In the coming months, a few big names will hit the road together: country rock darlings MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee start their tour in mid-April. Canadian indie rock peers Broken Social Scene, Metric and Stars are all joining forces in June. In August, the legendary '90s girl group TLC and rap duo Salt-N-Pepa will headline amphitheaters across the country. These shows are not being billed simply as strong main and opening acts, but as a specially curated experience in which two (or more) major acts who can lead a tour on their own are instead choosing to share the stage.
Co-headlining tours like these are not new by any means. For decades, they've created a commercially viable kind of nostalgia routine for rock icons of generations' past, like Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe's tour in 2022, or Aerosmith and KISS touring together in the 2000s. But they've also found success in genres like pop and country, and often involve two artists playing off an existing personal or creative relationship — like when two of the most influential musicians in the world happen to be married to one another (aka, both iterations of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's On The Run tour). Some co-headliners never materialized, like the gone but never forgotten Fame Kills tour that was supposed to feature Lady Gaga and Kanye West but was cancelled in the aftermath of the infamous 2009 MTV VMAs incident involving Taylor Swift.
While co-headlining tours have long been a way for multiple musicians to capitalize on overlapping fanbases, there's been an uptick in recent years of prominent artists taking the shared route when each could have embarked on a successful tour alone. In 2024, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan channeled the momentum from Brat summer to transform arenas into moody nightclubs for Sweat Tour. Last summer, Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail created an intergenerational indie rock experience on the road. Charley Crockett and Leon Bridges combined Texas flair on The Crooner and The Cowboy Tour throughout the fall. And even SZA and Kendrick Lamar — two artists who were enjoying massive individual success in 2025 — maximized their joint [slay] cultural power on the globetrotting Grand National Tour.
So why is it becoming more and more attractive for artists to split the bill? Timmy Hefner, an agent with Ground Control Touring, says a huge part of the appeal is getting to see a one-of-a-kind show featuring two artists whose music is deeply intertwined. He points to MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee's history of performing together at festivals and recording music with one another.
"It's this genuine friendship, and I think people from the outside can see that. That makes that co-headliner so special," he says. "I don't exactly know how they're envisioning [this tour], but I have a feeling… It's going to be more like an evening with these two dear friends."
Hefner, who books artists including Waxahatchee, Snail Mail and Japanese Breakfast, says co-headlining tours are often ideal on the second lap of an album, after an artist has already hit the road solo to promote a new release. He says it can often allow acts to move into bigger, "dream" venues they may not fill alone — say, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado or the Moody Amphitheater in Austin, Texas — and can be a driver of music discovery for fans who are more familiar with one of the headliners over the other.
Pulling two worlds together
In some cases, a co-headlining tour that sells well ahead of time or looks like a great pairing from the start can still hit snags in practice. Last fall, several fans who attended the tour co-headlined by the French electronic duo Justice and the Canadian producer Kaytranada posted online that they saw some audience members leaving after Kaytranada's set ended and before Justice began. Some people online attributed this to a difference in fan demographics or musical styles — because Justice rose to fame over a decade before Kaytranada did, some of the DJ's younger fans may not have been familiar with the duo or their more rock-driven, strobe light-filled shows.
Christian Coffey, who served as touring director on the Grand National Tour, says being able to incorporate intentional transitions between both acts can be key to a seamless co-headlining tour. When it came to SZA and Lamar, who were already frequent collaborators, Coffey says both teams worked together to create a shared aesthetic that incorporated elements of Lamar's discography — like the GNX car — with the greenery and vines that are a key part of SZA's iconography. Coffey says a cohesive visual experience, paired with duet songs and shared time onstage, helped connect both sets so the night felt more like one blockbuster performance rather than separate shows.
"At the end of the day, I always say the most important thing is the creative vision," Coffey tells NPR. "Is the creative vision one that can be tied together? Can that be something where one plus one equals three?"
That's true not just for major stadium and amphitheater shows, but for smaller indie tours, too. In the coming weeks, Latin dream-pop singers maye and Ambar Lucid will embark on the Entre Dos Mundos tour. Although the two have never worked together before, they have several collaborators in common and are "on the same frequency," according to Lucid. Both toured individually in support of full-length albums last year, and maye released the follow-up EP Música Para Abrir El Cielo: Act 2 earlier this month.
"I know we have a lot of listeners in common, but I personally feel like there's a lot of cities on this tour that I don't know that I would have gone to if it were just me," maye tells NPR.
She says that with how taxing touring can be, she's looking forward to having another artist to lean on for emotional support on the road. Lucid agrees, noting that she's excited to be able to switch things up every night and avoid getting burnt out from her solo routine on the road. When both artists spoke with NPR, they were still in the process of mapping out their sets, and said they hoped to present a unique experience in every city. That includes planning different themes for the fans to dress up, and leaning into what maye calls the "girl power" energy they're trying to manifest on the road.
"It's a whole ritual," Lucid says. "The girls meet up, they pick their outfits. It feels like it's such a community thing that makes going to the show so much more exciting."
Bang for your buck
Hefner says that when it comes to co-headlining tours, there are major financial considerations, too. He points to rising costs of living, which makes touring — gas, lodging, food plus production costs— increasingly expensive. Concert ticket prices also keep climbing higher and higher, becoming more of a luxury good than a casual purchase. For some artists, splitting the bill both figuratively and literally may be a more sustainable way to play shows.
"I do feel like people are looking for a little bit of a bang for their buck," Hefner says. "That's the creative way to charge the ticket price that everyone needs to make money, but also fans feel like they're getting something worth the ticket price."
Coffey says that as more Americans worry about the economy and how much disposable income they have, fans are likely choosing between fewer and fewer shows to attend. As a result, he says, co-headlining tours have to offer something that feels worth the spend.
"Even 20 years ago, when you think of competition in the marketplace, you're competing with other shows. Whereas now, you're competing with Netflix or streaming services or staying home," he says. "So every single thing that people are spending their money on, whether it be movies or dinner or any of these concerts…. all those things end up competing. So you have to really create this unique experience for people where they're not only getting their money's worth, they're getting their value's worth."
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