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Post Malone has set tongues wagging by appearing to tease a Coachella headline appearance when unveiling his biggest tour yet.
Produced by Live Nation, Post Malone Presents: The BIG ASS Stadium Tour will kick off in Utah next April, with dates confirmed at 25 stadiums across North America. Special guests include Jelly Roll and Sierra Ferrell.
The tour poster also mentions two dates at an unspecified venue in Indio, California on 13 & 20 April – the two Sundays of Coachella 2025 at the city’s Empire Polo Club. The Coachella lineup is traditionally announced in January.
Katy Perry announced this week that £1 from every ticket sold on the AEG-promoted UK leg of The Lifetimes Tour, comprising OVO Hydro, Glasgow (7 October), Manchester AO Arena (8 October), Utilita Arena, Sheffield (10 October), Utilita Arena, Birmingham (11 October) and The O2 in London (13 October), will be donated to the Music Venue Trust.
The global outing will commence in Mexico on 23 April, switching to Australia in June and South America in September, before heading to the UK.
Elsewhere, Jamiroquai have revealed a 14-date European arena tour for late 2025, visiting Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany the Netherlands, France, Belgium and their native UK.
After six years away from touring, the Jay Kay-fronted jazz-funk band will play Barcelona Palau Sant Jordi (6 November), Lyon LDLC Arena (8 November), Zurich Hallenstadion (11 November), Milan Unipol Forum (13 November), Vienna Wiener Stadthalle (15 November), Berlin Uber Arena (19 November), Cologne Lanxess Arena (22 November), Amsterdam Ziggo Dome (25 November), Paris Accor Arena (27 November) and Brussels ING Arena (29 November).
They will then head to the UK, stopping at Glasgow OVO Hydro (3 December), Manchester Co-op Live (6 December), London The O2 (9 December) and Birmingham Utilita Arena (12 December).
Stray Kids will follow their 2024/25 shows in Asia and Australia with 20 new performances
K-pop phenomenons Stray Kids will follow their 2024/25 shows in Asia and Australia with 20 new performances across Latin America, North America and Europe, marking their first full run of stadium dates.
Produced by JYP Entertainment and promoted by Live Nation, the Asia leg will wrap up with two nights at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Arena on 18-19 January.
The tour will then head to the Americas, starting at Estadio Bicentenario La Florida in Chile on 18 March and making stops in Brazil, Peru, Mexico, the US and Canada. The concluding European run will take in Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff Arena in the Netherlands (11 July), Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, Germany (15 July), London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the UK (18 July), Riyadh Air Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain (22 July) and Paris’ Stade de France (26 July).
Meanwhile, Kehlani has announced the Crash World Tour featuring special guests KWN and Keyrah. The seven-city tour kicks off on 21 January at AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands making stops in Brussels, Belgium at Ancienne Belgique (22 January), Vienna, Austria at Gasometer (24 January), Berlin, Germany at Astra Kulturhaus (25 Janaury), Zenith in Paris, France (27 January) and The O2 in London (29 January), finishing up at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, UK (31 January),
In addition, The Pogues have confirmed their first tour since the death of frontman Shane MacGowan in 2023. The group’s first UK headline tour in 13 years, it will celebrate 40 years of their Rum Sodomy & the Lash album, with shows at Leeds O2 Academy (1 May), Birmingham O2 Academy (2 May), London O2 Academy Brixton (3 May), Glasgow Barrowland (6 May), Manchester O2 Apollo (7 May) and Newcastle O2 City Hall (8 May).
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A new fan insights study by Live Nation has uncovered the rise of Asia Pop in Australia and New Zealand.
The company reports a 600% increase in the number of Asian Pop live shows and a 275% surge in the number of artists since 2015, with 98% of fans now listening to music in languages other than English.
Furthermore, the Future Sound study, which was based on 1,044 responses from Ticketmaster Asia Pop live music purchases, revealed that 35% of its Australian and New Zealand fanbase are aged between 27 and 48.
“What we’re seeing is not a new phenomenon; it has been an undercurrent in our musical landscape for years, only now receiving the widespread recognition it deserves,” says Wenona Lok, Asia Pop promoter and talent buyer at Live Nation Australasia. “Asia Pop has transcended its niche status and exploded into mainstream fandom, fostering deep connections between fans and artists through social content, dance and fashion to name a few.”
Lok, who worked on Stray Kids’ record-breaking Australian shows in 2023, was a panellist for the How K-pop Conquered the World session at last year’s International Live Music Conference (ILMC) in London.
“I think the reason K-pop is so big is because it’s really accessible,” she said. “If you go online, there are many fan groups that are happy to help educate you. Having the internet makes a big difference – it’s a right time, right place thing – but a lot of K-pop fans are women in their mid 40s, of all race groups. They come to the shows and bring their daughters because it’s something that is easy to share and get excited about.
“I don’t think we’re at the stage where it’s going to plateau yet. It’s something that people can really learn from and we’re also starting to see a lot of K-pop acts collaborate with Western artists.”
“Western consumption of Asian Pop has become so much more dynamic in the past three to four years, and globalisation of the wider genre is the clear next step”
In addition to K-Pop, Asia Pop (or A-pop) comprises a range of sub-genres, including J-Pop, C-Pop, Mandopop, Thai Pop, and City Pop, translating into record-breaking live performances.
Twice made history by playing four stadium shows in Australia in 2023, while Itzy’s performance at Auckland’s Spark Arena made them the highest-selling K-Pop act in New Zealand ever.
“All of our experiences have taught us how important the live experience is to any music lover, and given the unique offerings of a K-Pop or Mandopop or J-Pop show, we’re excited to see how the support of promoters such as Live Nation can help to amplify that impact at ground level,” says Asian Pop Weekly founder Jocelle Koh. “Western consumption of Asian Pop has become so much more dynamic in the past three to four years, and globalisation of the wider genre is the clear next step.”
Australasia has also produced homegrown talent such as Danielle and Hanni from NewJeans, Rosé from Blackpink, BangChan and Felix from Stray Kids, actor and singer Darren Qiu, and Cantopop singer Cecilia Cheung .
Upcoming tours include Stray Kids who will perform stadium shows in Sydney and Melbourne on their world tour in October, followed by Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku’s first Australia and New Zealand tour in November. South Korean indie HYUKOH and Taipei-based jazz-influenced synth-pop band Sunset Rollercoaster will also perform in Melbourne this November.
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Stray Kids have broken the record for the most tickets sold by a K-pop boy band in Australia.
The group have sold more than 42,000 tickets across four shows – two nights each at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena (17-18 February) and Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena (21-22 February) – on their current Maniac tour, produced by Live Nation.
The previous record was held by Big Bang, who played two nights at Qudos Bank Arena and one night at Rod Laver Arena on their Live Nation-promoted 2015 Made tour.
“The immense popularity of Stray Kids highlights the strong demand for K-Pop in the market and the ever-growing fanbase of the genre in Australia”
“Live Nation is committed to the development of K-pop, not just within Australia but across the Asia Pacific,” says Live Nation Korea MD Yongbae Cho. “This is evidenced by our commitment to touring K-pop in the region, having toured Blackpink, Big Bang, G-Dragon, GOT7, and many others.”
The run marks Stray Kids’ first arena tour in Australia, with the first arena dates selling out within hours of tickets going on sale. The tour will also mark the return of Aussie-Korean members Bang Chan and Felix to Australia, who are set to perform in front of their hometown crowd in Sydney.
“The immense popularity of Stray Kids highlights the strong demand for K-Pop in the market and the ever-growing fanbase of the genre in Australia,” adds Cho.
“There is a broad community who’s very engaged in the genre in pretty much every market around the world”
Blackpink are also set to visit Australia in June. Roger Field, president of Live Nation Asia Pacific, discussed the K-pop phenomenon in a recent interview with The Australian.
“It’s increasingly part of the mainstream pop offering,” says Field. “A lot of people may not be across it, but there is a broad community who’s very engaged in the genre in pretty much every market around the world, because it delivers fashion, catchy songs, and a lifestyle.
“We’ve had the privilege of a long commitment to growing the genre across the globe, and that commitment is pulling all the levers to escalate these artists very quickly into arenas and stadiums.”
The rise of the genre will be explored in How K-pop Conquered the World, the opening panel of this year’s ILMC at 10am on Wednesday 1 March, chaired by Tommy Jinho Yoon of ICA-Live-Asia.
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