American Idols LIVE! Tour 2006 (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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American Idols Live! Tour 2006 was a summer concert tour in the United States featuring the top 10 contestants of the fifth season of American Idol, which aired in 2006. It was sponsored by Kellogg Pop-Tarts. The tour started on July 5 and ended on September 24 covering 60 dates, the biggest tour thus far. Initially 39 dates were planned, but 21 extra dates were later added due to demand. It followed in the tradition of other American Idol summer tours following the completion of each season in May.
Runner-up Katharine McPhee missed the first 17 shows of the tour due to severe bronchitis and laryngitis, She also missed her first rescheduled show on July 27 in Pittsburgh, PA due to cancelled flight caused by bad weather. At the concert in Charlotte, NC, McPhee tripped backstage before going on, and a hair-line fracture to her left foot was later discovered when she was taken to a hospital after the show.
Bucky Covington was absent from the August 13 performance at the Savvis Center in St. Louis due to an illness.
The show featured a series of individual performances with each contestant performing a set of songs. Many also performed a duet with the next performer in the transition between the sets of songs. In the first half the contestants performed in random order, in the second half the last four performed in elimination order, starting with Chris Daughtry and ending with Taylor Hicks. The second half also featured a number of group songs, with a traditional group performance ending the show. Some changes were made in the earlier shows due to the absence of Katharine McPhee.
Taylor Hicks - "Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley), "Hollywood Nights" (Bob Seger), "Sweet Soul Music" (Arthur Conley), "What's Going On" (Marvin Gaye), "Living for the City" (Stevie Wonder), "Don't Let Me Down" (The Beatles), "Do I Make You Proud" (Taylor Hicks), "Takin' It to the Streets" (The Doobie Brothers)
Tucker, Mandisa, Covington, Young, Pickler, Bennett, Daughtry and Yamin - "We Are the Champions" (Queen)
Top 10 - "Living in America" (James Brown)
Additional notes
Katharine McPhee joined the tour after her illness for the July 28 show in Washington D.C. She did two solo numbers - "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and the group number "Living in America". She sang just two solo songs until San Diego when she added "Think".
Kellie Pickler was sick for the first Atlanta show on August 3, 2006.
Katharine McPhee performed in bare feet after she fractured her foot in Charlotte, NC (not in slipper-sandals or gardening slippers that had widely been reported), and performed barefoot for the rest of the tour. She wore a cast on her left foot after the accident until August 22 in St. Paul, MN.
The girl's group songs "I'm A Woman", "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" were removed from the set list soon after Katharine's return.
Taylor Hicks also removed "Sweet Soul Music", "What's Going On", and "Don't Let Me Down" from his song list.
Taylor Hicks' band LiMBO also toured at the same time as the American Idol tour, following many stops of the American Idol tour. Taylor Hicks often performed at their 'after-party' shows, occasionally along with some of his fellow American Idol finalists.
Tour dates
Date
City
Country
Venue
Attendance
Gross
Sales
Capacity
Percentage
July 5, 2006
Manchester
United States
Verizon Wireless Arena
18,937
18,937
100%
$1,099,302
July 6, 2006
July 7, 2006
Worcester
DCU Center
20,863
20,863
100%
$1,202,620
July 8, 2006
July 9, 2006
Hartford
Hartford Civic Center
12,029
12,029
100%
$654,494
July 11, 2006
Albany
Pepsi Arena
11,716
11,716
100%
$594,356
July 12, 2006
Hershey
Giant Center
8,866
$499,058
July 13, 2006
East Rutherford
Continental Airlines Arena
29,332
29,332
100%
$1,576,419
July 14, 2006
July 15, 2006
Uniondale
Nassau Coliseum
25,332
25,332
100%
$1,413,926
July 16, 2006
July 18, 2006
Wilkes-Barre
Wachovia Arena
7,732
7,732
100%
$460,112
July 19, 2006
Cleveland
Wolstein Center
10,127
10,127
100%
$554,523
July 21, 2006
Rochester
Blue Cross Arena
10,786
10,786
100%
$579,479
July 22, 2006
Philadelphia
Wachovia Center
14,839
15,499
95.7%
$791,159
July 23, 2006
Atlantic City
Boardwalk Hall
12,343
12,343
100%
$720,068
July 25, 2006
Bridgeport
Arena at Harbor Yard
8,125
8,125
100%
$516,109
July 27, 2006
Pittsburgh
Mellon Arena
11,750
12,359
95.1%
$593,595
July 28, 2006
Washington, D.C.
Verizon Center
14,180
14,484
97.9%
$763,248
July 29, 2006
Richmond
Richmond Coliseum
9,935
9,935
100%
$595,551
July 30, 2006
Greensboro
Greensboro Coliseum
15,337
15,337
100%
$773,655
August 1, 2006
Charlotte
Charlotte Bobcats Arena
12,556
14,190
88.5%
$632,566
August 2, 2006
Columbia
Colonial Center
11,373
12,079
94.2%
$615,051
August 3, 2006
Duluth
Arena at Gwinnett Center
10,156
10,529
96.5%
$587,466
August 5, 2006
Sunrise
BankAtlantic Center
12,950
13,284
97.5%
$729,962
August 6, 2006
Tampa
St. Pete Times Forum
13,989
14,322
97.7%
$728,473
August 8, 2006
Birmingham
BJCC Arena
13,041
13,334
97.8%
$694,363
August 10, 2006
Nashville
Gaylord Entertainment Center
12,889
14,345
89.9%
$675,515
August 11, 2006
Columbus
Value City Arena
12,641
13,299
95.1%
$657,118
August 12, 2006
Milwaukee
Bradley Center
11,746
13,151
89.3%
$631,857
August 13, 2006
St. Louis
Savvis Center
14,297
14,939
95.7%
$761,603
August 15, 2006
Grand Rapids
Van Andel Arena
11,413
11,663
97.9%
$619,256
August 16, 2006
Detroit
Joe Louis Arena
14,081
14,969
94.1%A
$733,732
August 17, 2006
Indianapolis
Pepsi Coliseum
10,582
10,582
100%
$564,314
August 18, 2006
Louisville
Freedom Hall
14,056
14,056
100%
$580,980
August 19, 2006
Rosemont
Allstate Arena
13,390
13,697
97.8%
$745,107
August 20, 2006
Peoria
Peoria Civic Center
8,536
9,825
86.9%
$476,008
August 22, 2006
Saint Paul
Xcel Energy Center
14,933
15,466
96.6%
$758,311
August 25, 2006
San Diego
ipayOne Center
10,624
11,176
95.1%
$582,441
August 26, 2006
Los Angeles
Staples Center
13,427
14,115
95.1%
$680,394
August 27, 2006
Anaheim
Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
11,522
12,217
94.3%
$642,245
August 29, 2006
Sacramento
ARCO Arena
12,666
13,200
96.0%
$678,120
August 30, 2006
San Jose
HP Pavilion at San Jose
12,802
13,524
94.7%
$674,043
September 1, 2006
Portland
Rose Garden
9,564
92%
$506,054
September 2, 2006
Tacoma
Tacoma Dome
12,804
14,424
88.8%
$686,214
September 5, 2006
Denver
Pepsi Center
10,891
13,024
83.6%
$561,170
September 7, 2006
Grand Prairie
Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie
12,094
12,290
98.4%
$729,172
September 8, 2006
September 9, 2006
Houston
Reliant Arena
7,088
10,845
98%
$431,949
September 10, 2006
Austin
Frank Erwin Center
8,679
10,845
80.0%
$447,256
September 12, 2006
Duluth
Arena at Gwinnett Center
10,605
10,945
96.9%
$598,353
September 14, 2006
Huntington
Big Sandy Superstore Arena
7,552
7,552
100%
$434,145
September 15, 2006
Norfolk
Constant Convocation Center
6,738
$377,389
September 16, 2006
Reading
Sovereign Center
6,987
7,240
96.5%
$408,589
September 17, 2006
Syracuse
War Memorial at Oncenter
6,048
94%
$357,758
September 19, 2006
Hershey
Giant Center
8,842
10,038
8.1%
$495,755
September 21, 2006
Portland
Cumberland County Civic Center
6,074
6,275
96.8%
$368,552
September 22, 2006
Providence
Dunkin' Donuts Center
9,717
9,992
97.3%
$555,038
September 23, 2006
Bridgeport
Arena at Harbor Yard
8,780
8,829
99.5%
$538,263
September 24, 2006
Wilkes-Barre
Wachovia Arena
8,188
8,519
96.1%
$479,558
Response
The 2006 tour was a huge success, with an average attendance of 96.1% capacity, with 20 of its shows sold out. It ranked as the thirteenth biggest grossing tour of 2006 in the Billboard year end chart, with a gross of $35,291,883 that doubled the previous season's revenue, and 646,996 tickets sold as totalled from the 59 shows reported to Billboard. It is still the most successful Idol tour yet.