Destiny World Tour

The Destiny World Tour was the third concert tour by the Jacksons to promote the group's Destiny album. The tour began on January 22, 1979, with their opening concert in Bremen, West Germany.^[1] They visited 2 continents and 12 countries, playing approximately 83 concerts in the United States alone. The tour concluded in Hawaii on January 13, 1980.

Destiny World Tour

Tour by the Jacksons
Poster to the concert in Columbus, USA
Location	Europe North America
Associated album	Destiny Off the Wall
Start date	January 22, 1979[1]
End date	January 13, 1980
Legs	2
No. of shows	108
Box office	US $7.5 million ($32.49 in 2024 dollars)[2]
The Jacksons tour chronology

Overview

The tour began on January 22, 1979, in Bremen, West Germany shortly after the release of the Destiny album the previous December.^[1] The tour jolted through 2 continents, playing concerts in Europe and North America. Before taking on an approximately 80-city tour in the United States. The Jacksons took a four-month break from touring after the concert at the Greensboro Coliseum on June 10, 1979 so lead singer Michael Jackson could finish working on his solo album Off the Wall, which would be released exactly two months later.

Leg 1: Europe

The Jacksons kicked off their world tour in Europe, performing in European nightclubs and theaters throughout the United Kingdom, West Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Spain. Most dates composed of an evening and night shows.

Leg 2: North America

The Jacksons would play arenas and auditoriums, after the release of Michael's album Off the Wall, the brothers revamped their show for larger venues. For the third leg, additional songs were added to the setlist, most notably songs from Michael's new album. The opening acts in the second leg included The tour grossed an estimated 7.5 million dollars. On, November 15, 1979, Michael would end up with a kidney infection. This caused shows from November 15–21 to be cancelled from Fort Worth to Greenville.^[3] Some performances were cancelled for December for uncertainty for when Michael would get better. These shows were initially planned to be rescheduled for 1980 but ultimately got cancelled overall. The tour picked up on November 22 in Savannah. The tour ended in Honolulu on January 13, 1980.

Set lists

Europe

The following set list was performed during the European leg of the tour.^[4]

1. "Dancing Machine"
2. "Things I Do for You"
3. "Ben"
4. "I Am Love"
5. "Keep on Dancing"
6. Medley: "I Want You Back" / "ABC" / "The Love You Save"
7. "I'll Be There"
8. "Enjoy Yourself"
9. "Destiny"
10. "Show You the Way to Go"
11. "All Night Dancin'"
12. "Blame It on the Boogie"

North America

The following set list was performed during the North American leg of the tour.^[4][5]

1. "Dancing Machine"
2. "Things I Do for You"
3. "Get It Together"
4. "Off the Wall"
5. "Ben"
6. "I Am Love"
7. "Keep on Dancing"
8. "I Wanna Be Where You Are"
9. "Daddy's Home"
10. Medley: "I Want You Back" / "ABC" / "The Love You Save"
11. "I'll Be There"
12. "Rock with You"
13. "Enjoy Yourself"
14. "Blame It on the Boogie"
15. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"
16. "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)"

Tour dates

List of 1979 concerts^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]}

Date	City	Country	Venue	No. of shows
January 22, 1979	Bremen	West Germany	Bremerhaven Stadthalle	1
January 24, 1979				1
January 26, 1979				1
January 27, 1979	Frankfurt am Main		Festhalle	1
January 28, 1979	Madrid	Spain	Teatro Monumental	1
January 29, 1979				1
January 30, 1979				1
January 31, 1979	Groningen	Netherlands	Martinihal Groningen	1
February 1, 1979	Amsterdam		Koninklijk Theater Carré	1
February 2, 1979				1
February 6, 1979	London	England	Rainbow Theatre	1
February 7, 1979				1
February 8, 1979				1
February 9, 1979				1
February 10, 1979	Brighton		Brighton Centre	2
February 11, 1979	Preston		Preston Guild Hall	1
February 12, 1979	Wakefield		Wakefield Theatre Club	2
February 13, 1979	Sheffield		Fiesta Nightclub	1
February 14, 1979	Geneva	Switzerland	Victoria Hall	1
February 15, 1979				1
February 17, 1979	Manchester	England	Manchester Apollo	2
February 18, 1979	Birmingham		Bingley Hall	1
February 19, 1979	Halifax		Civic Theatre	1
February 23, 1979	London		Rainbow Theatre	2
February 24, 1979				2
February 25, 1979	Poole		Poole Arts Centre	1
February 26, 1979	Amsterdam	Netherlands	Koninklijk Theater Carré	2
March 1, 1979[a]	Glasgow	Scotland	The Apollo	2
March 2, 1979	Paris	France	Le Palace	1
April 14, 1979	Cleveland	United States	Palace Theatre	2
April 15, 1979				2
April 19, 1979	Devon		Valley Forge Music Fair	1
April 20, 1979				1
April 21, 1979				2
April 22, 1979				2
April 26, 1979	Niles		Mill Run Playhouse	1
April 27, 1979				2
April 28, 1979				1
April 29, 1979				2
May 3, 1979	St. Petersburg		Bayfront Center	1
May 4, 1979	Sunrise		Sunrise Musical Theater	1
May 5, 1979				1
May 6, 1979	Jacksonville		Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum	1
May 10, 1979	Houston		Celebrity Circle Theatre	2
May 11, 1979				2
May 12, 1979				2
May 13, 1979	Baton Rouge		Riverside Centroplex Arena	1
May 16, 1979	Birmingham		Boutwell Memorial Auditorium	1
May 17, 1979	Columbus		Municipal Auditorium	1
May 18, 1979	Nashville		Nashville Municipal Auditorium	1
May 19, 1979	Atlanta		Omni Coliseum	1
May 20, 1979	Memphis		Mid-South Coliseum	1
May 24, 1979	Pine Bluff		Pine Bluff Convention Center	1
May 25, 1979	Kansas City		Kemper Arena	1
May 26, 1979	Beaumont		Fair Park Coliseum	1
May 27, 1979	Fort Worth		Tarrant County Convention Center	1
May 28, 1979	Shreveport		Hirsch Memorial Coliseum	1
May 30, 1979	Oklahoma City		Jim Norick Arena	1
June 1, 1979	Milwaukee		Milwaukee County Stadium	1
June 2, 1979	Norfolk		Norfolk Scope	1
June 3, 1979	Columbia		Carolina Coliseum	1
June 8, 1979	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum	1
June 9, 1979	Landover		Capital Centre	1
June 10, 1979	Greensboro		Greensboro Memorial Coliseum	1
October 2, 1979	New Orleans		Municipal Auditorium	1
October 3, 1979				1
October 4, 1979	Shreveport		Hirsch Memorial Coliseum	1
October 5, 1979	Baton Rouge		Riverside Centroplex Arena	1
October 6, 1979	Huntsville		Von Braun Civic Center	1
October 7, 1979	Louisville		Freedom Hall	1
October 12, 1979	Philadelphia		Spectrum	1
October 13, 1979	Rochester		Rochester Community War Memorial	1
October 14, 1979	Pittsburgh		Civic Arena	1
October 18, 1979	Saginaw		Saginaw Civic Center	1
October 19, 1979	Indianapolis		Market Square Arena	1
October 20, 1979	St. Louis		Kiel Auditorium	1
October 21, 1979	Dayton		University of Dayton Arena	1
October 25, 1979	Columbus		Fairgrounds Coliseum	1
October 26, 1979	Syracuse		Onondaga County War Memorial	1
October 27, 1979	Buffalo		Buffalo Memorial Auditorium	1
October 28, 1979	Springfield		Springfield Civic Center	1
November 1, 1979	Kalamazoo		Wings Stadium	1
November 2, 1979	Chicago		Chicago Stadium	1
November 3, 1979	Cleveland		Public Auditorium	1
November 4, 1979	Detroit		Cobo Arena	1
November 5, 1979				1
November 7, 1979	Baltimore		Baltimore Civic Center	1
November 8, 1979	Uniondale		Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum	1
November 9, 1979	Richmond		Richmond Coliseum	1
November 10, 1979	Hampton		Hampton Coliseum	1
November 11, 1979	Roanoke		Roanoke Civic Center	1
November 22, 1979	Savannah		Savannah Civic Center	1
November 23, 1979	Macon		Macon Coliseum	1
November 24, 1979	Nashville	Nashville Municipal Auditorium	1
November 25, 1979	Memphis	Mid-South Coliseum	1
November 29, 1979	Atlanta	Omni Coliseum[b]	1
November 30, 1979	Mobile	Mobile Municipal Auditorium[c]	1
December 6, 1979[d]	Houston	The Summit[e]	1
December 13, 1979	San Bernardino	Swing Auditorium	1
December 15, 1979	San Diego	San Diego Sports Arena	1
December 16, 1979	Oakland	Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena	1
December 18, 1979	Inglewood	The Forum	1
December 21, 1979	Nassau	The Bahamas	Queen Elizabeth Sports Arena	1

List of 1980 concerts

Date	City	Country	Venue	No. of shows
January 11, 1980	Honolulu	United States	Neal S. Blaisdell Arena	1
January 12, 1980				1
January 13, 1980				1

Cancelled dates

List of cancelled concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, and reason for cancellation^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

Date	City	Country	Venue	Reason
February 20, 1979 (2 shows)	Leicester	England	De Montfort Hall	Health problems
February 21, 1979	Cardiff	Wales	Sophia Gardens Pavilion
February 29, 1979 (2 shows)	Avignon	France	Théâtre des Carmes	Foodborne illness
March 6–10, 1979 (2 shows 7th-9th)	Johannesburg	South Africa	Colosseum Theatre	Brothers didn't support racial segregation of audiences[27]
March 12–14, 1979 (2 shows on 12th)	Durban		Playhouse Theatre
March 16–18, 1979 (2 shows on 16th)	Cape Town		3 Arts Theatre
March 19–20, 1979 (2 shows each)	Johannesburg		Colosseum Theatre
April 7, 1979	Owings Mills	United States	Painters Mill Music Fair	N/A
April 8, 1979 (2 shows)
April 11, 1979 (2 shows)	Springfield		Springfield Civic Center
April 12, 1979	Cincinnati		Palace Theatre
April 13, 1979
November 11, 1979	Fayetteville		Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium
November 14, 1979	Norman		Lloyd Noble Center
November 15, 1979[f]	Fort Worth		Tarrant County Convention Center	Michael's kidney infection
November 16, 1979	Jackson		Mississippi Coliseum
November 17, 1979	Lake Charles		Burton Coliseum
November 21, 1979	Greenville		Greenville Memorial Auditorium
November 27, 1979	Columbus		Columbus Municipal Auditorium	Initially cancelled for Michael's kidney infection, cancelled overall
December 6, 1979	Portland		Memorial Coliseum	N/A
December 8, 1979	Seattle		Seattle Center Coliseum
December 9, 1979	Vancouver	Canada	Pacific Coliseum
December 10, 1979	Fort Worth	United States	Tarrant County Convention Center	Initially cancelled for Michael's kidney infection, cancelled overall
December 14, 1979	Phoenix		Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum	Travel schedules
January 9, 1980	San Antonio		San Antonio Convention Center Arena	N/A[28][29]

Personnel

• Michael Jackson – vocals
• Jackie Jackson – vocals
• Tito Jackson – guitar, vocals
• Marlon Jackson – vocals
• Randy Jackson – vocals, congas, percussion, piano, keyboards

Band members

First leg

• Michael McKinney – bass
• Bud Rizzo – additional guitar
• James McField – keyboards
• Tony Lewis – drums

Second leg

• Jonathan Moffett – drums
• Bud Rizzo – additional guitar
• Michael McKinney – bass
• James McField – keyboards
• Wesley Phillips, Cloris Grimes, Alan "Funt" Prater, Roderick "Mac" McMorris – horns (East Coast Horns)

Notes

1. Rescheduled from February 16, 1979 because of Michael Jackson's illness.^[12]
2. Originally scheduled for University Arena in Albuquerque
3. Originally scheduled for McNichols Sports Arena in Denver
4. Originally scheduled for November 18, 1979
5. Originally scheduled for Memorial Coliseum in Portland
6. Originally scheduled for Riverside Centroplex Arena in Baton Rouge