HIStory World Tour

The HIStory World Tour was the third and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson, covering Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and North America. The tour included a total of 82 concerts spanning the globe with stops in 57 cities, 35 countries on 5 continents. The tour promoted Jackson's 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The second leg also promoted the remix album Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. The tour was attended by over 4.5 million fans.[1][2][3]

HIStory World Tour
Tour by Michael Jackson
Promotional image for the tour
ArrangersKenny Ortega, Michael Jackson
Location
Associated albumHIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I
Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (from the show on May 31, 1997)
Start dateSeptember 7, 1996
End dateOctober 15, 1997
Legs3
No. of shows82
Attendance4,500,000[1][2][3]
Box officeUS $165 million ($305.22 million in 2021 dollars)[4]
Michael Jackson concert chronology

Overview
Michael Jackson performing "Earth Song" in Lausanne, June 20, 1997

The tour was announced on May 29, 1996, and marked Jackson's first concert tour since his Dangerous World Tour ended in late 1993.[5] Jackson's debut concert for the tour, performed at Letna Park in Prague, was one of the largest single attended concerts in his career, with over 125,000 people.[6] On October 7, 1996, he performed for the first time ever in the Arab world and Africa as a solo artist in Tunis.[7] During the tour's stopover in Sydney, Australia, he married Debbie Rowe in a private and impromptu ceremony. He was interviewed by Molly Meldrum In Brisbane and danced with two women during "You Are Not Alone". From January 3–4, 1997, Jackson performed his only two concerts on this tour in the US, in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Aloha Stadium, to a crowd of 35,000 each; making him the first artist in history to sell out the stadium.[8]

During the break period, Jackson worked and released his Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix album. The second leg started on May 31, 1997, at the Weserstadion in Bremen, Germany.[9] Set list changes included the addition of "Blood on the Dance Floor" and later on the removal of the "Off the Wall" Medley and "The Way You Make Me Feel". "Blood on the Dance Floor" was taken off the set list after the concert in Oslo on August 19, 1997.

Jackson performed at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark on his 39th birthday with 60,000 fans. He was presented with a surprise birthday cake, marching band, and fireworks on stage after "You Are Not Alone". The concert at Hippodrome Wellington of Ostend, Belgium, was originally scheduled for August 31, 1997, but was postponed to September 3 following Diana, Princess of Wales's death.

There were some initial plans to take the tour, in February 1997, to such Brazilian cities as Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília; but these plans were suspended due to promotional issues. Jackson tried to visit Brazil again in February 1998, as well as Argentina, but these too were scrapped so that he could work on MJ and Friends.

Recordings

Throughout the tour, many concerts were professionally filmed by Nocturne Productions, but none were ever officially released on DVD. In South Korea, a VHS recording of his show in Seoul was released, only within the bounds of the country. Although the footage is poor in quality and Michael Jackson was suffering a fever at the time, resulting in his vocals being weakened, it made major success in that country. Jackson planned to release a DVD of his performance in Munich, Germany. The film was never released due to Jackson being unimpressed by his vocals brought on by laryngitis. In 2010, TV channels such as RTL 5, ZDF, WOWOW, and Veronica TV broadcast the Munich concert in HD, and those broadcasts can be found on YouTube. In 2022, a 1080p version of Billie Jean from the Munich concert was leaked, along with live vocals from a soundboard leak for a portion of that concert. It was rumoured that the remaster, in addition to some portions of the soundboard audio, were planned to be released alongside a 25th anniversary edition of the HIStory album, but plans were likely halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[10] Some other full-length concerts have been leaked to YouTube including those in Auckland (November 11, 1996), Basel (July 25, 1997), Copenhagen (August 14, 1997), Gothenburg (August 16, 1997) and Helsinki (August 26, 1997). Many amateur recordings can also be found on YouTube.

Show performance

Michael Jackson's HIStory tour was one of his most high tech concert shows of the time. The show's opening featured a video segment where Jackson piloted a spacecraft through multiple points in history before emerging from underneath the stage at the end. The stage featured two statues of Jackson on either side of it, and was large enough to use an entire curtain for the opening segment of "Smooth Criminal".

Set list
  1. "Great Gates of Kiev" (Introduction)
  2. "Scream" / "They Don't Care About Us" / "In the Closet" (contains excerpts of "HIStory", "Great Gates of Kiev" and "She Drives Me Wild")
  3. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
  4. "Stranger in Moscow"
  5. "Smooth Criminal" (contains elements of "Childhood")
  6. "The Wind" (Video Interlude)
  7. "You Are Not Alone"
  8. "The Way You Make Me Feel" (September 7, 1996 – June 8, 1997)
  9. "I Want You Back" / "The Love You Save" / "I'll Be There"
  10. "Rock with You" / "Off the Wall" / "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (selected 1996 and 1997 dates)
  11. "Remember the Time" (Video Interlude)
  12. "Billie Jean"
  13. "Thriller"
  14. "Beat It"
  15. "Come Together" / "D.S." (select 1996 dates) / "Blood on the Dance Floor" (select 1997 dates)
  16. "Black Panther" (Video Interlude)
  17. "Dangerous" (contains elements from "James Bond Theme", "Smooth Criminal", "You Want This", "Let's Dance", and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly")
  18. "Black or White"
  19. "Earth Song"
  20. "We Are the World" (Video Interlude)
  21. "Heal the World"
  22. "They Don't Care About Us" (Instrumental) / "HIStory" (contains elements from "Great Gates of Kiev")
Notes
  • Songs originally considered for the first leg of the tour included "Man in the Mirror", "She's Out of My Life", "Jam", "Childhood", "Will You Be There", "Dirty Diana", "State of Shock" and "2 Bad". "Morphine" was also rehearsed twice for the 1997 leg, but was also removed.
  • The medley of "Come Together" and "D.S." was removed after the Adelaide concert on November 26, 1996. "Blood on the Dance Floor" replaced them for most of the 1997 leg before being removed after August 19. Prior to this, it was omitted from the Vienna concert on July 2.
  • "Rock with You", "Off the Wall" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" were performed on select dates, before being permanently removed from the set list after June 13, 1997.
  • "The Way You Make Me Feel" was performed on select dates until after June 15, 1997.
  • Starting on September 3, 1997, the instrumental of "Gates of Kiev" was replaced with "Smile", in memory of Princess Diana.

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue Attendance
Europe[11][12][13][14][15]
September 7, 1996 Prague Czech Republic Letná Park 125,000 / 125,000
September 10, 1996 Budapest Hungary Népstadion 50,000 / 50,000
September 14, 1996 Bucharest Romania Stadionul Național 70,000 / 70,000
September 17, 1996 Moscow Russia Dynamo Stadium 50,000 / 50,000
September 20, 1996 Warsaw Poland Lotnisko Bemowo 120,000 / 120,000
September 24, 1996 Zaragoza Spain Estadio La Romareda 45,000 / 45,000
September 28, 1996 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam Arena 250,000 / 250,000[lower-alpha 1]
September 30, 1996
October 2, 1996
Africa
October 7, 1996 Tunis Tunisia Stade El Menzah 60,000 / 60,000
Asia[16][17][18][19][20]
October 11, 1996 Seoul South Korea Olympic Stadium 100,000 / 100,000
October 13, 1996
October 18, 1996 Taipei City Taiwan[21][22] Zhongshan Soccer Stadium 80,000 / 80,000[lower-alpha 2]
October 20, 1996 Kaohsiung Chungcheng Stadium 30,000 / 30,000
October 22, 1996 Taipei City Zhongshan Soccer Stadium —[lower-alpha 2]
October 25, 1996 Singapore National Stadium 26,000 / 35,000
October 27, 1996 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Stadium Merdeka 80,000 / 80,000
October 29, 1996
November 1, 1996 Mumbai India Andheri Sports Complex 70,000 / 70,000[23]
November 5, 1996 Bangkok Thailand IMPACT Lake Front Concert Grounds 40,000 / 40,000
Oceania[24]
November 9, 1996 Auckland New Zealand Ericsson Stadium 86,000 / 86,000
November 11, 1996
November 14, 1996 Sydney Australia Sydney Cricket Ground 86,000 / 86,000
November 16, 1996
November 19, 1996 Brisbane ANZ Stadium 40,000 / 40,000
November 22, 1996 Melbourne Melbourne Cricket Ground 130,000 / 130,000
November 24, 1996
November 26, 1996 Adelaide Adelaide Oval 30,000 / 30,000
November 30, 1996 Perth Burswood Dome 60,000 / 60,000
December 2, 1996
December 4, 1996
Asia[25]
December 8, 1996 Manila Philippines Asia World City Concert Grounds 110,000 / 110,000
December 10, 1996
December 13, 1996 Tokyo Japan Tokyo Dome 180,000 / 180,000
December 15, 1996
December 17, 1996
December 20, 1996
December 26, 1996 Fukuoka Fukuoka Dome 80,000 / 80,000
December 28, 1996
December 31, 1996 Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei Jerudong Park Amphitheater 4,000 / 4,000
United States
January 3, 1997 Honolulu United States Aloha Stadium 70,000 / 70,000
January 4, 1997
Europe
May 31, 1997 Bremen Germany Weserstadion 85,000 / 85,000[lower-alpha 3]
June 3, 1997 Cologne Müngersdorfer Stadion 60,000 / 60,000
June 6, 1997 Bremen Weserstadion —[lower-alpha 4]
June 8, 1997 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam ArenA —[lower-alpha 1]
June 10, 1997
June 13, 1997 Kiel Germany Nordmarksportfeld 55,000 / 55,000
June 15, 1997 Gelsenkirchen Parkstadion 50,000 / 50,000
June 18, 1997 Milan Italy San Siro 65,000 / 65,000
June 20, 1997 Lausanne Switzerland Stade olympique de la Pontaise 35,000 / 35,000
June 22, 1997 Bettembourg Luxembourg Krakelshaff 45,000 / 45,000
June 25, 1997 Lyon France Stade de Gerland 25,000 / 25,000
June 27, 1997 Paris Parc des Princes 95,000 / 100,000
June 29, 1997
July 2, 1997 Vienna Austria Ernst-Happel-Stadion 50,000 / 50,000
July 4, 1997 Munich Germany Olympiastadion 150,000 / 150,000
July 6, 1997
July 9, 1997 Sheffield England Don Valley Stadium 45,000 / 45,000
July 12, 1997 London Wembley Stadium 212,601 / 216,000
July 15, 1997
July 17, 1997
July 19, 1997 Dublin Ireland RDS Arena 40,261 / 40,261
July 25, 1997 Basel Switzerland St. Jakob Stadium 55,000 / 55,000
July 27, 1997 Nice France Stade Charles-Ehrmann 30,003 / 36,260
August 1, 1997 Berlin Germany Olympiastadion 77,000 / 77,000
August 3, 1997 Leipzig Festwiese 54,483 / 55,000
August 10, 1997 Hockenheim Hockenheimring 85,000 / 85,000
August 14, 1997 Copenhagen Denmark Parken Stadium 97,563 / 97,563[lower-alpha 5] [lower-alpha 5]
August 16, 1997 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi 50,000 / 50,000
August 19, 1997 Oslo Norway Valle Hovin 45,000 / 50,000
August 22, 1997 Tallinn Estonia Tallinn Song Festival Grounds 75,000 / 75,000
August 24, 1997 Helsinki Finland Helsinki Olympic Stadium 100,000 / 100,000
August 26, 1997
August 29, 1997 Copenhagen Denmark Parken Stadium —[lower-alpha 5]
September 3, 1997 Ostend Belgium Hippodrome Wellington 55,000 / 60,000
September 6, 1997 Valladolid Spain Estadio José Zorrilla 20,000 / 26,000
Africa
October 4, 1997 Cape Town South Africa Green Point Stadium 70,000 / 70,000
October 6, 1997
October 10, 1997 Johannesburg Johannesburg Stadium 106,495 / 108,000
October 12, 1997
October 15, 1997 Durban Kings Park Stadium 50,000 / 50,000
Total 4,420,158 / 4,500,000
(98%)

Cancelled shows
List of cancelled concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, and reason for cancellation
Date City Country Venue Reason
September 27, 1996 Casablanca Morocco Stade Mohammed V Security problems, rescheduled and moved to Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands
September 29, 1996
October 2, 1996 Cairo Egypt Cairo International Stadium
December 22, 1996 Tokyo Japan Tokyo Dome This concert was optional for Michael to perform, and Michael declined
July 29, 1997 Barcelona Spain Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Schedule changes
July 30, 1997 Prague Czech Republic TBC[26]
August 8, 1997 Ljubljana Slovenia Ljubljana Hippodrome Low ticket sales
September 4, 1997[lower-alpha 6] Barcelona Spain Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys Schedule changes
September 5, 1997 Almería Estadio Municipal Juan Rojas Health problems
September 9, 1997 Madrid Vicente Calderón Stadium
September 11, 1997 Palermo Italy Stadio Renzo Barbera
September 13, 1997 Alicante Spain Estadio José Rico Pérez
September 16, 1997 Tunis Tunisia Stade El Menzah
September 18, 1997
September 20, 1997 Izmir Turkey Izmir Atatürk Stadium
September 23, 1997 Istanbul Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium
September 26, 1997 Ankara Ankara 19 Mayıs Stadium
February 1998 São Paulo Brazil Morumbi Stadium Originally set for February 1998, but plans were suspended and later cancelled so Jackson could work on MJ & Friends
Curitiba Pedreira Paulo Leminski
Rio de Janeiro Maracanã Stadium
Brasília Mané Garrincha Stadium
Buenos Aires Argentina River Plate Stadium

Personnel
HIStory World Tour

See also

Notes
  1. Attendance combined with the attendance from September 28, 30 and October 2, 1996, and June 8 and 10, 1997.
  2. Attendance combined with the attendance from October 18 and 22.
  3. Attendance and box office combined with the attendance from May 31 and June 6.
  4. Bremen
  5. Attendance and box office combined with the attendance from August 14 and 29.
  6. Originally scheduled on July 29, 1997.

References
  1. Grant, p. 188
  2. Brooks, p. 81
  3. Grant, p. 202
  4. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  5. "Will Jackson's tour make HIStory?". The Boston Globe. 30 May 1996. p. 82. Retrieved 6 March 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Michael Jackson Statue Plans Draw Protests by Czechs - CBS News". CBS News.
  7. "Lundi 7 Octobre, Michael Jackson en terre tunisienne | Tekiano :: TeK'n'Kult" (in French). 7 October 2013. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  8. "Jackson was king at two Aloha Stadium concerts in 1997 | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". the.honoluluadvertiser.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-14. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  9. "Michael Jackson Setlist at Weserstadion, Bremen". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  10. "Why isn't there a HIStory 25 release? Or a HIStory concert film?". Michael Jackson Official Site. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  11. "Billboard". 23 August 1997.
  12. "Billboard". 13 September 1997.
  13. "Billboard". 30 August 1997.
  14. "Billboard". November 1997.
  15. "Michael Jackson Statue Plans Draw Protests by Czechs". Cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
  16. "ASIANOW - Asiaweek". Edition.cnn.com.
  17. "7 of the biggest concerts held in Singapore". Bandwagon.asia. 4 October 2017.
  18. "A Michael Jackson concert in India that's now tax-free". BBC News. 8 January 2021.
  19. "India Today Archive: Cashing in on Jackson". Indiatoday.in.
  20. "Thai sales sluggish for Jackson concert - UPI Archives". Upi.com. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  21. O'Toole 2015.
  22. "Entertainment". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 90 (25): 62. November 4, 1996. Retrieved 28 September 2023. The three concerts performed in Taiwan are part of his HIStory world tour.
  23. "Michael Jackson's music had impact around the globe". Reuters. 2009-07-03. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  24. "Archived copy" (PDF). Mcg.org.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. "Jackson V AEG Live. Transcripts of John Meglen (CEO Concert West Division of AEG Live) July 22nd 2013". Pdfcoffee.com.
  26. "MICHAEL JACKSON Itinerary, History Tour 1997, Europe | #465341846". Worthpoint.com.
Bibliography
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