Grand National Tour comes to Charlotte: Kendrick Lamar just booked Bank of America Stadium
Kendrick Lamar will be getting very familiar with NFL stadiums in 2025.
On the heels of his scheduled Super Bowl LIX halftime show in February, the chart-topping rapper is planning to launch a spring tour that will blaze a trail across North America through some of its largest venues — including Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte on Saturday, May 3.
(Attentive local live-music fans will notice that this is indeed the same weekend already staked out by the Lovin’ Life Music Fest, which in Year 2 again should be expecting roughly 30,000 festival-goers on the opposite side of uptown that Saturday night alone.)
Lamar’s “Grand National Tour” will open with a set by SZA, the Grammy-winning R&B singer who just last week dropped a single featuring Lamar (“Luther”) that is already a hit.
Tickets for their May show at BofA go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday on Ticketmaster’s website, but there’s an “exclusive Cash App Visa Card” pre-sale that begins at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Details for that opportunity are here.
Tuesday morning’s announcement follows the surprise release last month of “GNX,” Lamar’s sixth studio album, which quickly ascended to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart to become his fifth to reach that spot.
This year alone, he has produced three No. 1 songs: “Like That,” “Not Like Us” and “Squabble Up.”
Of those, “Not Like Us” has grabbed the most headlines. A diss track targeting Drake, its release prompted the rival rapper’s company to file two petitions in court essentially alleging that label Universal Music Group — which represents both artists — has sided with Lamar in the pair’s ongoing beef. (It’s pretty well-explained by The New York Times here.)
Meanwhile, the 37-year-old joins a growing list of blockbuster tours coming to the Carolina Panthers’ home next year that already includes Billy Joel and Sting on May 10, Shakira on May 13, and Metallica on May 31.
Lamar’s own visit next spring will mark his third to the Queen City in eight years; he previously brought “The Big Steppers” tour to Charlotte’s Spectrum Center in 2022 and “The DAMN. Tour” to the same arena in 2017.
Kendrick Lamar 2025 tour dates
In all, the hip-hop icon’s 2025 tour will stop at 18 U.S. stadiums and one in Canada. Here’s the full list of dates and cities:
- April 19 - Minneapolis - U.S. Bank Stadium
- April 23 - Houston - NRG Stadium
- April 26 - Arlington, Texas - AT&T Stadium
- April 29 - Atlanta - Mercedes Benz Stadium
- May 3 - Charlotte - Bank of America Stadium
- May 5 - Philadelphia - Lincoln Financial Field
- May 8 - East Rutherford, N.J. - MetLife Stadium
- May 9 - East Rutherford, N.J. - MetLife Stadium
- May 12 - Foxborough, Mass. - Gillette Stadium
- May 17 - Seattle - Lumen Field
- May 21 - Los Angeles - SoFi Stadium
- May 23 - Los Angeles - SoFi Stadium
- May 27 - Glendale, Ariz. - State Farm Stadium
- May 29 - San Francisco - Oracle Park
- May 31 - Las Vegas - Allegiant Stadium
- Jun 4 - St. Louis - The Dome at America’s Center
- Jun 6 - Chicago - Soldier Field
- Jun 10 - Detroit - Ford Field
- Jun 12 - Toronto - Rogers Centre
- Jun 16 - Hershey, Penn. - Hersheypark Stadium
- Jun 18 - Washington, D.C - Northwest Stadium
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 10:24 AM.
