Bellamy Brewster
Attention future pop stars: Usher's strategy for harnessing massive Super Bowl audiences at headlining concerts is a master class in how to parlay a landmark career accomplishment into a legacy anchoring tour.
The R&B icon managed to capture the pre-game buzz around his performance at the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII halftime show with a carefully curated pre-sale campaign for his fall tour Past Present Future. Once hardcore fans had their tickets (most of which went on sale on February 9), Usher's team began expanding the dates based on demand to ensure there would still be plenty of tickets available to the general public on the Monday (February 12) after the event concluded. Game.
So far, 360,000 pre-sale tickets have been sold for the Past, Present and Future tour, according to Live Nation Global Touring's president. Arthur Vogeland dates have increased from the 24th to the 44th across the US since the initial presale launched on Thursday (February 8). painting It is estimated that when remaining tickets go on sale the Monday after the Super Bowl, the Past, Present and Future tour will be Usher's highest-grossing tour ever.
“The tour’s success began several years ago when Usher launched his Vegas residency, which re-established his greatness,” Vogel says. “He is now building on this success with his current tour and the pre-sales prove that there is unprecedented demand to see him perform live.”
Since Usher was announced as the headliner for the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show, his touring crew has been the emcee Ron LovettWME agent and partner John Marks and Live Nation promoters Colin Lewis and Vogel – build an arena tour strategy that takes full advantage of the huge audience for the big game. Last year's victory by the Kansas City Chiefs over the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona, was watched by more than 115 million viewers in the United States, making it not only the most-watched Super Bowl in history, but also the most popular television program of all time. All the time in America.
Despite the huge viewership, the last five performers to play the Super Bowl halftime show did not announce their headlining tours after their performance. And those who did, like Justin Timberlake in 2018 and Beyoncé in 2017, didn't have any tickets on sale that quickly after the event.
However, Asher wasn't going to let the momentum go to waste. Days after his Super Bowl Halftime performance stopped, Marks began planning an arena tour. His mission from Usher was to try to replicate the intimacy of his Las Vegas residency shows, first in 2021 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace and then in the 2022-2023 My Way Las Vegas Residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM.
“He wanted to play more multi-night tours in big cities,” Marks said. paintingstating that Usher enjoyed the excitement created by the multi-night engagements.
In total, Usher is playing 44 shows in 17 markets (locations for three dates have yet to be announced). The Past, Present, Future Tour will officially launch in Washington, D.C. (August 20) and includes a four-night stop at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn (September 6-10), and four nights at the yet-to-open Inuit Dome in Inglewood, California (17-24 September), three nights in Miami at the Cascia Center (October 11-14), three nights at State Farm Arena in Atlanta (October 17-20), and three nights at the US Center in Chicago (October 28-31).
“Sales are beyond anyone’s wildest dreams right now,” Marks says, noting that more US dates could be added, and a UK and European tour will also be announced in the future. “Honestly, we're just getting started,” he adds. “Everything I saw and heard made it clear to me that people everywhere really wanted to be on these shows.”
