gross of $48.2 million from 378,610 sold seats during the three-week jaunt. Sydney’s Accor Stadium and Marvel Stadium in Melbourne each hosted the group for two concerts, welcoming over 100,000 fans in both markets. The two-show gross in Sydney hit $13.5 million, while the Melbourne total reached $12.8 million to rank as the two biggest grosses reported for a concert headliner since the beginning of January.

Ed Sheeran is No. 1 on the Artist Power Index for a fourth consecutive week, also on the strength of eight stadium performances Down Under. He played three nights in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand, three more in Brisbane, Australia and two in Sydney during the first three weeks of his “Mathematics” tour’s Oceania leg that is set to wrap on the 12th of March.

He claims the highest Live rank on APX for the first time since the beginning of the year, while taking fourth in Streaming, 15th in Airplay and No. 59 in the Social category. Sheeran is the fourth artist to top the chart in 2023 and joins Bruno Mars as the only other performer to hold No. 1 for more than one week.

Usher is one of nine artists to appear on the Artist Power Index for the first time during the past 13-week period. He ranks No. 13 after playing the first three nights of his Las Vegas residency booked this spring and later during the summer and fall. His “My Way” production at Dolby Live at Park MGM began for the year with concerts on Feb. 24 and 25 before kicking off a string of nine shows this month and eight in April.

The residency began on July 15 of last year and grossed over $24 million from 25 shows at the Park MGM performance venue through the end of October. His total 2022 sold-ticket tally in Las Vegas reached 123,781.

English hip-hop artist Loyle Carner is the “Breakthrough” touring act on LIVE75 with the most sellouts recorded for an artist ranked outside the top 25. He logged a ticket average of 2,811 from sold-out concerts at four venues in Europe during January. His best results came from Ancienne Belgique in Brussels where he performed for a crowd of 3,944. The other three venues were all in German cities: Berlin’s Columbiahalle, Carlswerk Victoria in Cologne and Tonhalle in Munich. Grosses from all four sellouts totaled $413,362.