2025 Impact 50 Honoree: Josephine Vaccarello

JOSEPHINE VACCARELLO
Executive Vice President, Live
Madison Square Garden Entertainment/Sphere Entertainment

WHERE’S JO-JO? “Backstage at a show at one of our venues.”
LIFE-CHANGING CONCERT: “‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere’ showed the world what this immersive new medium could do.”

Josephine Vaccarello has the enviable — and daunting — job of leading the team that books not only the World’s Most Famous Arena — MSG — and the most technologically advanced venue on earth — Sphere — but also MSG and Sphere’s entire portfolio, including Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre. It won’t be shocking to read that Vaccarello had a very busy and successful year indeed.

“From new Sphere residencies with Eagles, Anyma and Kenny Chesney, to the return of Dead & Company and upcoming runs from the venue’s first pop act – the Backstreet Boys – and UNITY, a collaboration between Insomniac and Tomorrowland, we continue to push the boundaries for what audiences can expect from a live music experience,” she says. “At MSG Entertainment, we’ve continued to successfully execute on our strategy of booking multi-night runs in a wide variety of genres across our venues in New York and Chicago, including John Oliver & Seth Meyers’ monthly show at The Beacon; Hugh Jackman’s 24-show residency at Radio City Music Hall; Gracie Abrams, Sebastian Maniscalco and Billie Eilish at The Garden; and more. On the special events side, we hosted ‘SNL50: THE HOMECOMING CONCERT’ in celebration of 50 years of  ‘Saturday Night Live,’ as well as the Tony Awards – both at Radio City.”

Sphere continues to break new ground. In addition to the aforementioned first pop act in the Backstreet Boys, Kenny Chesney became the first country act in residency at the game-changing, $2 billion Las Vegas venue.

At MSG itself, Vaccarello’s looking forward to a six-night run by Lady Gaga, five nights from Sabrina Carpenter and doubles by Gracie Abrams and The Who, who are saying it’s their final tour for real this time. The legendary Paul Simon will set up shop for five nights at the Beacon, and Jackson Browne will follow with four nights of his own.

So when does Vaccarello find the time and space for those all-important meetings? There’s only one obvious place: “Backstage at a show at one of our venues.”