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Grand National Tour

2025 concert tour by Kendrick Lamar and SZA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grand National Tour
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The Grand National Tour is a co-headlining concert tour by American rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer-songwriter SZA. It is in support of Lamar's sixth studio album, GNX, and SZA's first reissue album, SOS Deluxe: Lana (2024). The first all-stadium tour for both artists, it consists of 39 shows across Europe and North America, with an additional nine Lamar solo concerts in Australia and Latin America. It commenced on April 19, 2025, in Minneapolis, and is scheduled to conclude on December 11, in Sydney.

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Lamar's sets include segments of Anita Baker songs, while SZA's contain segments of other artists' songs. The tour's opening acts are American DJ Mustard for the first stretch of shows in the United States, Canada, and Europe; Argentinian duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso for the Latin American shows; and American rappers Doechii and Schoolboy Q for alternate Australian shows. AZ Chike, Baby Keem, Doja Cat, Justin Bieber, Kaytranada, Lizzo, and Playboi Carti have appeared as guest performers.

Following the tour's start, SOS and GNX charted at number one and two on the Billboard 200, respectively. The Seattle show broke the record for the highest-grossing hip hop concert, accumulating $14.811 million from 60,941 tickets sold.

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Background

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Artists' collaborative history

Kendrick Lamar and SZA are former labelmates from Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE).[A] For over a decade, the two collaborated on musical projects, beginning with SZA's 2014 extended play Z.[2] They previously toured with other TDE artists during the Championship Tour (2018).[3]

The pair announced the Grand National Tour on December 3, 2024.[4] The news came 11 days after Lamar's sixth studio album GNX, which included two collaborations with SZA.[5] Like the album, the tour was named after the 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental.[6]

Lamar headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show on February 9, 2025, with SZA as a guest performer. The show served as a taste of what the Grand National Tour would be, with elements of the choreography and stage design carrying over.[7]

Tour tickets and announcements

Two pre-sale options were made available on December 4, 2024: one via the tour's sponsor Cash App, the other via Ticketmaster's Official Platinum program.[8]

Initially planned for 21 shows across the United States and Canada,[9] additional dates were added for Inglewood[a] and Toronto on December 6.[10]

European dates for the tour were announced on February 10, 2025. Tickets went on general sale on February 14, with various presales running February 12–13.[11] Additional dates were added for Nanterre[b] and London on February 13[12] and Frankfurt on February 14.[13]

Mustard was announced as the opening act with his own DJ set on April 1.[14]

Two Australian dates with Lamar performing solo, Melbourne and Sydney, were announced on June 11, with a presale running from June 12–13 and general sale starting June 16.[15] Five more Lamar solo dates in Latin America were announced on June 27, with Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso as the opening act;[16] tickets for the Argentinian and Colombian shows are expected to be available on July 1 and 4, respectively,[17] while HSBC holders gained access to a presale on July 1 and 2 for the Mexican show.[18]

Schoolboy Q was announced as the opening act for the Australian shows on August 1.[19] Two more Australian dates in the same two venues, with Doechii as the opener instead of Schoolboy Q, were announced on August 5.[20]

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Concert synopsis

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Overview

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SZA and Lamar at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during the tour in July

The Grand National Tour concerts are divided into nine acts. Most of them are solo, consisting of performances from either Lamar or SZA. The fifth and ninth acts are the exceptions; during these, the two join each other onstage to duet their collaborations.[21] Some shows feature guest appearances who perform a particular song with Lamar or SZA.[citation needed]

Lamar's sets are mainly lit with a muted color palette, save for a few songs like "Not Like Us".[22] His sets' choreography is characterized by synchronicity and soldier-like movement, incorporating moves like lockstep marching.[22][23][24] For the costumes, Lamar and his dancers follow a sharp hip-hop fashion style.[22] Some of Lamar's outfits incorporate beanies, Timberland shoes, and baggy jeans. At times, he is dressed in all-camouflage attire.[25]

In contrast to Lamar, SZA has a more colorful and vibrant set.[26] The props follow a garden and forest theme; vines, leaves, flowers, and ivy constitute some of the stage decor.[22][27] Bugs are another recurring visual element.[22] Dancers are dressed as praying mantises, and SZA herself wears butterfly wings as part of one outfit.[22][28] A large ant prop with red eyes, named Anthony, is used for one of the sets.[25][29] SZA is more involved with the choreography,[25] which is more gracile and free-flowing compared to the more organized and uniform style of Lamar's dancers.[22]

The stage screen occasionally played video interludes in the form of skits.[21] Scenarios include an argument over a gas station drive-thru order,[21] and a deposition with a lawyer.[23] The latter has been called a reference to Canadian rapper Drake's lawsuit over the publication of Lamar's diss track toward Drake, "Not Like Us".[23][by whom?][improper synthesis?]

Chronology

The shows opened with "Wacced Out Murals" as part of Lamar's first solo set. He made his entrance inside a tinted GNX, rising from beneath the stage.[28][30] Upon his exit from the car, clips of old home videos and nature videos played on the screen,[28] and the pyrotechnics started.[27] Lamar continued the set with "Squabble Up", "King Kunta", and "Element".[21] He followed the three with "TV Off", which was co-produced by Mustard. However, the performance stopped right before the anticipated, drawn-out "Mustaaaaard" scream.[22]

SZA entered the stage to begin the concert's second act with "30 for 30". The returning GNX was overgrown with greenery, surrounded by several vine and leaf props.[22] A forest-themed setting was used onstage, featuring various flowers and ivy.[27] Following "30 for 30", which was a duet with Lamar, SZA performed three songs from her debut studio album Ctrl (2017): "Love Galore", "Broken Clocks", and "The Weekend".[31]

Lamar returned for the concert's third act. He started with "Euphoria", one of the Drake diss tracks included on the set list, as he traversed a circular catwalk. The text "lies about me, truth about you" appeared in red font on the screen.[32] Lamar then accompanied "Hey Now" with a synchronized, marching-style choreography from his dancers;[24] for "Reincarnated", he moved towards a streetlamp prop and performed underneath it.[22] During the song, the dancers were lined up on a staircase and arranged in a diagonal formation.[22] Reimagining and remixing the next few tracks, Lamar added a new verse to "Family Ties",[33] performed "Swimming Pools (Drank)" a cappella,[7] and combined "M.A.A.D City" with Anita Baker's "Sweet Love".[23] For "Man at the Garden", footage of a city that resembled his birthplace of Compton, California, played as he crouched on the GNX's hood.[24]

The fourth act, SZA's second set, began with the rock-infused tracks "Scorsese Baby Daddy" and "F2F". SZA whipped her hair, thrashed, and belted during the performances, similar to how a rock singer would act onstage.[7] The next songs further reinforced the concerts' forest and insect visuals. Dancers dressed as praying mantises flanked SZA during "Garden (Say It like Dat)" as she moved across the stage with a large money note on her back. For "Kitchen", SZA performed while riding Anthony the ant.[22]

Following the fourth act was the concerts' first joint set list. The Houston Chronicle's Joey Guerra wrote that when they were together, SZA "soften[ed] [Lamar's] edges and coax[ed] out more of his playful side".[28] The act included two of the pair's previous collaborations, "Doves in the Wind" and "All the Stars". For the latter, Lamar and SZA stood on opposite ends of the circular runway before being lifted into the air by the platforms below them.[22] SZA also joined Lamar for "Love" (not a collaboration between the two), covering Zacari's verses.[21]

Lamar's reimagining and remixing of songs continued into the sixth act, where "Count Me Out" was merged with elements of "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe".[25] Guerra also noted the Last Supper-esque imagery of the "Dodger Blue" performance and the "marvel of technology and timing" of the "DNA" performance.[28] The seventh act saw SZA's return; during this, she performed "Kill Bill" while the screen showed a clip of a female mantis eating her mate's head after intercourse. The video was a reference to the song's lyrics about killing a former romantic partner.[22][34] After a performance of "Snooze", wires carried SZA above the stage while wearing two butterfly wings and a long gown. The gown was long enough such that, as she further ascended, it began to resemble a cocoon.[23][28][35] Once SZA was suspended high enough, the gown was removed and she switched to the butterfly costume for the next song.[c]

Lamar started the eighth act with an unreleased song nicknamed "Bodies".[23] Mustard returned to the stage for the reprise of "TV Off", and "Not Like Us" closed the set with a transformation from the muted palette of Lamar's performances for the rest of the night into a colorful montage showcasing a variety of black art pieces across time and space, including ancient Egyptian artwork and visuals by funk band Funkadelic. "Luther" and "Gloria" served as the ninth and final act, another duo set, after which they entered the GNX parked atop the stage and descended beneath as the lights dimmed.[22]

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Marketing

Grand National Tour concerts included a pop-up store for Not Beauty, a line of lip products launched by SZA in 2025. The line consisted of lip glosses, creams, liners, and stains, which she had made available exclusively on the tour.[37] To further promote the tour, SZA began a series of behind-the-scenes vlogs documenting her experiences with each concert.[38] In each video, she commented on the energy of the concertgoers; showed some interactions with fans; and chronicled some unusual things she had to do because of the tour's demanding nature, like urinating on a bucket.[39] After the second East Rutherford concert, a Not Beauty afterparty DJed by Kaytranada was thrown.[40][better source needed]

Critical reception

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Performances

One point of praise among reviewers was how Lamar and SZA complemented each other on tour. Many highlighted the contrast between the pair's music, fashion style, and stage visuals.[28][41] They wrote that despite all of these, the two fostered a harmonious relationship onstage, counterbalancing each other's artistry.[23][28][30][41][42] Critics like the Dallas Observer's Eric Diep and Stereogum's Tom Breihan said that Lamar and SZA's respective strengths were combined advantageously.[23][43] the latter wrote that "[y]ou can tell that they both appreciate each other, and maybe that’s partly because they both do things that the other one couldn't."[43] Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle summarized the interactions between the duo as a "magnetic push-pull",[28] and Diep called them "twin flames".[23] Lamar and SZA's overlapping sets were the concerts' highlights for many critics because to them, their collaborations were proof of how well they fit together musically.[27][41][42][44] Their duet of "Love" was the concert highlight for Consequence reviewer Alex Gonzalez, who compared Lamar and SZA to yin and yang and praised it for creating an intimate moment.[27]

The duo stage presence were received positively by many critics.[45][46] Breihan and Diep wrote that SZA and Lamar's enjoyment of performing to the Dallas crowd was evident.[23] Guerra and Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today drew attention to the two's body language and choreography; they said that these were successful in conveying fierceness and charisma.[28][30] Ruggieri pointed to the relentlessness with which Lamar rapped "Humble",[30] whereas Guerra cited the "'80s angst" of the "Scorsese Baby Daddy" performance.[28] Guerra and other reviewers like Rolling Stone's Andre Gee and the Los Angeles Times' August Brown wrote positively on how the duo showed their sense of humor. They cited Lamar's references towards the Drake feud, and a video interlude showing SZA's frustration at having her name mispronounced, as examples.[28][35][32]

Appraisal towards Lamar's stage presence specifically often focused on his ability to exude intensity and command a loud audience.[44][42][47] Various reviewers wrote about how audience members were screaming the lyrics to "TV Off" and the diss tracks about Drake.[23][27][28][30][36] Gonzalez said that their shouting "Mustard!" during "TV Off" and "A-minor!" during "Not Like Us" could have broken the sound barrier or caused a small earthquake;[27] Spin's Brendan Hey wrote that this event was a "stadium-shaking" victory lap for Lamar.[45] Other critics focused on Lamar's vocal delivery and praised the sharpness and crispness of his rapping.[41][48][26] In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Bob Gendron praised the "elite command of dynamics, syntax, tone, timing, tension and pitch".[48]

Those who complimented SZA's stage presence, like Ruggieri and Gonzalez, mentioned the way she exuded sadness during her balladic songs.[27][30] Gonzalez said that the pain in her voice was apparent when she performed tracks like "Garden (Say It like Dat)" and praised the moments when she showcased her more eccentric side.[27] For Ruggieri, the highlights of her set were not her ballads but actually the more energetic "Scorsese Baby Daddy" and "F2F".[30] Breihan and Spin's Brendan Hay, who respectively reviewed the Charlotte and Inglewood shows, said that SZA was visibly enjoying her time onstage and praised her for inspiring positive emotions in her audience.[23][45]

Reviewers also complimented SZA's vocals. Some praised how she managed to keep the quality of her performances consistent, even through challenges like hard choreography or bad weather.[41][46] Versatility was the point of San Francisco Herald reviewer Todd Inoue's praise, appreciating the variety of genres across SZA's sets.[34] Other critics wrote positively about the vocal melodies, saying that the performances were catchy and mellifluous.[26] Guerra said that SZA's voice in Houston had "even more color and texture than on her recordings".[28]

Production

Many critics focused on the stage design when talking about the tour production, saying that it succeeded at engaging the audience[45][32][49] and punctuated the concerts' visual storytelling.[27][36] Las Vegas Weekly's Gabriela Rodriguez said that this use of concert visuals was "iconic and distinctly Kendrick".[42] Diep cited an example of how he thought stage design was used successfully to present a narrative: "[a] Buick Grand National is packed with horsepower, [for instance,] and you could compare Lamar's stamina behind the mic to his current car of choice."[23] Focusing on the tour's technical aspects was Breihan, who said that the sound system for his venue was effective in preventing the crowd's screaming from overpowering Lamar's performance.[43] There was some criticism from Ruggieri and Lawrence about how Lamar's artistic vision did not always translate well in the context of a large stadium concert.[30][36] The latter wrote: "take Not Like Us and Be Humble off the 50-plus set list, and the 'big numbers' – the ones that get the crowd holding their hearts and swaying and recalling those moments years later – are all SZA's."[36]

Complaints that were raised in discussions of stage production included the lighting; Ruggieri criticized how difficult it was to see Lamar at times despite the multitude of video screens in the U.S. Bank Stadium.[30] The concerts' nine-act structure was a disadvantage for Gendron and Harrington; both thought that the decision to have multiple acts made the show feel too disjointed, resulting in uneven pacing. They wrote that Lamar and SZA should have had only one uninterrupted set each, with a few duets during both.[48][50] Harrington said that the duo's musical and visual differences further exacerbated the disjointed nature of the concert format: "[it] sabotaged the artists' chances to create any sort of real momentum or continuity during the show."[50] Earl Hopkins wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "with over 50 songs shared between the two artists, most performed in full, there was bound to be a break in the action."[51]

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Commercial performance

Following the tour's start, SOS and GNX charted at number one and two on the Billboard 200, respectively.[52]

The Grand National Tour's Seattle show broke the record for the highest-grossing hip hop concert. It accumulated $14.811 million from 60,941 tickets sold.[53]

After the Landover concert, the final show in the tour's twenty-three concert North American leg, the tour was declared the highest-grossing co-headlining tour of all time by Billboard, with 1.1 million tickets sold and $256.4 million United States dollars in revenue.[54]

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Set list

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This is the set list from the show in Minneapolis on April 19, 2025. It is not representative of all concerts for the duration of the tour.[55]

Kendrick Lamar

  1. "Wacced Out Murals"
  2. "Squabble Up"
  3. "King Kunta"
  4. "Element"
  5. "TV Off" (first instrumental)

SZA

  1. "30 for 30" (with Kendrick Lamar)
  2. "Love Galore"
  3. "Broken Clocks"
  4. "The Weekend" (includes elements of "Set the Mood (Prelude)" by Justin Timberlake)

Kendrick Lamar

  1. "Euphoria"
  2. "Hey Now"
  3. "Reincarnated"
  4. "Humble"
  5. "Backseat Freestyle"
  6. "Family Ties" (first instrumental) (freestyle)
  7. "Swimming Pools (Drank)" (a cappella)
  8. "M.A.A.D City" (includes elements of "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker)
  9. "Alright"
  10. "Man at the Garden"

SZA

  1. "Scorsese Baby Daddy"
  2. "F2F"
  3. "Garden (Say It Like Dat)"
  4. "Kitchen"
  5. "Blind"
  6. "Forgiveless"
  7. "Low"

Kendrick Lamar and SZA

  1. "Doves in the Wind"
  2. "All the Stars"
  3. "Love"

Kendrick Lamar

  1. "Dodger Blue"
  2. "Peekaboo"
  3. "Like That" (includes elements of "Caught Up in the Rapture" by Anita Baker)
  4. "DNA"
  5. "Good Credit"
  6. "Count Me Out" (includes elements of "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe")
  7. "Money Trees"
  8. "Poetic Justice"

SZA

  1. "Diamond Boy (DTM)" (includes elements of "Who Can I Run To" by the Jones Girls)
  2. "Shirt"
  3. "Kill Bill"
  4. "Snooze"
  5. "Crybaby"
  6. "Saturn"
  7. "Good Days"
  8. "Rich Baby Daddy"
  9. "BMF"
  10. "Kiss Me More" (includes elements of "Kiss" by Prince)

Kendrick Lamar

  1. "Bodies"[B]
  2. "TV Off" (with Mustard) (second instrumental) (includes elements of "Angel" by Anita Baker)
  3. "Not Like Us"

Kendrick Lamar and SZA

  1. "Luther"
  2. "Gloria"

Set list additions

The tour's set list is flexible. The following are the first times every additional song not listed above was performed:

Guest performers

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Tour dates

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Notes

Place names

  1. Labeled as Los Angeles in promotional material.
  2. Labeled as Paris in promotional material.
  3. "Saturn" (Lana) or "Nobody Gets Me" (SOS) depending on the venue.[28][36]
  4. Labeled as Las Vegas in promotional material.
  5. Labeled as Washington, D.C. in promotional material.
  6. Labeled as Santiago in promotional material.

General notes

  1. Lamar left the label after his album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022).[1]
  2. Fan-given name for the officially untitled snippet, which was originally teased in promotion of GNX.[23]
  3. A remix of the Teedra Moses song.
  4. Mustard was unavailable due to a prior engagement.[69]
  5. Kendrick Lamar is the sole headliner of this show; SZA will not appear.
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References

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