Imports & Exports: Karol G, Luis Miguel & Iron Maiden Lead Diverse Slate Of Touring Artists In South America

Latin music stars Karol G and Luis Miguel are the two highest-grossing artists among concert headliners who performed at venues in South America in 2024. They head up a slate of 50 artists representing multiple genres and nationalities, yet only 38% of them hail from South America. In the top 10, though, it is 50/50, with five headliners native to the continent and five more from elsewhere in the world.

Of the 50 touring artists, 19 are from South America while other Latin American regions are home to six others – three from Mexico and three from Puerto Rico. Five of the South American performers come from Brazil, six are from Argentina and one is from Chile. Colombia is the homeland for seven on the chart, with three of those landing in the top 10. And Medellín, Colombia’s Karol G heads up that list at No. 1.

2024 saw the completion of her “Mañana Será Bonito Tour” that launched in August 2023 in Las Vegas and continued through July 2024, ending with a string of European concerts performed primarily at arenas. However, the first two legs of the tour were booked in stadiums in both North and South America.

Twelve of Karol G’s performances in the spring of 2024 occurred at six venues in South American cities, one of which hosted the singer for three shows. She performed three nights at Estadio Nacional in Santiago, Chile, April 19-21, and sold 168,120 tickets during the run, grossing $14.8 million.

While her combined gross from 13 South American concerts totaled $55.6 million to score the No. 1 spot on this chart, during the entirety of her tour she racked up $305 million from 2.28 million tickets sold at 62 shows worldwide in 2023-2024.

Also on the road during both of those years was Mexican singer Luis Miguel, who follows at No. 2 on the ranking of touring artists, with $50.7 million in box office revenue from 16 performances in February and March. Like Karol G, he also played Estadio Nacional in Santiago, one of two stadiums that hosted the singer for two nights, the other being Lima, Peru’s Estadio Nacional. The number of tickets sold at both venues was 75,743 and 82,812, respectively. His only three-show engagement in South America occurred in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he performed March 6, 9 and 10 at Campo de Polo, grossing $8.45 million from 113,175 sold tickets.

Miguel’s 2023-2024 world tour began in August 2023 and ran through Dec. 18, 2024, with shows booked at venues in North and South America and Europe. He alternated between stadiums and arenas throughout the trek, ultimately grossing $356 million from 160 shows reported to Pollstar. His attendance from those concerts totaled 2.38 million. Globally, his largest gross for one performance among the reported shows in both years was $8.24 million for a July 6, 2024, event at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, Spain. That same concert also produced his top single-show attendance of 45,541.

No. 3 in the South American tour rankings belongs to Iron Maiden who played seven shows in Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia late in 2024 as part of the band’s “The Future Past Tour.” Together, there were four stadiums and one indoor arena in the mix with two of the stadiums hosting the group for two nights. One was Santiago’s Estadio Nacional where the veteran heavy metal band sold 119,052 tickets and brought in $5.8 million on Nov. 27-28. Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil, was also on the touring schedule on back-to-back nights, Dec. 6-7. Ticket sales there totaled 86,312 with a box office haul of $6.9 million, the largest gross at any of the South American venues on the tour.

For Aventura, touring in 2024 was almost entirely a North American venture, yet box office results reported for the band also include concerts on two other continents. They played three shows in two European cities, Paris and Zürich, as well as four shows in three South American cities, Santiago – again at Estadio Nacional – and Bogotá and Cali, Colombia. Grosses from those four shows total just under $20 million, which secures the No. 4 ranking for the bachata group.

The Santiago stadium hosted Aventura for two performances in October and grossed $11.8 million from 126,555 sold seats, while Bogotá’s Estadio El Campín and Cali’s Estadio Pascual Guerrero were both booked for one concert. Between them, ticket sales totaled 94,967, while combined revenue reached $8.2 million.

Rounding out the top five touring headliners in South America is Colombian singer/rapper Feid, also hailing from Medellín like his partner Karol G. His “Ferxxocalipsis World Tour,” from April through December, was set almost exclusively in the Americas with one exception, a July stadium performance in Madrid, Spain, where Karol G made a brief appearance during the show, joining him for a performance of their 2021 collaboration, “FRIKI.”

Feid kicked off his tour with a North American leg from April 24 through Aug.28 that featured shows in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Then a span of dates in Central and South America followed, beginning in Guatemala City in September and wrapping with a three-night stadium event in the artist’s hometown. The tour finale at Medellín’s Estadio Atanasio Girardot drew 165,936 fans, Dec. 6-9, and grossed $11.2 million.

In the remainder of the top 10, Colombian pop group Morat scores the No. 6 ranking based on nine shows in South American venues on record in 2024. Most were stadium concerts, including two that occurred at Estadio El Campín in the band’s hometown of Bogotá. Sellout crowds July 6-7 purchased a total of 86,223 tickets for the shows, producing a two-show gross of $6.6 million. Outside of Colombia, the group’s best box office results were found at Estadio José Amalfitani in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A sold-out performance there on Oct. 9 was attended by 42,929 fans and grossed just over $3 million.

Following in the seventh position on the chart is Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli who earns his ranking based on a single two-show engagement. He grossed $17.8 million from 43,662 sold seats at São Paulo’s Allianz Parque on May 25-26 to land in the top 10. Overall, in 2024 his concert grosses totaled $57 million at 16 venues around the globe, but the Brazil engagement was his only appearance in South America.

Airbag lands on the chart at No. 8 with a $16.4 million gross from 279,790 tickets sold at 30 concerts during 2024. With 21 venues in South America on the tour schedule, 14 were in the rock group’s home country of Argentina. Four of those venues featured multiple shows, with Luna Park in Buenos Aries hosting the most.

The group appeared there six times, once in February, four times in March, then again in late April. From all six performances, 47,404 tickets were sold for a $9.1 million gross. During June, the band played two shows in two cities in Argentina, Mar del Plata and Cordoba, with a three-show tour finale at Estadio José Amalfitani.

Four September concerts in Brazil and one in Argentina earn rock legend Eric Clapton the ninth ranking among the top touring artists in South America. His largest crowd numbered 44,234 at Allianz Parque in São Paulo with a gross topping $5.1 million. He also played a second stadium in Brazil, Curitiba’s Ligga Arena, with 25,331 tickets sold, while his sold-out arena performance at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro drew 12,168 fans. In Argentina, his concert was at Estadio José Amalfitani with 22,128 in attendance.

Finally, ranked 10th on the chart is Natiruts, a reggae band from Brazil’s capital city Brasília, on the road in 2024 with their “Leve Com Você” farewell tour.

Ticket sales were reported from 16 shows in Brazilian venues, four of them at Allianz Parque during August with attendance totaling 201,273 and a gross of $5.98 million. However, hometown fans made the strongest showing for a single concert with Brasília’s Arena BRB Mané Garrincha welcoming 54,566 attendees on Aug. 6. The band formed in 1996 and released nine studio albums during their almost 30-year career.