Summer Music Preview 2015: 10 hottest tours
Taylor Swift, U2, Kelly Clarkson, Fall Out Boy/Wiz Khalifa, and more headliners on the road this season
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New Kids on the Block, Nelly, and TLC
Enjoy a night of shameless nostalgia with the now-manly New Kids, Nelly, and TLC. One highlight that'll get NKOTB's adoring Blockheads to go nuts: Joey McIntyre stripping down to reveal an impressively jacked physique. But if you can't make any of the 47 dates, NKOTB will launch another cruise this fall. (Through July 2)
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Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga
Monster Ball it ain't: The newly demure pop star is joining the 88-year-old icon for an intimate tour of smaller venues. Expect cuts from their Cheek to Cheek, celebrating Great American Songbook favorites by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin—and, hopefully, a reprise of Gaga's jaw-dropping Sound of Music Oscar tribute. (Through Aug. 1)
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U2
Nearly four years after wrapping their enormous 360° tour, Bono and the boys are back with a pared-down outing—sort of. (This is the world's biggest rock band we're talking about, after all.) For the Innocence + Experience tour, they'll be armed with giant LED screens, multiple stage platforms, and a custom sound system hanging overhead. Get tickets now: Most dates, including six of the eight nights at New York City's Madison Square Garden, are sold out. (Through July 31)
EW's Kyle Anderson was in Vancouver for the tour's opening night; see his 21 Thoughts on what he saw and heard.
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Taylor Swift
She embraced Top 40 on 1989—so naturally she needs an eye-popping tour to match. For this trek, which features rotating openers Haim, Vance Joy, and Shawn Mendes, Swift is busting out an epic light show, choreography, multiple costume changes, and glowing bracelets for every fan to capture a stream of FOMO-inducing Instagrams. (Through Dec. 12)
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Shania Twain
After a triumphant Vegas residency, Twain is embarking on her first cross-country trek in more than a decade. On the Rock This Country tour, she'll bring a greatest-hits set (and, dare to dream, that amazing sparkly unitard) for 67 dates, with support from fellow Canadian (and Smallville alum) Wes Mack and VH1-favored singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. (June 5–Oct. 11)
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Fall Out Boy and Wiz Khalifa
The kings of '00s emo are stronger than ever since reuniting in 2013 after a three-year hiatus, and now they're hitting the road for their recent chart-topper American Beauty/American Psycho, alongside rapper/Furious 7 tearjerker Wiz. They're also enlisting campus-approved MC Hoodie Allen and electro-pop pinup MAX for a 40-date circus dubbed the Boys of Zummer. (June 10–Aug. 10)
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Meghan Trainor
The girl who's "All About That Bass" will toast her breakout year with a string of dates at state fairs (and some indoor venues, too). The opening acts—baby-faced crooner Charlie Puth and British trio Life of Dillon—should only add to the G-rated fun. (July 3–Sept. 6)
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Idina Menzel
John Travolta's favorite chanteuse just completed a lauded Broadway run in If/Then, but she's taking a break from the Great White Way for a massive world tour, no doubt nodding to at least a few songs from Frozen. Bring your kids (and earplugs!) for some operatic sing-alongs. (July 7–Oct. 3)
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Kelly Clarkson
The pop star told EW earlier this spring that she might have her eye on Broadway too—but first she'll take those inimitable lungs out for 38 stops with special guests a cappella faves Pentatonix and strummy troubadour Eric Hutchinson. (July 11–Sept. 20)
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Nicki Minaj
For the Pinkprint tour, Her Minajesty will be flanked by a royal court of young talents—Meek Mill, Tinashe, Rae Sremmurd, and Dej Loaf—for 14 U.S. dates, each one capped by Nicki's own career-spanning set of some two dozen songs. (July 17–Aug. 14)