Chart Scene: Cyndi Lauper Debuts On Artist Power Index With Farewell Tour Launch

Cyndi Lauper makes her debut appearance on the Artist Power Index following the launch of her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour” that began at Bell Centre in Montreal on Oct. 18. With performances booked primarily at arenas in 24 cities in the U.S. and Canada through the remainder of 2024, the tour comes on the heels of a festival appearance at “Rock in Rio” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September along with an earlier set at the “Glastonbury Festival” in the U.K. in June and a headlining concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

The farewell trek, which the 71-year-old has stated does not indicate her retirement but only her final major stint on the road, will also stretch beyond the opening North American leg and into 2025. Currently, upcoming dates are planned in 11 European cities in February followed in April by a stretch of six shows in Australia and two in Japan.

See Cover Story: Cyndi Lauper Says Farewell To Touring But Not To Her Art Or Advocacy

Lauper’s most recent touring experience was with Rod Stewart on a trek through Australia and New Zealand in March and April of last year, yet she had previously joined him for full-fledged U.S. arena and shed tours in 2017 and 2018. In both of those years combined, the tours racked up more than $30 million at the box office from 416,682 sold tickets at 37 performances.

While Oct. 18 saw the launch of the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” trek, that day also marked the return of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” after a two-month break. She resumed the tour with a three-show run at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, the first of five North American cities booked during the record-setting world tour’s homestretch. New Orleans, Indianapolis, Toronto and Vancouver will be the final stops on the tour that is set to wrap on Dec. 8. Her return to the road propelled her back to No. 1 on the Artist Power Index where she last appeared at the top of the chart in the Sep. 23 issue.

Returning to No. 1 on LIVE75 is Pearl Jam following a move up from the No. 2 position, held for the past two weeks. The band previously scored the top ranking in the Sep. 30 issue and has remained in the top three ever since debuting on the chart the week before that. Classified as the “Heavy Hitter,” the touring headliner with the highest gross average, the band averaged $4.26 million per show based on five performances at three venues on the “Dark Matter World Tour.”

Pearl Jam’s tour began earlier this year in May and included a string of North American arena dates prior to a European leg in June and July. A run of 11 headlining dates in U.S. stadiums and arenas followed, beginning on Aug. 22 and continuing through Sep. 17. Then, the tour’s final leg booked in stadiums in New Zealand and Australia will close out the 2024 trek in November.

The last U.S. stadium on the tour was Boston’s Fenway Park where Pearl Jam played concerts on Sep. 15 and 17, selling 74,802 tickets for a $12.5 million gross.

Prior to those concerts, the tour also included another two-show engagement at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia where 29,132 tickets were sold for back-to-back performances beginning Sept. 8. And, between those events, Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena welcomed the group for a single sold-out performance on the 12th, attended by 12,188 fans. Ticket sales from those three venues produced a per-show ticket average of 23,224 which earns the group the No. 1 ranking.

LIVE75’s top debut belongs to rock legend and three-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Eric Clapton who ranks No. 2 on the chart with a five-show ticket average of 21,616.

He joins Pearl Jam as the only other concert headliner with a ticket average topping 20,000 per show. His ranking is based on ticket sales at five September performances on his recent South American tour that drew a total of 108,081 fans from Argentina and Brazil. Together, those five concerts produced a combined gross of $12.7 million.

His sole appearance in Argentina kicked off the brief tour on Sept. 20 at Estadio José Amalfitani in Buenos Aires. Then, the remaining dates were held in the Brazilian cities of Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where the tour finale on Sept. 29 at Allianz Parque moved 44,234 sold tickets and grossed $5.1 million.