Sold out tickets: what's behind the brand new fever for stay music | Culture | EUROtoday

For a long time, taking part in in massive sports activities venues in Spain was the unique privilege of some titans of worldwide music: The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, U2, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen. And not all of them, as Frank Sinatra's historic blow on the Santiago Bernabéu in 1986 made clear. Of the Spanish artists, few aside from Julio Iglesias and Alejandro Sanz may afford to fulfill their followers in lavish stadiums with ensures of success. But this dynamic has modified.

In December, the Colombian Karol G modified the principles of the sport by saying a live performance for July on the Real Madrid discipline, which was adopted by one other after which one other; and, after exhausting all three, one other one, finishing an uncommon sequence of 4 dates on the mammoth stage. She isn’t the one one who has wager massive: Aitana will carry out stay on the similar venue in December; The tickets flew in three days. A number of weeks in the past, Lola Índigo joined the get together, promoting out seats (53,000) for a live performance on the Bernabéu in March 2025. Real Madrid sources verify that there’s at the moment no commonplace stadium capability for these makes use of, which continues to be below building; The area is customized and negotiated with every promoter.

It might be debated whether or not Karol G's present dimension is akin to that of Madonna within the eighties and nineties, however 4 bernabéus It's rather a lot even for the interpreter of Like A Virgin of these instances. And with out questioning their price, it appears clear that neither Aitana nor Lola Índigo are worldwide superstars of those that till now had a monopoly on the coliseums. The phenomenon is much more hanging as a result of it happens when curiosity in music appears to have declined, no less than by way of report gross sales. Part of the reason should be sought not a lot within the caliber of the artists as within the habits of the viewers. It is simple to see that Karol G, Aitana and Lola Índigo have in widespread their robust impression amongst younger audiences. “The two strange years of the pandemic are having a rebound effect,” says Fernán del Val, professor of Sociology of Culture at UNED. “It more affects a youth who, in a fundamental period of his life, when he had to go out and experiment, he could not. Being 20 years old and thinking that two crucial years have been stolen from you is difficult to manage. “They are young people who are hungry and want to go out and do things.”

The information from the IV Live Music Observatory, revealed by the Ticketmaster ticket gross sales portal on the finish of 2023, endorse that notion. The buy of seats by younger folks aged 18 to 24 grew by 48% final 12 months in comparison with 2022, exceeding pre-pandemic ranges. Concerts are extra than simply musical occasions for youthful audiences, provides Del Val: “They are social events. They don't come just to be enthralled by an artist; also because they feel that their generation has to be there.” And then they depart a report of it on social networks like Instagram or TikTook.

“It is an event that few Spanish artists have been able to carry out,” says Iratxe Arbeloa, a 31-year-old fan of Lola Índigo from Pamplona, ​​who has a ticket for the Bernabéu live performance, “and that she, who became known only seven years, go do it, it's something I don't want to miss for anything. She has set an ambitious goal and her followers must be there supporting her.” Iratxe, who has seen the Granada native stay on a number of events earlier than, has coincided in these performances with different followers: “I share experiences and interact through X” with them, he provides.

Meanwhile, older followers proceed to attend huge live shows on the similar tempo as all the time. AC/DC accomplished the capability for his or her efficiency on the La Cartuja auditorium in Seville on May 29, though when this report was written, there have been nonetheless tickets left for the second date, July 1; The similar goes for Metallica and the seats for his or her double in July on the Cívitas Metropolitano in Madrid: they went on sale in November 2022 and, though they’ve been shipped in excessive numbers, they will nonetheless be obtained. The worth has an affect: the most affordable tickets for AC/DC and Metallica price 105 euros; Lola Indigo's, 30.

Lola Índigo herself acknowledged the musical journal on-line Jenesaispop that he’s not going to generate profits with this: “There is no profitability. The prices are popular, because we want everyone to be able to enjoy it. I want people to come from all over Spain. Everything taken from the tickets goes to the stage, the production and the dancers. And if I do what I have in mind, we will be in the red. But it is my wedding, “the most important day of my life.”

“That Karol G is going to do four concerts is the most brutal thing I have ever heard in my life,” admits the eminent stay promoter Gay Mercader, chargeable for excursions in Spain by The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan or Lou Reed. “Not even Springsteen has done it. It may be a generational change. It also contributes that they are concerts in a single city, and that city is in the center of Spain, more or less at the same distance for the Bilbao fan as for the Barcelona or Seville fan,” provides Mercader. Karol G will solely go to Madrid. Lola Índigo's can be a novel, particular occasion, with an elaborate construction in three acts (one for every album) that can’t be reproduced on the following summer time tour of different cities. For his half, Dani Martín introduced with the declare of “the only city in Spain” the astonishing sequence of eight recitals on the WiZink Center within the capital scheduled for November and December 2025. A complete of 120,000 seats that presumably offered out followers in 72 hours. of all nation. The advance discover with which tickets have been offered (virtually two years) confirms this unprecedented starvation for stay music. “It speaks of an optimistic generation,” says Fernán del Val.

The enhance in attendance of twenty-somethings and the persistence of the behavior of mature followers end in “more and more generations attending concerts,” says Blanca Salcedo, director of Sony Music in Spain, Dani Martín's report label. Salcedo sees “a parallel” between higher music consumption, even whether it is in streaming, and the expansion of ticket gross sales and advertising and marketing merchandise. In addition, he factors out “the amplification of the most social part of the concerts thanks to the networks.”

There are those that see within the bubble of festivals, which within the final decade have invaded even probably the most hidden corners of Spain, the antecedent of the present maelstrom. This is how Mikel Izal, former singer and composer of the IZAL quintet, thinks, now on tour presenting his first solo album, Fear and paradise: “IZAL's trajectory was marked by festivals, and I know that scene well. They became an event not only for music lovers, but also on a social level, something that you cannot miss in a city. A lot of people signed up who did not fit the profile of the typical music lover who goes to concerts because they are big fans of a group. What started at festivals may have made the leap to concerts. Perhaps that component of the social plan that attracts more people apart from the very fans is a factor that determines whether there are more attendees. Concerts are becoming a leisure alternative beyond music mania. And it is the whiting that bites its tail: by signing up for these types of plans, their melomania grows and they attend more concerts.”

On one other scale, bands from the eighties that had fallen into relative oblivion are filling venues all through the nation. The Rebels collapsed Madrid's La Riviera on March 9, Pistons have offered out El Sol 3 times since December, additionally within the capital; Similar achievements have been collected by La Frontera, La Guardia, Seguridad Social… Obús started celebrating its fortieth anniversary in September 2021 and has not stopped blowing out the candles till February of this 12 months. On April 26, a big contingent of veteran artists (Los Rebeldes, Rafa Sánchez, from La Unión, Camela, Amistades Peligrosas, Seguridad Social, Modestia Apart, Cómplices, OBK and Toreros con Chanclas, amongst others) will storm the Santiago Bernabéu within the framework of the Locos por la Música competition.

Carlos Segarra, from Los Rebeldes, makes a double studying of this renewed attraction for his stay efficiency. “Young people and people our age are coming to our concerts. I empathize a lot with young people: many of them have done what those of our generation did. We played commercial radio and since we didn't like what was being played, what did we do? To look behind. That's how I discovered The Beatles, The Rolling Stones… Now there are kids with concern, with ears, and since they don't like what they hammer on the radio, they have said: let's see what was done before. They want to enjoy songs that say something, that tell things, about musicians sweating and giving their all on stage. Meanwhile, the older audience, who stopped going out when she got married and dedicated herself to raising his children, now that they are 20 years old, has gone out again. He is enjoying what he likes and what he has been away from for a long time.”

Segarra additionally promotes the post-covid idea: “We all had a bad time, many people died, others were ruined. People saw the wolf's ears and now want to enjoy life again. Spend on hospitality, travel (Spain is living more than ever on domestic tourism) and live music. He goes to concerts because he enjoys it. “The Spaniard has changed the way he approaches his life.” “In the past, it was understood that consuming certain music in your youth was fine,” Del Val alleges, “but there came a time in your life when you were interested in something else. That has stopped happening. People maintain their teenage tastes and even, sometimes, their aesthetics. heavy, punk o mod. Besides, the nostalgia of the Movida continues to mobilize many people.”

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