Boxoffice Insider: Pride In The Name Of Love, Ticket Sales; Elton John, Sam Smith, Troye Sivan

Michael Campanella / Redferns – Elton John

There may be no greater indicator of growing LGBTQ+ acceptance in popular culture than live Boxoffice data showing artists who self-identify as gay, bisexual or somewhere on the spectrum (but who most just consider awesome pop, rock, EDM and/or hip-hop stars) thriving at multiple levels of the touring business.

It is difficult to find a more prolific and universally beloved artist than Sir Elton John, who may be emblematic of the music market’s paradigm shift over the course of his 49-year career. When he came out as bisexual in 1976 to Rolling Stone, it was considered Earth-shattering and reportedly detrimentally impacted his career. Today, however, Captain Fantastic’s three-year “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” retirement trek kicks off in September and will likely gross hundreds of millions. 

This year saw Sir Elton, between doing his final “Million Dollar Piano” run at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which for every 10 shows reported to Pollstar has grossed about $6.5 million, playing not-exactly run of the mill concert stops such as Beirut, Monaco, Moscow, and Dubai. 

After the June 27 Argento Ball For The Elton John AIDS Foundation that also includes Ed Sheeran, Rudimental, and Nicole Parker, Elton hits North American arenas hard starting in September and into May of 2019, with another large European leg to follow. 

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Over the last three years, Sir Elton has grossed an average of nearly $1.3 million per market, with 11,342 tickets sold over 85 events for the now-70-year-old road warrior. 

Sam Smith came out as gay publicly in 2014 and was featured in an emotional New York Times profile. After “having come out as a gay singer, he realized it was now time to come out as a gay man,” it read. 

Smith just kicked off a major North American arena run after tearing it up in Europe in the first quarter. 

The Euro leg notched four sellouts at The O2 in London April 6-10, which grossed a combined $4.75 million and sold 65,920 tickets, promoted by Manchester-based SJM.

The Euro leg included two sold-out 3Arena gigs in Dublin ($1.5 million), two at Manchester Arena ($1.9 million) and two at the SSE Hydro ($1.3 million). Later this year he’ll also hit Asia and Australia taking him near the end of 2018.

Previous Pollstar Hotstar cover artist Troye Sivan announced to the world in 2013 he is gay with the video “Coming Out,” but says he doesn’t want to be known as a gay icon.

“With people like Hayley Kiyoko and Brockhampton, we’re starting to get, finally, a diverse group of different LGBTQ perspectives,” Sivan told Another Man. “That’s why I politely don’t want to take on that ‘gay icon’ thing. I’m one voice of so many that are missing, and so I’m just trying to tell my story, and right now I’m having so much fun in my life, I feel confident, I’m just enjoying myself, and so that was really important to me to express.”

Sivan has headline dates in September through October at venues including The Anthem in Washington, D.C., Fox Theatre in Detroit, and Chicago Theatre. 

On his last major headline run, in 2016, he sold out two nights at Terminal 5 in New York with 6,000 tickets sold and $232,500 grossed, as well as just under 7,000 tickets sold to two nights at the Hollywood Palladium, grossing about $240,000 and a hefty run in his native Australia including another almost 7,000 tickets sold to Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, which grossed another $240,000.

Speaking of Brockhampton, the rap “boy band” has been praised for “turning masculinity on its head” by style magazine Dazed, with songs such as “Queer” bringing themes not usually heard in hip-hop music. The group is booked by WME and kicked off a tour in January that included multiple nights at Irving Plaza in New York (three nights), Showbox in Seattle (two), and the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco (two).

Al Pereira / WireImage – Troye Sivan
NBC’s Today Show

 Recent headline reports submitted to Pollstar included sellouts at House of Blues Boston (2,425 tickets), Emo’s in Austin (1,550) and The Pageant in St. Louis (2,000) this year. Although the group canceled some dates after sexual misconduct allegations against member Ameer Vann, they have summer festival dates in North American, Europe and Australia.

And Hayley Kiyoko, this week’s cover artist and also mentioned by Sivan as leading the way for LGBTQ+ artists, is just getting started. She supports Panic! At the Disco on their arena tour this summer.