Sunday Herald Sun Australia ~ Oct.11, 2009 André Rieu brings joy to his audience and his players writes Nui Te Koha. Britney Spears, Madonna and Tina Turner are, so far, the top three concert earners in 2009. Fourth place honours, however, went to a different kind of superstar ~ Waltz King André Rieu. According to worldwide box office tracker Pollstar, Rieu had sold 554,242 tickets and taken $57.4 million in gross revenue from January to July.
"Three girls were on top of me ... which is fantastic," Rieu chuckles. "I like women."
Rieu loves that his vision to take classicial music to the masses is finally backed by serious numbers."It was my dream and I never thought we could take it this far," Rieu, who turned 60 last week, says. "But I still want to bring people closer to classical music." I want people who never had the chance to listen to classical music to know how beautiful it is. It will make your life better and can change your heart.That sounds a little bit chliched, but it's true.This music is in my blood. It's important to play music and listen to music that goes 
to your heart. That is my message. For me, music is not, 'I'm better than you because I like classical music'. No, on the contrary."
But Rieu knows better than to be dazzled by his box office figures. Last year, Rieu had the world's eighth highest earning tour. It took $76 million. "Oh, please," he laughs. "Don't read the numbers in those things. It's a lot of money, I know. But it's not the gross that counts, it's the positive that stays under the line that counts. When I travel to Australia with three castles and 500 people in my team, you can imagine how much money stays under the line."
His tour party for stadium shows includes 50 logistics personnel, 100 orchestra, choir members and soloists,100 dancers, iceskaters, marching and pipe band members, 50 production/wardrobe staff and chefs and 20 sound and lighting technicians.
But Rieu is a generous boss. His Orchestra, which has backed Rieu for 30 years, choir and soloists get five-star travel and accommodation. "Can you imagine that we stay together for 30 years, we have fun every night on stage, I ask them to give 100 percent and then I fly in a plane and they go in a bus? Or I eat gourmet things and they have McDonald's? No. It's not possible. We are together and we stick together. When they eat McDonald's, I eat McDonald's. When I eat five-star, they eat five-star. But I expect 100 percent, playing with heart and that's what they do."
They are a really happy bunch too, as one US critic noted when Rieu performed in Boston. Rieu said the critic thought the playful, buoyant mood in the orchestra was staged. "He thought it was a beautiful 
night, but said something like, 'André, please be honest. Is there something in their contracts that say they must laugh all night?"
But Rieu argues it is their joyful music that uplifts. He cites his annual hometown show in Maastricht in the Netherlands. "It's in a big square in the open air with 30,000 people," Rieu says. "There are only two policemen ... and they dance with the crowd. That is how my music speaks to the times. "A week later, there is a dance party with 20,000 people. For this, they need hundreds of police because of fights and the music is too loud."
After Rieu's hometown show, he's swamped with flowers from local restaurants and hotels."They thank me because their businesses are filled with people who are nice to each other," Rieu says. ..... Thanks to Jann for sending this and typing it out for us again!! :)
A Look at Some Paintings by Marc Rieu
