The rise of artists such as G.E.M. Deng and the sweeping "mama" culture have made female singers the new pillar of the concert industry.
Can Chinese female singers hold up half the sky of the concert market?
On August 22, 2026, Na Ying's "I'm Here Because You're Here" concert was held at Wukesong Huaxi Live, marking her first solo concert in Beijing after 12 years, as well as the first four-sided stage in her singing career.
The ticket price of this concert is very friendly, with the highest tier only selling for 1380 yuan. All tickets were sold out quickly after release, and the venue was fully packed with a super hot atmosphere.
That night was full of classic hits, Na Ying successively performed classic works such as *Silence*, *Conquer*, *Appointment 1998*, *The Day Doesn't Understand the Darkness of the Night*, and special guest Xiao Zhan took the stage to sing *A Thousand Years of One Song* with Na Ying, pushing the on-site atmosphere to a peak. Outside the stage, hot searches also came one after another. Topics such as "The box of Na Ying's concert is comparable to the Spring Festival Gala", "Liu Zhuo cried when watching Na Ying and Xiao Zhan sing together", "The 'Na Ying Fans' group built a team at Na Ying's concert" kept swiping the screen.
Na Ying's 12-year comeback shows that this diva of the Chinese music industry still has strong appeal. And she is not an isolated case. Just over two months ago, another diva-level singer also set a new record in Beijing.
On June 13 and 14, Jolin Tsai's "Pleasure" tour landed at the National Stadium (Bird's Nest). Jolin Tsai thus became the fifth female singer to hold a solo concert at the Bird's Nest. (Review: Jolin Tsai and Jay Chou took the stage one after another, is the Bird's Nest still the "altar" for singers?)
Before her, Karen Mok, G.E.M., A-Mei and Stefanie Sun have all stood on this stage one after another: On June 15, 2024, Karen Mok's "Big Show" first opened the door of the Bird's Nest for Chinese female singers; from August 22 to 25 of the same year, G.E.M. held four consecutive shows; in early April 2025, A-Mei performed two consecutive days; in June of the same year, Stefanie Sun also completed two performances at the Bird's Nest. In the past two years, five divas have appeared one after another, and the Bird's Nest is no longer a strange place for female singers.
Judging from the response of the performance market, the performance of female singers in recent years has indeed become more and more "resilient", their box office appeal has repeatedly exceeded expectations, and they are gradually breaking that invisible gender barrier. However, can the success of these divas represent that the group of female singers already has the strength to hold up half the sky of the concert market?
In order to examine the real position of female singers in the concert market more objectively, the editorial department of *Music Finance* sorted out the cases of female singers with outstanding performance in recent years, as well as relevant data of the Chinese and even global concert market, for the reference of industry practitioners.
01
From box office to "mom": the emotional connection between Chinese female singers and music fans
When it comes to the female singers with the strongest momentum in the current large-scale concert market, G.E.M. is absolutely impossible to ignore. Data from the Lighthouse Professional Edition shows that G.E.M. was the champion of concert box office in 2024. (Review: From Karen Mok, G.E.M. to A-Mei, Zhang Jie rushed to "12 shows" in a row, why has the Bird's Nest become the "Olympus" for singers?)
This "model worker" level singer in the Chinese music industry has proved her dominance with solid performance times and box office results. Her "I AM GLORIA" world tour spans three continents, and the Shanghai stop even held 12 consecutive shows at Hongkou Football Stadium. Up to now, this round of tour has exceeded 150 stadium performances, and G.E.M. has also refreshed a world record: the largest number of stadium shows in a single tour by a global female singer.
However, looking at the entire concert market, the box office gap between male and female singers in the Chinese music industry is still obvious. In 2024, the only female singers who entered the top ten concerts of the year were G.E.M., Jolin Tsai, and Phoenix Legend who ranked tenth.
At the end of 2025, ticketing platform Piaoniu released the year-end inventory of top 30 cumulative box office of Chinese singers' concerts, only 10 female singers were shortlisted, and only A-Mei and G.E.M. made it into the top ten. A-Mei ranked fifth with 63.966 billion yuan, G.E.M. followed closely at sixth with 60.008 billion yuan, the two are far ahead of other female singers, but compared with Jacky Cheung who ranked first with 172.688 billion yuan and Mayday who ranked second with 142.394 billion yuan, the gap is still huge.
As a diva-level singer in the Chinese music industry, A-Mei has held more than 400 concerts in her career, ranking first in the total number of performances by Chinese female singers; while G.E.M. has become one of the most commercially successful Chinese female singers at present with the amazing data of her single tour.
There are three Chinese female singers ranked 11th to 20th, namely Angela Zhang (30.212 billion yuan, 14th), Jolin Tsai (27.209 billion yuan, 15th), and Sandy Lam (22.044 billion yuan, 19th).
It is worth noting that the 27th to 30th places are all occupied by female singers: Faye Wong (16.918 billion yuan), Sammi Cheng (16.734 billion yuan), Karen Mok (16.524 billion yuan), Fish Leong (15.75 billion yuan). In addition, the Phoenix Legend group ranked 26th with a total box office of 1.824 billion yuan. Overall, female singers occupy most of the seats in the middle and lower sections of the list, but top-tier female singers are still scarce.
Turning to the global market, the situation is quite similar.
Among the top 20 global touring artists by box office in 2025 released by Pollstar, a global performance market box office data service provider, there are only five female singers. Beyoncé topped the annual total box office with 407.6 million US dollars, and the stage dominance and commercial influence she showed during the tour are still an unshakable existence in today's music industry.
The co-tour of rap superstar Kendrick Lamar and SZA ranked fourth with 358.7 million US dollars, Shakira ranked fifth with 320.2 million US dollars, and Lady Gaga ranked eighth with 209 million US dollars. And Taylor Swift's name appears at 19th, with a box office of 118.4 million US dollars. Even on a global scale, the number of top female singers is still less than that of male singers, but Beyoncé topping the list also shows that top female singers still have the ability to reach the top.
Overall, the overall share of female singers in the concert market still lags behind that of top male singers, but the top force is rising rapidly, and that invisible ceiling is being broken little by little.
At the same time, subtle changes are taking place in the concert scenes of female singers, and the narrative of female identity is being amplified.
Music critic Guangrong recently watched the live performances of many female singers including Tia Ray, Sandy Lam, Jolin Tsai, Stefanie Sun, Fish Leong, A-Mei, and Na Ying who just finished her Beijing concert. In his observation, "The spiritual resonance between the audience and female creators is getting stronger and stronger, and the power in the works of female singers is becoming more and more clear."
The most typical example is that the audience shouts "mom" to female singers in unison. From Jolin Tsai to Sandy Lam, this kind of shout has almost become a fixed part. Sandy Lam responded generously on stage "good daughters", turning this interaction into a two-way emotional ritual. "Behind this is actually the audience's emotional projection of the female image, especially the maternal identity." Guangrong said.
To sum up, whether it is Beyoncé topping the global market, G.E.M. refreshing the record of the number of shows in a single tour, or the rising "mom" shouts from the audience, they all point to the same signal: Female singers are broadening the boundaries of the concert market in their own ways.
02·
Female singers are supporting the new landscape of the concert market
If G.E.M. and A-Mei represent the top of the pyramid of female singers in the concert market, then outside of them, there is a group of female singers who have supported their own world in different levels and tracks.
First look at female singers who take large stadiums as their main position. Stefanie Sun, Angela Zhang, and Fish Leong are typical representatives of this echelon. Their concerts are mainly concentrated in large stadiums, with stable box office performance and high market recognition.
Stefanie Sun's distinctive voice recognition is her most prominent label, and the stage of the Bird's Nest has also verified her appeal; Angela Zhang is good at the sinking market route, her tour can cover a large number of second- and third-tier cities, and she performed in one city every week at her busiest time; Fish Leong's advantage lies in her huge classic song library, from *Courage* to *Ningxia*, almost every song can trigger a full chorus, and this kind of nostalgia-themed concert has stable demand among young and middle-aged audiences.
Vocal skill is another hard currency track. Jane Zhang, A-Lin, Yisa Yu, Huang Qishan, Julia Peng, Chyi Yu, and Na Ying all belong to this type.
Jane Zhang's on-site stability is known as "textbook level", and she always maintains excellent voice control in live performances; A-Lin is free to retract and release, with deep affection in slow songs and powerful performance in fast songs, and has extremely strong empathy; Yisa Yu has accumulated a large number of listeners with many OST works, and the reputation of her concerts has always been stable; Huang Qishan and Julia Peng are famous for their skills, and are called "iron lung" level existences by music fans. Chyi Yu has an ethereal and elegant voice, and is a representative figure of the folk music era. Her concerts are more like an artistic concert; Na Ying, as the big sister of the Chinese music industry, has classic works spanning decades, and her concerts cover a very wide range of audiences.
Among the new generation singers, Shan Yichun is a name that has been repeatedly mentioned by music critics in recent years. From her amazing appearance on the *Singer* stage to her nomination for the Golden Melody Award, her name has long been an unavoidable presence among the new generation of female singers. At present, she is in the stage of "holding consecutive concerts in gymnasiums", but judging from Shan Yichun's current market performance, it won't be long before she steps into the stadium level.
Independent music and cross-border singers are a new force in the market in recent years. Chen Li and Tia Ray both started from Livehouse, and after years of accumulation, they successfully upgraded their tours to 10,000-person gymnasiums.
Chen Li's 10th anniversary concert "Yi Li" proves that independent musicians also have considerable room for growth in business. Tia Ray is the first recommendation that music critic Guangrong blurted out. The reason is very straightforward: her vocal skill is top-tier in the Chinese music industry, she has strong personal charm, and the conceptual and musical nature of her concert arrangement go hand in hand without losing sight of either. "Tia Ray's 'Moon Wild' tour, the name itself conveys an atmosphere of returning home with full enjoyment."
Ren Suxi represents another path. She is well known to the public as an actress, but she has gained extremely high attention with the songs she sang in TV dramas and movies. The phenomenon of film and television actors singing the tracks in the shows is not uncommon. Yang Mi's *The Love's Support* was also a super hit back then, but the difference of Ren Suxi is that her creative ability and live performance in the music track make fans willing to spend real money to attend her concerts. (Review: Xie Na's concert encountered collective complaints, what about Yue Yunpeng and Xiao Shenyang?)
Hong Kong and Taiwan singers constitute another important market segment. Priscilla Chan's *Thousands of Songs of the Night* is the common memory of several generations, her concerts focus on nostalgia and feelings, and she still has strong appeal in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Miriam Yeung is regarded as the emotional spokesperson of Hong Kong music, her concerts have a strong atmosphere, and the audience can easily find emotional resonance in her songs.
Guangrong described Sandy