Beyonce's Formation Tour Sold Over 2 Million Tickets and Made Over $250 Million

Beyoncé performs on stage during closing night of 'The Formation World Tour' at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 7, 2016 in East Rutherford, N.J.

   Beyonce’s Formation stadium tour wrapped Oct. 7 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., as an unqualified blockbuster, taking in over $256,084,556 and selling 2.2 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore. The tour, which began April 27 at Marlins Park in Miami, averaged a whopping $5.2 million in gross and 45,757 paid attendance per show.
   Tour promoter Arthur Fogel, chairman of Live Nation’s Global Touring division, calls Beyonce an “amazing performer” with a  “rabid, committed fan base.”
   The highest-grossing stop on the tour came from two sellouts at London’s Wembley Stadium July 2-3 that took in $15.3 million and sold 142,500 tickets. Earlier in the run, an $11.5 million take from two sellouts at New York’s City’s Citi Field took in $11.5 million and moved 73,486 tickets as the highest-grossing date in North America.
   The tour received high marks for its extravagant production, but Fogel points out that Beyonce “rose above the spectacle” in her performances. “When everybody acknowledges the greatness of the production but, more than that, everybody is blown away by her, that’s the ultimately skill,” he says. “To not only use the platform of a great production, but to rise above it as a performer and artist, that’s her incredibly unique quality."
SOURCE:www.naijacop.com

Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars & Britney Spears to Perform on Jingle Ball Tour

  

 Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and Britney Spears are some of the acts set to perform during the 12-date Jingle Ball Tour this holiday season.

   iHeartMedia announced Tuesday (Oct. 11) that the tour will kick off Nov. 29 in Dallas and wrap Dec. 18 in Miami. The lineup, which varies by city, includes Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony, Meghan Trainor, Backstreet Boys, The Chainsmokers, Shawn Mendes, One Direction's Niall Horan and others.

Tickets go on sale on Oct. 17.

   The Dec. 9 show at New York's Madison Square Garden will stream live on The CW Network's app and website and air as a 90-minute special on the channel on Dec. 15.

   The tour will also visit San Jose; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Philadelphia; New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Atlanta; and Tampa.

   Capital One Cardholder Presale starts Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. local time and to the general public on Oct. 17 at 10 a.m. local time. Ticket purchasing times vary depending on the venue, so be sure to check out iHeartRadio’s website for more information.

View the full lineup below.
Nov. 29 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball – American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Featuring: Meghan Trainor, The Chainsmokers, Fifth Harmony, Backstreet Boys, Alessia Cara, Charlie Puth, Daya, Lukas Graham, Hailee Steinfeld
Dec. 1 WiLD 94.9′s Jingle Ball – SAP Center, San Jose, CA
Featuring: Shawn Mendes, The Chainsmokers, Charlie Puth, Diplo, Tove Lo, Alessia Cara, Lukas Graham, Daya, Special Guest Appearance from Niall Horan
Dec. 2 102.7 KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball – Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
Featuring: Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Meghan Trainor, Fifth Harmony, Diplo, Alessia Cara, Lukas Graham, Daya, Special Guest Appearance from Niall Horan
Dec. 5 101.3 KDWB’s Jingle Ball – XCEL Energy Center Minneapolis, MN
Featuring: Fifth Harmony, G-Eazy, Diplo, Backstreet Boys, Lukas Graham, Alessia Cara, Tove Lo, Hailee Steinfeld, Gnash.
Dec. 11 Kiss 108′s Jingle Ball – TD Garden, Boston, MA
Featuring: Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Diplo, Ellie Goulding, DNCE, Tove Lo, Alessia Cara, Daya, Special Guest Appearance from Niall Horan.
 Dec. 14 103.5 Kiss FM’s Jingle Ball – Allstate Arena, Chicago, IL
Featuring: Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding, Backstreet Boys, Tove Lo, Lukas Graham, Daya, Hailee Steinfeld, Special Guest Appearance from Niall Horan
Dec. 16 Power 96.1′s Jingle Ball – Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA
Featuring: Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, The Chainsmokers, Fifth Harmony, DNCE, Alessia Cara, Daya, Lukas Graham.
SOURCE: www.naijacop.com

Mark Zuckerberg’s Africa tour tracks tech’s growing interests on the continent

After a surprise Nigeria visit to meet with techies in Lagos, Mark Zuckerberg took his Africa tour to Kenya this Thursday. There the Facebook CEO visited the iHub innovation space, reviewed the BRCK mobile Wi-Fi device, had lunch with Kenyan ICT Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru, and met with tech leaders Juliana Rotich and Erik Hersman.
Like the Lagos expedition, the trip was unannounced. “Originally, we knew that Facebook’s Ime Archibong was coming in,” said Hersman (a co-founder of iHub), “but we didn’t know about Mark’s visit until the last minute.” Archibong is Facebook’s Strategic Partnerships Director.
Though no formal business commitments are planned on Zuckerberg’s first Kenya visit (something Facebook reps confirmed to TechCrunch), Hersman believes it is likely a precursor.

“Look, these meetings in Nigeria and Kenya, it’s largely PR for everybody right now,” he said. “However, from the interactions I saw…between Facebook’s team and different people within the tech community, I think there’s going to be some real stuff happening soon.”
While Zuckberg’s Nigeria visit was less anticipated—given the country only recently registered in global tech news—his dropping in on Kenya is less of a surprise.
The East African nation of 44 million has become the continent’s unofficial tech capital, dubbed “Silicon Savannah” for its advances in digital finance, tech incubators, and local IT innovations such as BRCK and the Ushahidi crowdsourcing platform.
Local telco Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money product is globally recognized. The company has used its mobile infrastructure to innovate a number of digital products including solar electricity (M-Kopa), online TV, and the recent launch of its M-Pesa integrated ride-hail app (Little), an Uber competitor.
The Kenyan government, which established an ICT authority, is one of the continent’s more proactive in supporting its tech ecosystem. And iHub helped spur Africa’s tech incubator movement, which now includes over 300 innovation spaces across the continent, according to a recent GSMA survey.

From a tech perspective, Zuckberberg’s decision to visit Nairobi is relatively straight forward. Two initiatives he focused on were the BRCK venture and digital prototype startup Gearbox, both outgrowths of the iHub infrastructure Erik Hersman and Juliana Rotich established in 2010. BRCK developed in response to local IT challenges of poor net connectivity and electricity.
The solar powered BRCK Wi-Fi product (about the size of an actual brick) provides device charging capabilities, 3g and 4g internet for up to 20 connections, and now ships to over 60 countries. “He got a demo of the next generation BRCK device, and was pretty intrigued by our Kio devices,” said Hersman, referring to BRCK’s educational tablet for primary school students.
Zuckerberg also reviewed the Gearbox supported Strauss solar energy panel and PayGo Energy home cooking product. “He was really interested in the integration of M-Pesa into other services,” said Hersman, noting the PayGo product allows Kenyans to finance the kit using mobile phones and M-Pesa mobile payments.

Zuckerberg’s Nigeria and Kenya trips coincide with Facebook’s expanding Africa presence and the continent’s growing digital profile. Facebook has 84 million users in Sub-Saharan Africa, 17 million in Nigeria, 14 million in South Africa, and 5.7 million in Kenya, according to spokesperson Sally Aldous.
As previously reported, a particular Facebook Africa play will be tapping the online advertising market that’s rising with the continent’s shift to digital commerce, expected to reach $75 billion by 2025.
Facebook opened its first Africa office in South Africa in 2015, appointing Ogilvy and Mather advertising executive Nunu Ntshingila as Head of Africa. In Kenya, the company has provided financial support to iHub events and workshops (Erik Hersman confirmed).
Kenya is also one of Facebook’s Internet.org Free Basics countries, a program that allows users on Airtel networks to access limited internet services free on mobile. Facebook’s commitment to connect more Africans to the internet suffered a bit of a setback Thursday when the SpaceX rocket carrying the company’s Amos-6 satellite crashed pre-launch.

As for what to expect from Facebook in Africa after Zuckerberg’s trip, company reps would not provide detail. iHub, Gearbox, and BRCK co-founder Erik Hersman sees possibilities to upgrade Facebook’s connectivity efforts, “Free Basics is growing but it’s still not the open internet,” he said. “There could be an opportunity to open it up around a business model that works.”
Hersman also believes the Facebook CEO’s will also draw more attention to Africa from Silicon Valley. “He could have just visited South Africa, which is what more people would have expected,” he said. “Visiting Nigeria and Kenya sends a message that could get other global tech players off the sidelines. If Facebook is putting so time, interest, and money into these markets other will definitely pay attention.”