{"id":2186173,"date":"2026-10-08T20:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2186173"},"modified":"2026-10-08T20:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:04:08","slug":"inside-the-latin-touring-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2186173","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Latin Touring Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/market-opener-2-2026-bb11-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tA few hours before Argentine hip-hop duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso were to perform a sold-out show in Madrid on Sept. 17, Paz Aparicio surveyed the calendar at Movistar Arena, where she is GM. In 2019, the venue that holds more than 17,000 fans put on six concerts by Latin American music stars; this year, that number will be 55 to 60. \u201cI\u2019m feeling the incredible change,\u201d Aparicio says. \u201cThe artists from Latin America are selling more tickets. The audience is bigger when a Spanish speaker is performing than when an English speaker is performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tBad Bunny Is the First-Ever Latin Artist to Gross $1 Billion in\u00a0Touring\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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    Eric Frankenberg<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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    \n\tSince the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin artists have grown into dominant international touring stars: In 2024, Luis Miguel, Bad Bunny and Karol G were among the five performers who grossed over $100 million apiece, according to Billboard Boxscore, while last year, Shakira set a record with the highest-grossing Latin tour for a female artist. As Latin artists from Bad Bunny to Peso Pluma have evolved into the world\u2019s biggest pop stars, they\u2019ve regularly headlined in Spanish-speaking countries worldwide, a trend that has helped push officials and concert promoters in Medell\u00edn, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and elsewhere to build new arenas. In July, Live Nation announced it is partnering with a S\u00e3o Paulo city district to build a 21,000-capacity venue; OCESA Colombia is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Vive Claro Distrito Cultural open-air arena that fits 40,000 and has moved over 300,000 tickets in the past 12 months; this October, Colombian promoter Breakfast Live is inaugurating DAVIarena, the first state-of-the-art covered arena in Medell\u00edn. And most of these arenas are built for live events, predominantly concerts, as opposed to just sports.<\/p>\n

    \n\tFor years, according to Juan Toro<\/strong>, vp at agency THE\u00b7TEAM, industry agents and managers had a \u201cfear\u201d of touring in Latin America, rarely making the effort to connect with key promoters or study regional markets. Since the pandemic, these agents and managers have become more bullish. \u201cThey\u2019re looking at the numbers that the Latin artists are producing and the kind of money they\u2019re making in these markets and they\u2019re starting to understand there\u2019s real economic viability here,\u201d Toro says. \u201cThere\u2019s real money in these markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n\tThe more sophisticated Latin American markets, where arenas, stadiums and state-of-the-art production technology are plentiful, plus corresponding hotels and restaurants, have thrived in recent years. In Mexico, more artists have been willing to tour, according to Alejandro Arce Saldivar<\/strong>, director general of regional arena promoter Zignia Live, because of newer venues like Arena Guadalajara (which opened a year ago with a Maroon 5 concert) and 11-year-old Estadio BBVA in Monterrey (where Paul McCartney and Shakira have performed). Mexico City-based OCESA is the world\u2019s third-biggest event promoter \u2014 a fact not lost on Live Nation, which spent $646 million last year to increase its share of the company from 51% to 75%.<\/p>\n

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    \t\t\t\t\tTop 10 Highest Grossing Latin Tours of the\u00a0Year\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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      Eric Frankenberg<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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      \n\t\u201cThis has been a fight to make the industry understand that we are on the same level as Chicago, San Antonio, Miami,\u201d Saldivar says. \u201cWe have the same infrastructure of hotels, restaurants, entertainment, sports as the big cities of the world. More acts are willing to come into cities in the country. We have infrastructure in Guadalajara; we have infrastructure in Monterrey; they will go to the Baja [Peninsula] because they have all the festivals\u201d \u2014 a reference to the annual Baja Beach festival in Rosarito Beach, which reportedly drew 90,000 attendees in August.<\/p>\n

      \n\tInternational stars have demonstrated huge regional fan demand periodically in Latin American countries, from The Rolling Stones topping 100,000 attendance in Rio de Janeiro in 1995 to Interpol drawing 160,000 in April 2024 to Shakira setting an attendance record with 400,000 at Mexico\u2019s Z\u00f3calo in March. \u201cFor English-speaking artists, it\u2019s become part of their plan: They put an emphasis on wanting to get to Latin America,\u201d says Carlos Abreu, a UTA agent who oversees international touring for Bad Bunny, Rawayana, CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso and others. \u201cThey have so much demand for this music; artists will tell you they feel there\u2019s the best fan response on earth [in these markets]. Try to get a date at Movistar Arena in Argentina and you can barely find anything 12 months out.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n\tStill, for all the progress in the Latin American concert infrastructure, gaps persist that make widespread touring difficult. Abreu refers to \u201cfreighting gear\u201d and other logistics being more difficult than, say, hauling buses and trucks overnight from Chicago to St. Louis. \u201cWhen an artist comes from beneath the stage, like in a K-pop show, they might need seven lifts \u2014 they might be available in Argentina, but not S\u00e3o Paulo, [or] Mexico City, [or] Bogot\u00e1,\u201d says Irvin Benitez<\/strong>, Miami-based director of touring for Latin music entertainment company C\u00e1rdenas Marketing Network. \u201cThat\u2019s when the economics go left on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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      \t\t\t\t\tAll the U.S. Tours by Latin Artists Announced for 2026\u00a0(Updating)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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        Griselda Flores<\/span>, Jessica Roiz<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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        \n\tSome international acts have relied for years on South American markets \u2014 Rock in Rio, which starred Queen, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake and others in 1985, drew 1.5 million fans to Brazil over 10 days. Death metal band Sepultura has built its following from a home base in Brazil and is on its current and final Latin American tour in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina before the Oct. 11 finale at Mexico City\u2019s Pepsi Center WTC. Andy Farrow, manager of Swedish prog metal band Opeth, which concludes its fall tour Nov. 11 at Ciudad de Mexico\u2019s Arena CDMX, adds that South America can be spotty for international artists, especially in clubs and theaters with a less reliable network of local promoters. \u201cIt\u2019s a great market, but it needs fine-tuning,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the top end, it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n\tThe phenomenon of non-Spanish-speaking stars setting attendance records in Latin American countries also works in reverse. Latin American stars such as Maluma, Rauw Alejandro and Rosal\u00eda have sold out arenas throughout Europe recently, and not just in Spain but in Paris, Milan and Amsterdam. In Z\u00fcrich, Hallenstadion\u2019s 2026 lineup has included J Balvin, Marc Anthony, Don Omar and a reggaet\u00f3n night, all of which have put up big attendance numbers. And in September, Car\u00edn Le\u00f3n became the first Latin artist to perform at Sphere in Las Vegas, with more dates announced for 2027. \u201cAfter the coronavirus pandemic, it started to just get more and more,\u201d Hallenstadion CEO Philipp Musshaffen says. \u201cIt\u2019s a good crowd. They also drink a lot. That\u2019s very good for the economics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

        [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/inside-latin-touring-boom\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/market-opener-2-2026-bb11-billboard-1800.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard A few hours before Argentine hip-hop duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso were to perform a sold-out show in Madrid on Sept. 17, Paz Aparicio surveyed the calendar at Movistar Arena, where she is GM. In 2019, the venue that holds more than 17,000 fans put on six concerts by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2186173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2186173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2186173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2186173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2186173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}