Elton John earned staggering amount per second on farewell tour as he breaks concert record
Sir Elton John has absolutely raked it in thanks to his recent farewell tour, according to new Billboard figures on the top-earning tours of all time.
The music icon has just finished up his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, following an epic headline set at Glastonbury.
Speaking to the crowd at the time, Elton said: “It’s a very special and emotional night for me because it might be my last show ever in England, so I’d better play well and I’d better entertain you.”
Advert
But it looks like the star will be walking away with a pretty decent pay packet and a brand new record to his name after taking to the stage, new figures have revealed.
According to figures submitted to Billboard, Sir Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road earned the singer a staggering £269 per second.
With 330 shows and six million fans in attendance, it was a tour spanning over five years that straddled the pandemic and saw the icon grossing a whopping £720.11 million in total.
Full list of all-time top-earning tours below
Billboard did the maths of the 'Top Ten Tours of all Time' and calculated that works out to £2.18 million per show and a staggering £16,000 per music-filled minute.
Sir Elton kicked off in arenas before the pandemic and performed in global stadiums after - a move that accelerated the tour’s rise from a top 20 contender to the top spot.
It also saw the 'Your Song' singer's earnings grow to $1.98 billion - making him the highest-grossing solo artist ever.
This extended his lead over Ed Sheeran, U2 and anyone else in convert by more than $150 million - but Ed could take the lead again after he extended his ongoing Mathematics tour.
These figures don't even factor in his fee for his appearance heading on Glastonbury's main stage last month in front of a crowd of 120,000 and 7.7 million at home - the highest number in Glasto history.
Artists who perform at Glastonbury typically earn around 10 percent less of compared to other festivals as it donates millions to charities - that ended rumours of Sir Elton making £1million pay day.
The figures saw nine out of the ten spots in the list held by UK and Irish acts, with Harry Styles’ ongoing Love On Tour coming in at number four.
Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis explained in a 2017 interview on BBC Radio 6: "We're not in a situation where we're able to just give people enormous amounts of money.
"So we're really grateful for the bands that we get because they're basically doing it for the love of it."
In fact, Glastonbury founder, Michael Eavis, once let slip that he paid Coldplay and Paul McCartney about £200,000 for past headline sets.
He said at the time: "I paid £200,000 for Paul McCartney and for Coldplay, and although it sounds a lot, they could have charged me far more."
Top 10 biggest earning tours of all time, according to Billboard:
Roger Waters - The Wall Live (2010-13) - $459 million
Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016-17) - $524 million
The Rolling Stones - No Filter Tour (2017-19, 2021) - $547 million
The Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang Tour (2005-07) - $558 million
Coldplay - Music of the Spheres World Tour (2022-23) - $561.2 million
Guns N' Roses - Not in This Lifetime... Tour (2016-19) - $584 million
Harry Styles - Love on Tour (2021-present) - $590.3 million
U2 - U2 360° Tour (2009-11) - $736 million
Ed Sheeran - The ÷ (Divide) Tour (2017-19) - $776 million
Elton John - Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour (2018-20, 2022-23) - $939.1 million
Topics: Music, Ben Elton, Glastonbury, News, UK News, Celebrity
Amelia Jones