(VIP NEWS) — The launch of Celine Dion’s summer tour in Europe tops Billboard’s Hot Tours ranking of the week’s highest grossing tours.
The 10-week trek is in support of her upcoming Encore Un Soir album, due in August. The tour kicked off with a two-night stint at the 20,000-seat Sportpaleis in Antwerp, with sellout crowds on June 20 and 21, followed by a nine-show stand at AccorHotels Arena in Paris from June 24 through July 9.
Combined, the 11 shows — all sellouts — sold 141,800 tickets and brought in $23.2 million.
In Paris, the gross of $18.4 million from 110,052 sold seats made the nine-show run the fourth-highest-grossing concert engagement of 2016.
Dion will begin a 10-show run on July 31 at Montreal’s Bell Centre, the first of three venues booked in her home country through the end of August. She will follow the Montreal performances with five nights at Quebec City’s Centre Vidéotron and a final two concerts at the Amphithéâtre Cogeco in Trois-Rivières, also in Quebec.
After the summer tour wraps, she will return to her residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with 27 shows planned for the remainder of the year beginning on September 20. Since her first shows at the venue in March 2003, ticket sales from her Colosseum concerts total $560.5 million.
Meanwhile, country star Kenny Chesney adds $5.1 million in sales to his Spread the Love Tour’s overall gross, which has now topped the $40 million mark since beginning in April. Eight of the performances reported this year were stadium shows, including his July 16 concert at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, one of three dates in this week’s recap. He drew a crowd of 51,293 to the venue with sales hitting $3.8 million.
Chesney has played Arrowhead Stadium on each of his tours since 2011’s Goin’ Coastal trek. His personal best at the venue was set in 2015 at the Big Revival co-headlining event with Jason Aldean. The gross from his sold out performance last August registered $5.3 million with 57,368 fans in attendance.
According to Billboard.
