With the likes of Lady Gaga, Adele and even the Rolling Stones giving show-stopping live performances in 2022 it seems that music events are still as popular as ever. In fact, Adele announced her Hyde Park shows, which were her first in a few years, and they sold out within minutes. However, it isn’t just modern-day artists that are able to hit the headlines with their musical performances – Betway Insider recently took a look at some of the biggest music events in history and here are some of the highlights.
Live 8
When you put together 10 concerts across 10 cities, you’re definitely planning something show-stopping and Live 8 did not disappoint. It was arranged surrounding the 20th anniversary of Live Aid and was designed to encourage world leaders to pledge funds towards solving global poverty. Cities involved in the concerts include London, Berlin, Ontario, Tokyo, Rome and Philadelphia. All 10 concerts took place on July 2, 2005 and unsurprisingly people were keen to tune in and watch. It is thought that 31% of the population or two billion people turned their TVs to the channels showing the likes of Madonna, Stevie Wonder and U2 perform live.
Live Aid
Of course, you can’t mention historical music events without mentioning Live Aid – arguably the biggest concert of all time. Held in two cities (London and Philadelphia) it was a set of live performances to raise awareness and money for the Ethiopian famine crisis. At the time the two concerts were shown live in more than 150 countries – quite a feat for the technology back in 1985 when the concert took place. It is thought that 39% of the population, around 1.9 billion people tuned in to watch the concerts when they were broadcast.
Aloha from Hawaii
It might be an event that is talked about less than the Live Aid and 8 concerts, with back in 1973 Elvis achieved something pretty phenomenal too! On January 14th, he travelled to the Honolulu International Centre in Hawaii and became the first ever solo singer to broadcast a live satellite performance. Although it doesn’t seem like much of an achievement now, back in 1973 broadcasting live via satellite to 40 countries across the world was an amazing feat – and something that 25% of the popular or one billion people tuned in to see.
When it comes to live music there are always going to be people that put-on performances of a lifetime – Prince always put on a great live show, to this day people still wish they could have seen Michael Jackson live and many believe that no one will ever live up to the performance Queen gave at Live Aid. However, no matter what happens in the future and what musical achievements we see happen, these three musical events are likely to stay in the history books forever. When you look at what they achieved in their time, there really can be no denying that etched in the history books is where they deserve to be.
