Madonna leads Billboard's top-grossing tours

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - While this year's pop charts have been dominated by young singers, it is veteran music stars, led by Madonna, who are commanding big money in tour ticket sales, according to a new Billboard list released on Tuesday.

Madonna, 54, topped Billboard's list of highest-grossing live tours, earning an estimated US$228.4 million (S$279 million) in ticket sales from her sold-out ninth worldwide tour in support of her 12th studio album MDNA. The singer will wrap her tour in South America this weekend, after performing more than 80 shows across the world starting in Israel in May.

Madonna came ahead of pop star Lady Gaga, who landed at No. 6, with ticket sales of US$124.9 million from her worldwide Born This Way Ball tour. Gaga, 26, is currently midway through her tour, which kicked off in South Korea in April, and will wrap in Oklahoma in March 2013.

Music publication Billboard compiled its list through estimated gross ticket sales figures from Billboard box scores, which tracks concert tours, ticket prices and sales.