Golden Arches To Host A Few Artists With Gold Albums

noah | July 20, 2007 9:45 am
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Call it the outdoor equivalent of the mall tour. This summer, McDonald’s is hosting a 10-concert series in parking lots of its restaurants (presumably these shows will be held in spaces away from the drive-thrus):

McDonald’s Live, a collaboration between McDonald’s and event marketing agency TBA Global, launches with a July 26 performance from Ne-Yo and Kenna at California’s Venice Beach Recreation Center. From there, the trek visits such markets as Denver (Single File), Chicago (Twista), Philadelphia (Kevin Michael) and Bloomfield, N.J., (Kat DeLuna, the Dey). The tour wraps Sept. 25 in Austin, Texas, with additional artists to be announced. “Our strategy was to involve emerging multi-genre artists who are releasing new music this summer,” Freeland says, noting that some artists are matched with their hometowns. As for the rest of the tour’s as-yet-unannounced lineup, Freeland says, “We want to make sure we catch artists who are starting to break loose and getting spins at radio. If we lock down and commit with an artist too far in advance, you can’t be 100% sure what’s going to happen.”

That’s code for “we’re not really sure about that Constantine Maroulis record,” we think. Concertgoers will also be able to vote for their “favorite” artists, and the winner will have their music featured in a McDonald’s campaign in 2008–and be able to tell the press they shouldn’t have entered into the partnership once 2009 rolls around.

McDonald’s Goes Live With 10-City Trek [Billboard] [Photo via Colin Gregory Palmer]

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