Inarguably, the biggest summer tour of the year is Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s co-headlining Grand National Tour. The duo is undoubtedly the most trusted hip-hop & R&B duo of the 2020s, who embody the purity of hip-hop and R&B’s effortless marriage. However, the tour also comes on the heels of their shared performance at the Super Bowl, which not only foreshadowed the stadium tour they’re currently embarked on but also served as another diss toward Drake.
Since kicking the tour off in April 2025, virtually every stadium stop has become a milestone. Industry trackers report that each new show has eclipsed the last with sold-out crowds and eye-popping grosses. The April 19th opener in Minneapolis, for example, grossed $ 9.124 million from 47,354 fans, per Touring Data, making Lamar the first rapper ever to exceed $9 million from a single concert (surpassing Eminem’s 2019 mark of $8.7M). That debut night, which filled U.S. Bank Stadium, also set a career-high attendance for the duo. Since then, they’ve continued to crush records at every turn, and below, we’ll be breaking down each one.
The U.S. Bank Stadium debut was instantly historic. Touring Data reports the show grossed $9.124,989 from 47,354 sold seats – a total no hip-hop artist had ever reached. This made Lamar the first rapper in history to gross more than $9 million in one show. That figure shattered Eminem’s previous record of $8.708M (set in 2019) and underscored the massive demand for Lamar’s return to stadium stages. In fact, every ticket was sold, and the 47,000+ fan crowd marked Lamar (and SZA’s) biggest attended show to date. The April 19 launch not only set a new bar for hip-hop grosses but proved the tour’s star power right out of the gate.
Just days later, Lamar and SZA topped even the Minneapolis numbers. The April 23 stop at Houston’s NRG Stadium pulled in over $9.4 million, as the pair pushed past Lamar’s freshly set record. Then on April 26 at Dallas’s AT&T Stadium, they smashed the record again – grossing $11.822 million in a single night. According to Touring Data, that Texas performance made Lamar “the highest grossing Black man in history for a single live performance”. In other words, the $11.822M haul overtook the previous Black male record (The Weeknd’s $9.8M in 2022). In just three shows, Lamar had set and reset the all-time rap box office record, underscoring how each successive stop kept outdoing the last.
The peak came at Seattle’s Lumen Field on May 17. Industry reporting places the gross at roughly $14.811 million from 60,941 tickets – by far the largest tally in the tour’s history, which Touring Data claims makes Kendrick Lamar “the first rapper in history to take in more than $14 million for a single performance.” In doing so, he eclipsed his own Dallas mark by roughly $3M overnight. The Seattle show’s attendance (60,941) was also the tour’s highest to date. (Touring Data notes this is the largest crowd ever to see Lamar or SZA perform.) Together, the Seattle figures shattered every benchmark: it now stands as the highest-grossing hip-hop concert in history, and the first time any rap show exceeded $14M.
For SZA, the Seattle numbers also represent a personal milestone. The $14.811M gross is so far her biggest co-headline night, and by Touring Data’s measure, it is “the highest-grossing concert by a female artist who debuted in the 2010s” (crediting SZA’s role).
By late May, the Grand National Tour’s string of landmarks extended well beyond individual shows. Estimates reported the tour had already grossed $112.5 million after its first 10 shows. That total surpassed Lamar’s previous career best (his 2023 Big Steppers Tour at $110.8M) and made him “the only rapper to have multiple tours in the top 5 [highest-grossing hip-hop tours of all time].” In other words, Lamar now holds two of the five biggest rap tour grossing totals ever. Pundits are even projecting that if current trends hold, the Grand National Tour will end as the highest-grossing rap tour in history.
Although Kendrick Lamar is the marquee name, co-headliner SZA has also chalked up tour-related records. By sharing top billing, SZA helped set those massive box office figures – making her a record-holder in her own right. For example, the Lumen Field gross ($14.811M) is the largest ever for any female headliner of her era, per reports. The Seattle crowd was SZA’s personal best as well. In addition, SZA’s career metrics have soared: she is now one of only a handful of Black female artists to headline tours surpassing $100M. (She joins an elite club that includes Beyoncé and Tina Turner.) In short, SZA’s presence on the Grand National Tour has produced unprecedented milestones for a female artist in hip-hop.
Together, Lamar and SZA have turned the Grand National Tour into a commercial juggernaut. Each stop has rewritten the record books – from the first stadium gross over $9M, to the first over $14M – and in doing so has set new standards for the live music industry. With dozens of dates still to come, the tour’s record-breaking pace shows no signs of letting up.
Fontaines D.C. have teamed up with Rosalía for their new collaboration, Where Is Gone?.
The song features on the Irish rock band's forthcoming album, Dopamine Chamber, which arrives on Friday (16.10.26). For guitarist Carlos O’Connell, working with the Spanish superstar is particularly special because of his own Spanish roots.
He explained: “I’ve admired Rosalía ever since her debut album, which I thought was absolutely beautiful.
“What excited me most was the way she continued to preserve Spain's musical traditions, something that felt spiritually connected to what we've been trying to achieve with Irish music. Having roots in both countries, it's been really special to witness. "She's an artist who has continued to amaze me at every point in her career.”
Frontman Grian Chatten has also described the collaboration with Rosalía as one of the most memorable achievements of his career.
He revealed that he felt "humbled" when she agreed to lend her voice to the band's album.
Speaking to NPR, Grian said: “I've always felt there's something almost like a single big idea that I'm personally trying to communicate to the world before I get old and die, if that makes sense. There's one thing I think I'll spend my life trying to express. I have a feeling she has a similar outlook. … I mean, she's an amazing arranger, composer and lyricist. It means so much that she wanted to sing on something we'd put together. It's definitely one of the highlights of my career.”
Rosalía's links to Irish rock music extend beyond Fontaines D.C. She also offered inspiration and helped develop the Spanish lyrics for U2's The Mirror Maker (Rosalía), a track from their forthcoming album, Carnaval de Luz.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, she spoke about frontman Bono, saying: “I don't know him personally, but he sent me a text explaining that he was working on a new project and had written a song called The Mirror Maker."
Rosalía joked that Bono had invented a few words of his own.
She recalled telling him: “I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I told him he could create his own language if he wanted to.”
She described the opportunity to collaborate with the 66 year old music veteran as a real privilege.
She added: “Bono is a legend.
“It's amazing.”
Bono recently revealed that he was worried about seeming like a stalker when he reached out to Rosalía to ask whether he could name the song after her.
