The Grand National Tour: New records broken for Kendrick Lamar and SZA
By Amelie Da Costa
Kendrick Lamar and SZA started their Grand National Tour on April 19, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following their collaboration on the Super Bowl LIX halftime show and their history of working together to make music.
The kick-off to the tour was an overwhelming success from the first night by breaking the record of the highest-grossing Hip-Hop concert of all time, replacing Eminem’s earlier record in 2019.
It has been reported by Touring Data that the show grossed over $9.1 million with over 47,000 fans who paid an average of $192.70 per ticket, more than the $8.7 million made by Eminem previously.
A strong tracklist
The set list includes songs from both Lamar and SZA and the performance is split into nine different acts lasting around 90 minutes.
Each act is separated between both artists - allowing them to perform one after the other with their own personal hit songs and others from their discography.
Kendrick Lamar performs some of his hit songs such as “tv off”, “HUMBLE”, “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, “DNA” and many more - finishing the concert with “luther” and “gloria” alongside SZA.
Most of his performances are complimented with black and white lighting with a few exceptions to some songs like “Not Like Us” - the diss track that was made for Drake last year.
SZA performs many of her hit songs including “Saturn”, “Good Days”, “The Weekend”, “Kill Bill” and more, as well as “30 for 30” with Kendrick Lamar.
The tour dedicates the fourth act to the artists' songs that they worked together on making it the shortest act within the performance - totalling three songs.
The collaboration songs that are included within this act are “Doves in the Wind”, “All the Stars” and “LOVE”, which are fan favourites and have gained millions of streams on Spotify each.
Locastions and dates
The Grand National Tour is set to last around three months, carrying out across the United States, Europe and the UK with a total of 29 stops.
The tour will visit Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff and London from 8th July to 23rd July of this year, with tickets ranging from £73.10 to £389.45.
They start off their UK leg of the tour at Hampden Park in Glasgow, moving to Villa Park in Birmingham, Principality Stadium in Cardiff and finally concluding in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
The tour then continues into Europe and stops in Germany, the Netherlands and other cities before ending the entire tour in Stockholm, Sweden on August 9, 2025.
Despite breaking records for the most sales, there are still tickets available in the UK for all destinations.
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