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<\/p>\nWhen Rock the Universe at Universal Studios Florida recently announced its lineup with 23-year-old Josiah Queen sitting in a headlining spot, we saw a few versions of the same comment: \u201cWhere are the headliners?\u201d I think it\u2019s time for some of us to take off our old-people blinders. I say that with love. And as someone who has spent most of his life listening to Christian music.<\/p>\n
One of the fascinating things happening in Christian music right now is that the definition of a \u201cbig artist\u201d is changing very quickly. If your mental list of headliners was formed 10, 15\u2026or let\u2019s be honest 30+ years ago, it can be easy to look at a festival poster filled with younger names and assume the star power has disappeared.<\/p>\n
Your vision may be blurrier, but the movement is as clear as it\u2019s ever been. I\u2019d even argue that it\u2019s often superior in quality and content. This week brought a pretty substantial piece of evidence.<\/p>\n
Josiah Queen, the unassuming 23-year-old singer-songwriter from the Tampa, Florida area, just announced the Damascus Road Tour, a 17-date run across the United States and Canada in spring 2027. And these aren\u2019t clubs, theaters, or mega Churches even.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re arenas. BOK Center. Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Van Andel Arena. Spectrum Center. Target Center. T-Mobile Center. Honda Center. Dickies Arena.<\/p>\n
Seventeen dates. Seventeen arena shows.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a pretty significant leap for an artist who still carries himself more like the kid who grew up loving Christian music than someone attempting to manufacture himself into its next superstar. And perhaps that\u2019s part of why this is working.<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s songs don\u2019t feel particularly engineered. His voice isn\u2019t polished into anonymity. The music can feel raw, personal and sometimes almost homemade compared with the enormous production surrounding much of modern pop. Yet the numbers SHOULD be impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
Queen has surpassed 2.1 billion global streams. His breakout \u201cThe Prodigal\u201d has crossed 200 million streams. \u201cDusty Bibles\u201d became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit and earned RIAA Gold certification in less than six months. It also reached Spotify\u2019s Viral 50 in more than 15 countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t Steal My Joy\u201d went to No. 1 at Christian radio. \u201cDemons\u201d did it again, while crossing 100 million streams. He\u2019s already sold more than 260,000 tickets on his headline tours and amassed more than 3 million followers across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s going into arenas.<\/p>\n
At some point, \u201crising artist\u201d stops adequately describing what is happening and maybe you need to catch up. This is where those Rock the Universe comments become interesting.<\/p>\n
When people asked where the headliners were, they weren\u2019t necessarily being dismissive. They may genuinely not have known. That\u2019s the silo problem.<\/p>\n
You can be extremely familiar with one version of hit music and almost completely unaware that someone in another corner of it is selling hundreds of thousands of tickets.<\/p>\n
There is a new generation of artists emerging who aren\u2019t embarrassed by Christian music\u2019s history. They listened to it. They were shaped by it. Now they\u2019re making their own version of it for an audience that consumes music very differently than their parents did.<\/p>\n
Queen isn\u2019t the only one. These aren\u2019t hypothetical \u201cnext generation\u201d names waiting for the old guard to eventually hand them the keys. The audience has already arrived.<\/p>\n
The Damascus Road Tour begins April 8, 2027, and includes 17 arena dates across the United States and Canada. An exclusive ticket presale begins September 14, with the public onsale beginning September 18 at 10 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TOUR DATES:
Thursday, April 8, 2027 \u2013 Tulsa, OK \u2013 BOK Center<\/p>\n
Friday, April 9, 2027 \u2013 St. Louis, MO \u2013 Chaifetz Arena<\/p>\n
Saturday, April 10, 2027 \u2013 Indianapolis, IN \u2013 Gainbridge Fieldhouse<\/p>\n
Sunday, April 11, 2027 \u2013 Grand Rapids, MI \u2013 Van Andel Arena<\/p>\n
Tuesday, April 13, 2027 \u2013 Toronto, ON \u2013 Coca-Cola Coliseum<\/p>\n
Thursday, April 15, 2027 \u2013 Worcester, MA \u2013 DCU Center<\/p>\n
Friday, April 16, 2027 \u2013 Hershey, PA \u2013 GIANT Center<\/p>\n
Saturday, April 17, 2027 \u2013 Charlotte, NC \u2013 Spectrum Center<\/p>\n
Sunday, April 18, 2027 \u2013 Duluth, GA \u2013 Gas South Arena<\/p>\n
Friday, April 23, 2027 \u2013 Hoffman Estates, IL \u2013 NOW Arena<\/p>\n
Saturday, April 24, 2027 \u2013 Minneapolis, MN \u2013 Target Center<\/p>\n
Sunday, April 25, 2027 \u2013 Kansas City, MO \u2013 T-Mobile Center<\/p>\n
Thursday, April 29, 2027 \u2013 Anaheim, CA \u2013 Honda Center<\/p>\n
Friday, April 30, 2027 \u2013 San Diego, CA \u2013 Viejas Arena<\/p>\n
Saturday, May 1, 2027 \u2013 Glendale, AZ \u2013 Desert Diamond Arena<\/p>\n
Friday, May 7, 2027 \u2013 Cedar Park, TX \u2013 H-E-B Center at Cedar Park<\/p>\n
Saturday, May 8, 2027 \u2013 Fort Worth, TX \u2013 Dickies Arena<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Rock the Universe at Universal Studios Florida recently announced its lineup with 23-year-old Josiah Queen sitting in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-348098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}