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By The Virtual Numbers: Norah Jones Is Top Solo Artist Among Live Streamers
Victoria Will/Invision/AP – Norah Jones
is photographed June 8, 2020, in New York.
With a career spanning two decades, seven studio albums including Pick Me Up Off the Floor, just released in June, more than $73 million in concert grosses and numerous Grammy Awards, Norah Jones can add virtual star to her illustrious bio. The jazz/pop singer is the highest-ranked solo artist on the first-ever Livestreamers chart in a Pollstar quarterly recap. She lands at No. 2 on the 50-position ranking of artists or events based on the total views of livestreams during the period of third quarter eligibility. Only Circle’s Opry Live broadcast that features a different cast of country artists each week is ranked higher at No. 1.
Jones’ livestreams were viewed more than 6.9 million times by fans at 16 virtual performances during the timeframe contributing to the Q3 report. With 289,410 views, her May 7 stream was the first to be counted in this tally. It qualified for the inaugural Livestream chart that ran in the May 18 issue (compiled from streams occurring May 5-11). Then her Aug. 13 show, with views numbering 239,799, was the last to be included before the Q3 cut-off date of Aug. 19.
All of the shows aired from her home and were streamed regularly each Thursday evening, except for July 9 when she did not perform. In a typical week, she played and sang four songs at her piano, streamed live on her own Facebook page.
There were also two additional performances in June that were not the weekly Thursday show – one on the 12th and another the 22nd. The former was a special performance with 614,998 views presenting four of the new songs from her latest album that dropped the same day. Then, on June 22, she played a Monday night show viewed by 344,575, dedicated to frontline workers, hospital staffs and patients affected by COVID-19.
If not for the global pandemic, Jones was to headline a U.S. tour in 2020 with Mavis Staples as her special guest, but it was cancelled because of the industry shutdown. The jaunt would have included concerts in May, July and August. She did tour in 2019, however, performing in Oceania and both North and South America. No new dates have been announced yet for future touring.
Among the highlights from her live Boxoffice history, her best-attended solo headlining concert was a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2012. She performed for a crowd of 16,518 on Aug. 10 that summer during her “Little Broken Hearts” tour. Attendance surpassed the 15,170 tickets sold at her previous Hollywood Bowl appearance in October 2004.
Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images – Norah Jones
and her band play the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 10, 2012, for the first time since 2004. The sold-out show marked her best-attended headline concert with an attendance of 16,518.
Photo by Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images – Norah Jones
and her band play the Hollywood Bowl on Aug. 10, 2012, for the first time since 2004. The sold-out show marked her best-attended headline concert with an attendance of 16,518.
Japan’s Nippon Budokan Hall has the record for the most sold seats for a Norah Jones headlining engagement. The Tokyo indoor arena moved 28,500 tickets at three sold-out concerts, April 13-15, 2017.
With most solo dates throughout her career set in more intimate, theater-sized environments, some of the largest crowds Jones encountered were at multiple-act events such as Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit charity shows. Staged in the San Francisco Bay Area beginning in 1986, she was on the bill for five of those, including the final event on Oct. 22-23, 2016, that drew 40,679 attendees.
Interestingly, she also performed at some large events early in her career as a support act for the Dave Matthews Band, opening four shows for the group in 2002. The largest audience of the four was 32,003 on July 21 at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa.