The Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus all made Billboard magazine's Moneymakers list of the top tours in 2008. But the young turks couldn't get anywhere near a quartet of veterans who crushed it last year on the road.
Madonna topped the list by a mile. She raked in more than $242 million for her Sticky & Sweet Tour, which reportedly sold more than one million tickets, making it the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo artist. She was followed by New Jersey's favorite sons, Bon Jovi ($157 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($156 million), and the final shows by the reunited and now broken-up again Police ($109.9 million).
Working it hard on the road, the Jonas Brothers managed to slip in at #9, thanks to $62.6 million in receipts, putting them ahead of Coldplay at $62.1 million and the hard-touring Eagles, who banked $61.1 million. Weezy was not far behind at #12, with an impressive $57.4 million, allowing him to edge out revived Aussie hard rockers AC/DC, who pulled in $56.5 million.
A bit further down the list, Miley Cyrus did a not-too-shabby $48.9 million in business, good for a 15th place finish, while friend Taylor Swift was hot on her heels at #16 with $45.5 million. The top 20 was rounded out by Mary J. Blige at $43.4 million and Kanye West, whose critically acclaimed Glow in the Dark Tour raked in $42.5 million.
Among the stats pointed out by Billboard is that despite easily topping the touring list, Madonna's Hard Candy was only the 50th best-selling album in the U.S. in 2008, another sign that touring revenue is becoming a larger and larger part of artists' revenues.
Taylor Swift
Miley Cyrus
Lil Wayne
Jonas Brothers
Madonna
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