Elton John’s ‘Farewell’ Tour Has Grossed More Than $1 Billion
The Rocket Man’s farewell tour has blasted into the record books, raking in more than A$1 billion. And there’s more to come.
Spanning five years, Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour is by some distance the top-grossing concert run in Billboard Boxscore history, with US$887 million generated and 5.7 million tickets sold over 309 shows by the end of May 2023.
That’s not the end of it.
Elton has 18 scheduled tour dates before his final, rescheduled show July 8 at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena, and a headline set at Glastonbury Festival, which won’t count towards his Boxscore sum.
When all the cash is counted, the British pop legend’s final tour should sit at about US$925 million mark (A$1.36 billion).
No other trek has grossed US$800 million.
The next best in the history books is Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour, which briefly ruled in 2019 with US$776 million. Sheeran usurped U2’s 360 Tour from 2009-11, which grossed US$736 million.
Australians have played their part. The farewell jaunt first first touched down in Australia in November 2019, for a run of 40 dates (34 Australia, six New Zealand), and over 705,000 tickets sold across a three-month period.
Illness and the pandemic intervened, before Elton completed a final lap of Australia and NZ earlier in the year.
By the end of this run, notes Chugg Entertainment, Frontier Touring and AEG Presents, producers of these dates, Elton will have played 233 concerts in Australia, the third most for the Rocket Man outside the U.K. and U.S.
Elton has a special connection with Australia and New Zealand. It was in Sydney, in 1984, where the Rock And Roll Hall of Famer married recording engineer Renate Blauel, a celebration that was carried on national TV.
Also, his hit single “Cold Heart,” featuring vocals from Dua Lipa and remixed by Sydney electronic trio Pnau, is a record-setter on the ARIA Charts.
When it climbed to the summit in 2021, Elton, at 74 years, seven months and 14 days, became the oldest artist to top the ARIA Singles Chart, overtaking Beatles star Paul McCartney.