Jackman, pop star, readies world tour
‘No E Street Band tour’
NEW YORK, Dec 5, (Agencies): Hugh Jackman is set to launch a pop star-like tour next year, but he’s done his research: He’s been to a Beyonce concert. A Justin Timberlake concert. And a Michael Jackson concert.
“I’ve seen some of the greats,” Jackman said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “And the great performers for me are the ones who can connect with the person in the back and in the front. And I’ll sometimes sit in the back ‘cause I wanna know am I feeling it back here? ‘Cause I’m from the theater, (so) for me everything I do has to connect to every single person.”
The regular concert attendee is hoping to make some strong connections with fans when he launches his first world tour – dubbed “The Man. The Music. The Show.” – next year. Accompanied by a live orchestra, he will perform songs from “The Greatest Showman”, ‘’Les Miserables” and Broadway musicals, among other selections.
“I’ve always felt strangely at home on a stage, no matter how big the stage is – sometimes even more than in life,” said the actor, known for roles like Wolverine. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think when I turned 50 I would be playing Madison Square Garden or the Hollywood Bowl.”
Jackman, who was born in Australia, did an arena tour there three years ago, but he didn’t think he could replicate the success outside his native home.
“I had no idea really what the demand is for me. It’s not like I measure it or I ask. I always underplay it,” he said. “At that time three years ago I remember thinking, ‘I’d really love to do this around the world.’ And my agent in LA goes, ‘I’d leave it in Australia, dude.’”
Jackman
But then came “The Greatest Showman” – a game changer for Jackman’s music career. The 2017 film was a box-office powerhouse, but so was – and still is – its soundtrack: The album has reached multi-platinum status and is one of the year’s top albums, matching the success of any major rap, pop or rock album. It came in fourth on Billboard’s list of top albums for the year and also made Apple Music’s year-end Top 10 list.
“The opportunity to go around the world ... I probably wouldn’t have had it if it wasn’t for ‘The Greatest Showman’. That tipped me over,” Jackman said.
“The Greatest Showman” has come a long way: Jackman remembers how the movie only earned $8.6 million in its first week around the time the soundtrack debuted at No. 71 on the Billboard charts.
“When we opened, when I saw I didn’t get an email, normally you’ll get a consolation email from your friends, the studios; it was like crickets, like nothing. That’s how bad it was,” he said. “We worked eight years on it ... and I always want to remind people the studio took a big risk on it. It wasn’t cheap.”
Jackman will kick off his tour in Hamburg, Germany on May 13. He will play two shows at The O2 Arena in London, where the album has had even more success than America: The album has spent 48 of 49 weeks in the Top 10 on the UK charts, including 21 weeks at No. 1. And it’s currently No. 4 on the charts, a year after its release.
The North American leg begins June 18 in Houston. Most tickets go on sale Friday; tickets for the MSG shows go on sale on Dec 10.
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Success
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If you thought the idea of Bruce Springsteen following his grueling run on Broadway with an E Street Band tour sounded too good to be true, now it’s official: it was.
Springsteen – who is set to wrap his show, “Springsteen on Broadway”, on Dec 15 – took to Twitter to gently let down fans hoping for a return to the road with the E Street Band, after inadvertently raising some false hopes with an interview in the UK’s Sunday Times where he hinted he would be going back to his “day job.”
The particular day job some fans were imagining will have to wait a beat, as the 69-year-old musician is planning to take it easy in the new year.
“Just a note to quell some of the rumors over here on E Street,” he wrote. “While we hope to be back with you soon, the E Street Band won’t be touring in 2019.” Springsteen continued that before he goes back his “day job,” the year will be focused on “various recording projects.”
Springsteen then encouraged his fans to support other members of the E Street Band “out there regularly performing with their own projects who’d love and deserve your support.”
Both Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren took to Twitter earlier this week to squash the rumors, while indicating that they hadn’t been in touch with Springsteen about it. “This is very likely a misunderstanding,” tweeted Van Zandt. “Only the Boss knows,” added Lofgren.
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Irish rock band U2 topped the 2018 Forbes magazine list of the highest-paid musicians on Tuesday thanks in part to the group’s successful “Joshua Tree” world tour celebrating their classic 1987 album.
That tour helped the band collect $118 million in pre-tax earnings from June 1, 2017 to June 1, 2018, the magazine said. The performances featured well-known hits from “The Joshua Tree” album including “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.
The band’s earnings also included revenue from a new tour, “Experience + Innocence”.
British band Coldplay finished second on the Forbes list with $115.5 million, mostly from its “A Head Full Of Dreams” tour.
Billions of streams helped 27-year-old British singer Ed Sheeran finish third with $110 million. He was followed by Bruno Mars with $100 million and Katy Perry with $83 million.