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‘Regional Touring Has Been A Core Focus For Us’: Q’s With James Craven, President, Live Nation Middle East
Live Nation Middle East delivered the biggest regional tour to date, when the Backstreet Boys performed a total of 12 concerts in May 2023, across Egypt, India, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and South Africa. This kind of circuit makes it worthwhile for artists and their teams to make the journey into far-flung markets, where fans are dying to see their favorite artists live.
That’s in addition to the many regional superstars that can sell out arenas. Live Nation’s top-grossing arena show last year, for instance, was Abdul Majeed Abdullah at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Pollstar reached out to James Craven, president, Live Nation Middle East, to talk shop.
Pollstar: Can you sum up the past year in terms of business for Live Nation Middle East? What were some standout shows, highlights?
James Craven: 2023 was a record year for Live Nation Middle East, with the largest show count, and ticket sales we have seen since first establishing the Middle East business in 2009.
Last May, we delivered a 12-show Backstreet Boys regional tour, the biggest to-date.
We saw comedy’s regional touring potential – with a multi-date tour with Kevin Hart, and broke box office records with Trevor Noah, being the largest comedy show in the UAE’s history.
Our new Arabic talent team delivered our first U.S. and European tour with the Egyptian rapper, Wegz. Our highest grossing arena show of 2023 was an Arabic artist, Abdul Majeed Abdullah at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
Live Nation Middle East saw strong potential to further grow family entertainment across the region – with a successful first Disney on Ice in Abu Dhabi with SES Live! in October.
We launched Wireless Festival at Etihad Park on Yas Island last March, with 25,000 fans, and 18 artists including Travis Scott, Roddy Ricch, Central Cee, Wegz, Black Sherif, Ali Gatie, M.I.A, King, Divine and Young Stunners.
The first edition of Rewind DXB, an 80s festival we brought over from the UK, and then the launch our first home-grown IP, Mixtape, a 90s/00s festival with appearances from Snap!, Vengaboys, Busted, and Sugababes. Both festivals were co-presented with our partners at the Dubai venue, Bla Bla.
See: Live Nation Reflects On Middle East Success With Travis Scott
Where there any concert tours by international or national acts that qualified as a tour in the sense that they stopped at multiple markets in the region, like Maroon 5 did in 2022?
Regional touring has been a core focus for us, not only with live music but also with comedy. Over the last year we have been successfully doing this with many of our artists including the Backstreet Boys, Imagine Dragons, Kevin Hart, One Republic, Westlife, and Scorpions, to name a few. The Backstreet Boys was the largest (12 dates) regional tour to date, and we’re actively working on expanding this touring network across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.
If you had to pick one market in the region that could do with a state-of-the-art entertainment arena, which one would it be?
We would love to see a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose arena in Riyadh. It’s a key market on the regional touring circuit, and has an audience with a big appetite for live entertainment.
What upcoming projects/initiatives/shows by LN Middle East would you like to highlight?
We have Dave Chapelle performing at the Abu Dhabi Comedy Festival in May which looks set to become a record breaking arena show to-date for Live Nation Middle East.
The second edition of Wireless Festival Middle East in Abu Dhabi will take place on Nov. 23, and we look forward to breaking more box-office records with a stellar line-up soon to be announced.
And, in 2025, we will see the return of some more stadium-level touring. More news on that soon.
Anything you’d like to add about business in the Middle East?
One of the key challenges we have historically faced in the Middle East, particularly outside of the UAE, is a lack of high quality, purpose-built venues, which frequently resulted in the need for expensive greenfield sites. We are therefore delighted to see many new venue developments being announced in Saudi Arabia and other key markets regionally. As a business, our regional venues team remain very focused on supporting many of the development, and operations of these new venues.