Coldplay Tops July Boxscore Report As Tour Surpasses $1 Billion in Grosses

Coldplay’s sprawling Music of the Spheres World Tour – 156 shows on four continents over two and a half years so far – continues, taking the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s monthly Top Tours chart. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the Brits brought in $72.2 million and sold 575,000 tickets over 11 shows in July.

It’s the fourth time that Coldplay has led the monthly review, all of which happened during its current tour (the monthly Boxscore charts launched in February 2019), following victories in July 2022, March 2023 and January of this year. The first of those was while the band played in Europe. The second was for shows in South America, and the third in Asia.

The Music of the Spheres World Tour clinches its most recent monthly victory with a return to Europe, marking the third continental leg of the tour. Stops in Rome, Dusseldorf and Helsinki packed the July calendar, peaking in the former with $29.4 million and 252,000 tickets at Stadio Olimpico July 12-13 and 15-16. That’s enough to take the No. 1 spot on Top Boxscores as well.

Beyond the chart triumph on July’s Boxscore report, Coldplay’s tour has now reached record-breaking heights. Since its kick-off in March 2022, it has eclipsed $1 billion in concert grosses and sold almost 9.3 million tickets through Aug. 25. That makes it the highest grossing and bestselling rock tour in Boxscore history, surpassing Elton John in the former metric and U2 in the latter.

Four dates remain to be reported in Dublin, plus 11 in Oceania later this fall. Having averaged more than 50,000 tickets on all nine legs of the world tour so far, it’s likely that the Music of the Spheres World Tour will surpass 10 million tickets.

The $1 billion gross and 10 million ticket thresholds are both unprecedented in Boxscore’s almost 40-year history. The obvious asterisk is unreported figures for Taylor Swift’s ongoing The Eras Tour, likely closer to $2 billion than one now that its own 48-date European leg has wrapped, and approaching 10 million tickets itself.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are No. 2 on July’s Top Tours ranking, pulling in $65.4 million from 500,000 tickets over nine shows. The Boss also earns his chart rank from shows in Europe, specifically playing in Belgium, Denmark, Germany and others, before closing out the run with two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Springsteen’s London dates grossed $25.2 million and sold 154,000 tickets, mirroring his No. 2 rank over on Top Boxscores. A double header at Friends Arena in Solna, Sweden followed with $9.7 million and 108,000 tickets, landing further down the list at No. 23.

Since kicking off in May, the ’24 European leg of Springsteen’s tour brought in $158.5 million and sold more than 1.2 million tickets over 22 concerts. Though he has wrapped overseas, The Boss made his way over the pond, launching another leg of U.S. shows last week and ensuring a return on the August recap.

Europe fills out the top four spots, with Travis Scott and P!nk at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively. It was the first extended European tour for Scott, who was met with a well of pent-up demand. From June 28 through Aug. 4, he grossed $58.9 million and sold 520,000 tickets in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal, and more. It’s the most that a solo rapper has earned on tour outside of the United States.

Combined with the North American shows from autumn 2023 and winter 2024, the Utopia Circus Maximus Tour has brought in $154.7 million and sold 1.2 million tickets over 63 shows. Scott has a slate of shows in Latin America and Oceania before closing for good on Halloween in Auckland, New Zealand.

For P!nk’s part, the Summer Carnival Tour continued with a second leg of European stadiums. Reaching a monthly high at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena, she totaled $46.8 million and 377,000 tickets during July. Since its launch last June, the entire tour has grossed $469.3 million and sold 3.6 million tickets – not including the Trustfall Tour, which interrupted the stadium run with a swing of North American arenas, adding $60.8 million and 257,000 tickets to Pink’s enormous post-pandemic return to the stage.

On Top Boxscores, Europe takes up the top six spots with engagements from Karol G and Metallica in addition to Coldplay and Springsteen. There’s two more in the top 10 (Luis Miguel and P!nk), and eight more on the chart, including The Killers with six shows at London’s O2 Arena and Ed Sheeran at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdansk, Poland.

On Top Stadiums, European venues make up seven of the 10 spots, including the entire top five. Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabeu rules with $37.2 million and 309,000 tickets, thanks to two shows from Luis Miguel ($13.6 million on July 6-7) and four from Karol G ($23.6 million on July 20-23). The latter closed out her yearlong world tour at the chart-topping stadium, re-setting her own records among women in Latin music.

Stateside, Las Vegas dominates the biggest and smallest venue charts. Sphere is No. 1 among rooms with a capacity of 15,001 or more (excluding stadiums), while the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas is tops among venues with a cap of 2,500 or less.

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‘Gata Only’ Producer Yamil Inks Global Publishing Deal With Kobalt

Kobalt announced it has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Yamil, the Colombian hitmaker behind FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s “Gata Only,” Billboard can announce today (Aug. 29).

“Yamil is one of the most creative and successful producers/songwriters making music today,” Nestor Casonu, president of Latin at Kobalt, said in a press statement. “We are so happy to welcome him to the Kobalt family.”

“I am so happy to join the Kobalt team,” Yamil added. “When I met with Nestor and Leslie Ahrens, I knew that with all their knowledge and contacts in the Latin market is what I need to push my career even further. On a recent trip to Puerto Rico, Leslie connected me with many of today’s top songwriters and producers for possible collaborations! This is my first publishing deal and after meeting with all the others, I felt Kobalt was the right choice for me.”

In April, the sly reggaetón number about online flirtation, secured the Chilean newcomers their first No. 1 on a Billboard chart, where it dominated Hot Latin Songs for 14 consecutive weeks. They made history along the way. The last time a Chilean artist had hit No. 1 on the chart was in 1991, when singer-songwriter Myriam Hernández’s “Te Pareces Tanto a Él” ruled it for four weeks.

“Gata Only” — which counts over three million video creations on TikTok and a star-studded remix with Ozuna and Anitta — also entered the Billboard Hot 100, Latin Airplay and both Billboard Global charts.

“For us, this is very important. It’s a pride for all Latinos to be on that chart,” Cris MJ previously told Billboard. “In fact, before we released the song, I knew it was going to be a global hit. I’m proud because it’s not only helping my career but also the one of my colleagues.”

Yamil, who also produced Cris MJ’s “Si No Es Contigo,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Latin Songs chart this year, is working on an EP with his longtime collaborators, as well as on a forthcoming joint album with Cris and Floyy.

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Spotify Blasts MLC’s Audiobook Royalties Lawsuit As ‘Nonsensical’ and ‘Wasteful’

Spotify is demanding that a federal judge toss out a lawsuit filed by the Mechanical Licensing Collective over royalty rates, calling the case “nonsensical” and “wasteful.”

The MLC sued earlier this year, claiming Spotify had “unilaterally and unlawfully” chosen to cut its music royalty payments nearly in half through bookmaking trickery – namely, by claiming that the addition of audiobooks to the service entitled the company to pay a lower “bundled” rate.

But in a motion to dismiss filed in court Tuesday, Spotify calls those claims “meritless and wasteful” – arguing that making hundreds of thousands of audiobooks available to subscribers was not a “token” gesture aimed at reducing music royalties.

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“MLC’s position is nonsensical and factually unsupportable,” Spotify’s lawyers write. “And it profoundly devalues the contributions of the tens of thousands of book authors whose works are available with a Spotify Premium subscription—from literary luminaries, to mainstays on best sellers lists, to up-and-coming writers who are finding their audience.”

The MLC, which collects streaming royalties for songwriters and publishers, filed its lawsuit in late May — a week after Billboard estimated that Spotify’s move would result in the company paying roughly $150 million less over the next year. In its complaint, the MLC claimed Spotify was “erroneously recharacterizing” the nature of its streaming services to secure the lower rate.

“The financial consequences of Spotify’s failure to meet its statutory obligations are enormous for songwriters and music publishers,” the group’s attorneys wrote at the time. “If unchecked, the impact on songwriters and music publishers of Spotify’s unlawful underreporting could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

At issue in the lawsuit is Spotify’s recent addition of audiobooks to its premium subscription service. The streamer believes that because of the new offering, it’s now entitled to pay a discounted “bundled” royalty rate under the federal legal settlement that governs how much streamers pay rightsholders.

In Tuesday’s motion, Spotify’s lawyers strongly defend that interpretation. They argue that the market for audiobooks has attracted “billions in consumer dollars” and that adding books was the kind of valuable new perk that had been intended to be covered by the lower bundled rate.

“At the heart of this dispute is an easily answered question: Is audiobook streaming distinct from music streaming, offering greater than token value?” the company’s lawyers write. “The answer is indisputably yes, and there is no need for federal court litigation to confirm it.”

The rule at issue says that streamers can use the bundled rate if they offer “one or more other products or services having more than token value.” Claiming that more than 200,000 audiobooks does not qualify under that rule is “baffling,” Spotify’s lawyers write.

“The creative output of these authors is not merely of ‘token value’,” Tuesday’s filing says. “Acceptance of that unassailable, commonsense proposition should end this meritless and wasteful litigation.”

MLC’s attorneys will file a formal response to the motion in court in the coming months. In a statement to Billboard on Thursday, the group said: “The MLC’s general practice is not to comment publicly on pending litigations. That said, we would reiterate that we take the enforcement obligations assigned to us by Congress extremely seriously and would refer you to the complaint we filed in this matter for more details regarding our position on this matter.”

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Christine McVie’s Fleetwood Mac Treasures to Be Featured in Museum Exhibition & Charity Auction

Fleetwood Mac fans will soon have the chance to peruse Christine McVie’s treasures in a museum exhibition honoring the late legend — and if they like what they see, they may be able to take something home in an auction later on.

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As announced exclusively by Billboard Thursday (Aug. 29), highlights of McVie’s personal collection will become available for people to see up close at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville starting Friday (Aug. 30) and running through Tuesday, Oct. 15. The day after the exhibition concludes, a two-day auction dubbed “Property From the Life and Career of Christine McVie” will take place at the same venue and online via Julien’s Auctions, marking the first time the items have been offered to the public.

More than 650 of the “Songbird” singer’s belongings will be available to bid on in the auction, including the Hammond XK-5 organ she played on tour with Fleetwood Mac (pictured above; estimated $6,000-$8,000), a Yamaha CLP-470PE digital piano from her London home ($3,000 – $5,000), a model KP-180-122 Leslie speaker in a red road case labeled “3rd Encore Christine’s Locker ($2,000 – $4,000), Tusk chord sheets with unknown handwritten lyrics ($800-$1,200) and two setlists annotated by McVie ($600-$800). Pieces of fine art and jewelry will also be for sale.

Fleetwood Mac 'Tusk' chord sheets
Fleetwood Mac ‘Tusk’ chord sheets

The proceeds of the auction will benefit MusiCares as well as other charities in the U.K. “Christine McVie was a legendary artist and a beloved member of the MusiCares family, always showing deep compassion for those in the music community,” said the organization’s executive director, Laura Segura, in a statement. “The proceeds from this auction will continue her legacy of giving back, ensuring that musicians receive the support they need. Her love for music and for those who create it will continue to inspire us all.”

Julien’s Auctions CEO David Goodman added, “As one of the musical greats of her generation and of all time, the world loved Christine McVie for her perfect voice, her beautiful songs, and her brilliance that she produced throughout her extraordinary life and musical career that Julien’s is honored to represent in this exclusive auction celebration.”

Christine McVie's London home
“St. Cecilia” painting left in Christine McVie’s London home.

McVie died in November 2022 at the age of 79. A few months later, her cause of death was revealed to be a stroke.

At the time, Fleetwood Mac shared a band statement. “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” wrote the group, which also consisted of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. “She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her.”

In October, Nicks said that the band likely wouldn’t continue performing in the absence of McVie. “You can’t replace her,” she told Vulture. “You just can’t. Without her, what is it? You know what I mean?”

“She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac,” she added at the time. “Christine was my best friend … Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”

Watch Julien’s video of the auction items below:

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Metallica’s James Hetfield Witnesses Peter Dinklage’s Fury in ‘The Thicket’ Clip

The Thicket is just a week away from release, and Billboard is exclusively sharing a clip featuring Metallica frontman James Hetfield.

In the clip from Tubi Films’ adventure-thriller, Peter Dinklage’s character demands payment from Dr. Grace, as Hetfield’s character is seen at the table. An altercation between the two occur, with Hetfield left with his hands up in surrender to not be the next victim.

It’s hardly Hetfield’s first time on the big screen, as he previously appeared in films and TV shows including Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Skylanders Academy, American Dad! and more.

The show, written by Chris Kelly and based on the novel of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale, promises “vengeance, justice, and unlikely companionship,” and the Elliott Lester-directed adaptation follows the story of bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Dinklage) after he’s recruited to track down a brutal killer known as Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis). He then rallies a band of unexpected heroes to take down the enemy, leading them into the treacherous “no-man’s land” known as The Thicket.

In addition to Dinklage, Lewis and Hetfield, The Thicket also stars Esmé Creed-Miles, Levon Hawke, Macon Blair, Andrew Schulz, David Midthunder, Arliss Howard, Leslie Grace and Gbenga Akinnagbe.

The Thicket hits theaters Sept. 6. Check out the exclusive clip via Billboard below.

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Bad Religion Cancel 2024 Fall North American Tour Over ‘Unforeseen Family Circumstance’

Veteran punk rockers Bad Religion have cancelled a planned run of fall 2024 North American shows citing “unforeseen family circumstances.” The band announced the news on Wednesday 9August 28) in an Instagram post, writing, “Due to an unforeseen family circumstance, we are canceling our upcoming fall tour. We apologize for any disappointment and disruption this may cause. We appreciate your understanding.”

At press time no additional information was available on the cause of the tour’s cancellation, with the band telling fans that ticket refunds will be available at point of purchase. The tour — the follow-up to an earlier run of U.S. gigs this year with Social Distortion — was slated to kick off on Sept. 17 in Stroudsburg, PA a the Sherman Theater and keep them on the road through an Oct. 19 gig in Sacramento, CA at Hard Rock Live.

The outing was also slated to hit Huntington (NY), Portland, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo, Myrtle Beach (SC), Richmond (VA), Huntsville (AL), Nashville, Little Rock (AR), Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Davenport (IA), Sioux Falls (SD), Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle, Spokane and Portland.

The band whose only consistent member has been co-founder and singer Greg Graffin, issued their seventeenth studio album, Age of Unreason, in 2019, followed by the August 2020 release of their autobiography, Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion. That same year the group whose thoughtful punk rock rages often incorporate social and political themes were also scheduled to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary with a tour that was pushed off for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

See Bad Religion’s announcement below.

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J Balvin to Be Music Curator for ESPN’s Monday Night Football

J Balvin has been tapped as ESPN’s official Monday Night Football music curator for the 2024-25 NFL Season. Balvin will work with ESPN throughout the 2024-25 NFL season to curate music for select ESPN Monday Night Football games. Balvin’s music selections will play in Monday Night Football promo spots, live telecasts and Monday Night Countdown for seven weeks this season, including two NFL Playoff weeks.

In all, Balvin will provide music for seven games, kicking off his curation stint with his new song “DOBLEXXO” featuring Feid, off his recently released album Rayo. The first game for which Balvin will curate is the New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers on Monday, Sept. 9. However, Balvin’s music selection will begin playing this Friday (Aug. 30), when his track will be used during ESPN’s Week 1 Monday Night topical spot, a fast-moving clip featuring players from the Jets and the 49ers on the field, with Balvin’s music playing as the soundtrack. You can watch it here.

Balvin is the latest superstar to join the Monday Night Football music curation program, joining a list that includes music curators Timbaland and Justin Timberlake (2023), Marshmello (2022), Drake (2021), DJ Khaled (2020) and Diplo (2019).

“ESPN’s Music curation program with Monday Night Football continues with an artist that will amplify the bold and new music strategy,” said Curtis Friends, ESPN’s vp of sports marketing, in a statement. “J Balvin is a global icon whose influence hits with diverse cultures and genres. His music choices embrace the anticipation and excitement the ESPN football season offers, and we can’t wait for him to come along the season-long ride with us.”

Following the first game on Sept. 9, Balvin will select one song to use for each designated week. Although the tracks to be used have not been announced, they can be his own or someone else’s.

Here is J Balvin’s music curation schedule for the 2024-25 NFL season:
• Week 1: New York Jets at San Francisco 49ers
• Week 5: New Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs
• Week 6: Buffalo Bills at New York Jets
• Week 11: Houston Texans at Dallas Cowboys
• Week 18 Doubleheader: TBD
• Monday Night Super Wild Card: TBD
• Divisional: TBD

Balvin has long been associated with different sports and athletes, and in 2022, he became the first Latin artist to headline an NFL kickoff concert, performing at Long Beach, Calif., ahead of the first regular season game of 2022. Below is the first spot using Balvin’s music.

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U.S. Recorded Music Revenue Rose 3.9% to $8.65 Billion in First Half of 2024: RIAA

The U.S. recorded music market grew a little bigger in the first half of 2024 — but not by much. The retail value of total industry revenue reached $8.65 billion, according to RIAA figures released Thursday (Aug. 29), thanks mainly to a modest gain in streaming revenue and a jump in vinyl sales.  

While the period’s revenue is a record for the first half of a year, it marked just a 3.9% gain from the prior year’s period. The U.S. market has returned to a more workmanlike trajectory, putting high-single digit and double-digit gains in the rear-view mirror. By contrast, revenue was up 8.8% and 9.0% in the first half of 2022 and 2023, respectively. In the first half of 2021, as paid and ad-supported streaming benefitted from pandemic-era lockdowns that drove consumers to their devices, revenue rocketed 27.0%.

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Vinyl EP and LP sales totaled 24.3 million units, up 10.7%, and were valued at $739.9 million, up 17%. Other physical formats gained, too, but the distance between them and vinyl grew larger. CD sales improved just 0.3% to $236.7 million. The other category—encompassing cassettes, CD singles, vinyl singles, DVD audio and SACD—improved 66.6% to $13.2 million. 

Physical sales increased its percentage of total revenue to 11.4% from 10.5% in the prior-year period and 10.2% in the first half of 2022. Vinyl has doubled its share of the market in five years, reaching 8.5% of total U.S. revenue — up from 4.2% in the first half of 2020.  

Streaming still dominates industry revenue and provided the single-biggest dollar gain of all the categories. Total streaming revenue grew 3.8% to $7.3 billion and accounted for 84.1% of total revenue, equal to the year-ago period. Paid subscription revenue hit $5.23 billion, up 5.1%, leading all streaming categories by a wide margin. The average number of subscribers reached 99 million, up just 2.6%, suggesting record labels benefitted from price increases by Spotify and other services.  

Other streaming segments had a smaller impact or lost ground over the past year. Limited-tier paid subscription revenue dropped 4.1% to $503 million. (Limited-tier services have limited catalogs, interactivity restrictions or other factors that differ from premium subscription plans.) Ad-supported, on-demand revenue rose 2.5% to $899 million. SoundExchange distributions were $517 million, up 3.9%. Other ad-supported streaming—statutory streaming services not distributed by SoundExchange—fell 2.7% to $159.1 million.

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U.S. Recorded Music Revenue Up 8% in 2023 as Streaming Growth Remains Steady: RIAA

Download sales, once the cornerstone of the U.S. market, declined in share for the 14th straight year and amounted to just 2% of industry revenue. Total download sales fell 15.8% to $189.7 million. Track and digital album sales fell 16.1% and 18.5%, respectively. Ringtones and ringbacks dropped 51.1% to $2.9 million. The other digital category, which includes kiosks and music video downloads, grew 22.0% to $17.1 million.  

Synchronization royalties dropped 9.8% to $200.9 million, a sharp contrast to sizable gains of 25.3% and 29.9% in the first half of 2022 and 2023, respectively. 

In a statement, RIAA chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier highlighted revenue reaching a record $8.7 million and the evolving music ecosystem. “Spanning multiple licensing avenues from fitness apps to short-form video, artists and labels are embracing innovation with responsible partners so more Americans can engage with their favorite music however, whenever and wherever they choose,” he said. “This sustained growth fuels innovation and reflects music’s incredible value, laying the foundation for a healthy creative ecosystem where artists’ and songwriters’ visions can flourish over generations.” 

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After ‘Unprecedented Demand,’ Oasis Add Trio of New UK Reunion Dates, Rubbish Reports of Festival Gigs

Citing “unprecedented demand,” Oasis announced on Thursday (August 29) that they are adding three more shows to their Oasis Live ’25 World Tour reunion run in the UK. In an X post, the band revealed that they have tacked on a July 16 date at Heaton Park, as well as another show at Wembley Stadium on July 30 and a third night at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh on August 12.

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Earlier this week, the band led by siblings singer Liam and guitarist/songwriter Noel Gallagher announced that after 15 years apart they will play a series of 14 gigs in the UK next summer, news that sent longtime fans who had all but given up on any rapprochement between the famously battling brothers into a frenzy. Though the show count is now up to 17, following online speculation, the band threw cold water on reports that the reunion would also include festival gigs.

“Despite media speculation, Oasis will not be playing Glastonbury 2025 or any other festivals next year,” read a post on X on Wednesday. “The only way to see the band perform will be on their Oasis Live ’25 World Tour.” At press time the lineup of the band for the reunion shows had not yet been announced and it was unclear if they planned to record new music to accompany the shows.

In other news, the band also announced on Thursday morning that the window for registration for a pre-sale ticket ballot had been extended due to “a last minute surge” in entries. Because the large number of confirmation emails are still being processed and sent out, the deadline to confirm entry has now been extended to 10 a.m. BST (5 a.m. ET) on Friday (August 30). Successful ballots holders will be contacted on Friday by 5 p.m. BST (noon ET) with pre-sale access information. At press time the ticket prices had not yet been announced.

The pre-sale for the shows is slated to kick off on Friday, followed by a general on-sale on Saturday (August 31).

The UK tour will now consist of the following shows:

July 4, 5 — Cardiff @ Principality Stadium

July 11, 12, 16, 19, 20 — Manchester @ Heaton Park

July 25, 26, 30 and August 2, 3 — London @ Wembley Stadium

August 8, 9, 12 — Edinburgh @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium

August 16, 17 — Dublin @ Croke Park

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CIA Says Suspects in Taylor Swift Vienna Concert Terror Plot Planned to Kill ‘Tens of Thousands’

The CIA says that the suspects in the alleged plot to attack Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour shows in Vienna, Austria were aiming to create a massive casualty event involving a “huge” number of victims. The information came during a briefing on Wednesday (August 28) from CIA deputy director David Cohen, who, according to the Associated Press, said that his agency discovered intelligence that helped to disrupt the planning and led to the arrests of the three young suspects.

Cohen discussed the foiled plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland, noting that the CIA informed Austrian authorities of the plan that resulted in Swift cancelling three planned shows in Vienna earlier this month after officials allegedly found links between the suspects and the Islamic State group.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”

The New York Times reported that Cohen did not say how the CIA learned about the planned attack and that counterterrorism warnings don’t always get a lot of attention, but the quick work to foil the Vienna attack — which potentially saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives — was different. “I can tell you within my agency and others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” he said, in reference to the location of the agency’s headquarters. “And not just for the Swifties in the workforce.”

Austrian concert promoter Barracuda Music announced on August 7 that the three sold-out Eras Tour gigs planned for Ernst Happel Stadium on August 8, 9 and 10 were cancelled due to an alleged terror plot aimed at disrupting the shows. According to Austrian authorities, the main suspect is an unnamed 19-year-old Austrian man who had reportedly been inspired by the Islamic State terror group. They said he planned to attack the estimated 30,000 Swifties expected to gather outside the stadium with knives or homemade explosives; the venue itself holds 65,0000 and more than 200,000 fans were anticipated for the shows.

During a raid of the main suspect’s home, police reportedly found chemical substances and other technical devices that were to be used in the attack. The main suspect’s lawyer has said that the allegations were “overacting at its best,” suggesting Austrian authorities were exaggerating the details in order to expand their surveillance powers. The AP noted that Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, previously said that other intelligence agencies helped Austrian investigators, who cannot legally monitor text messages.

Swift’s Vienna shows were scheduled to be part of the penultimate run on the Eras Tour‘s European leg, and were followed by a five-night stint at London’s Wembley Stadium (August 15-20), which went off without incident. The singer opened up about the scary terror threat in a statement last week, writing, “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”

The cancellation of the shows left tens of thousands of Swifties — many of whom traveled from afar to attend the gigs — disappointed and upset, though in classic Swiftie fashion they rallied in the days after by combating fear with joy. After the shows were called off, the singer’s fans flooded the streets of Vienna for impromptu sing-alongs and spontaneous celebrations of their devotion to the pop star.

Authorities had previously said the main suspect confessed to a plan aimed at killing “as many people as possible” and that he had reportedly quit his regular job recently and “conspicuously changed his appearance and adapted to I.S. [Islamic State] propaganda.” Investigators also reportedly found I.S. and al-Qaida materials at the home of a 17-year-old suspect, who was said to have been hired in the week before the planned shows by a company that was to provide services to the stadium and was arrested by police special forces near the stadium. A third 18-year-old suspect has also been arrested, though none of the men have been charged yet and their names have not been made public per Austrian privacy rules.

Swift is currently on a brief hiatus before she is scheduled to pick up the final run of U.S. Eras dates on Oct. 18 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

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