Police, Timberlake up for Billboard tour awards

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NASHVILLE -- The Police, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney and Genesis are among the finalists for the 2007 Billboard Touring Awards.

The awards, which will be presented Nov. 15, honor the industry's top artists, venues and professionals for the year, based on the Billboard Boxscore chart. They are based on actual boxoffice performance from Jan. 1-Sept. 30. The Billboard Touring Awards are a part of the 2007 Billboard Touring Conference, in association with Broomfield Event Center, which will be held on Nov. 14 and 15 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

The Police and Timberlake are finalists for both the top tour and top draw awards, which are given to the top-grossing tour and the top ticket-selling tour, respectively. Genesis joins them in the tour category and Chesney in the draw group. Timberlake is also a finalist for breakthrough tour, with Aguilera and Mana.

For the first time this year, Billboard also will present the Billboard concert marketing and promotion award, the only award (outside of the Humanitarian and Legend awards) given out at the ceremony not decided by Billboard Boxscore, but rather decided by more than 40,000 online votes at Billboard.com and Billboard.biz, through Wednesday.

The six finalists for the award, which recognizes a sponsorship or promotion that achieved its marketing goals in a quantifiable way, benefited the concert industry at large by stimulating live event attendance and provided a value to music fans, include the Jagermeister Mobile Stage, Summerfest's U.S. Cellular Connection Stage, the Jeep-sponsored Tim McGraw/Faith Hill Soul2Soul (S2S) 2007 Tour, BlackBerry-sponsored John Mayer 2007 Tour, Hershey's S'more Access to Brad Paisley and Verizon Wireless' sponsorship of Fergie's tour.

2007 Billboard Touring Awards Finalists:

Top tour
Genesis, Turn It On Again
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveShow
The Police Reunion Tour

Top draw
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveShow
Kenny Chesney, Flip Flop Summer Tour
The Police Reunion Tour

Top package
Christina Aguilera (with Pussycat Dolls, Dannity Kane)
Kenny Chesney Flip Flop Summer Tour (with Sugarland, Pat Green, Brooks & Dunn, Sara Evans)
Tim McGraw/Faith Hill Soul2Soul II (with Lori McKEnna, Halfway to Hazard, Lance Miller, Taylor Swift)

Breakthrough artist
Christina Aguilera
Justin Timberlake
Mana

Top Boxscore
Bonnaroo
Download Festival (U.K.)
Prince at the O2 in London

Top comedy tour
Larry the Cable Guy
George Lopez
Katt Williams

Top arena
Air Canada Center, Toronto
Bell Center, Montreal
Madison Square Garden, New York

Top amphitheater
Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Colo.
Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts, Mansfield, Mass.

Top club
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
The Fillmore, Denver
The Fillmore, San Francisco

Top venue under 10,000 seats (nonresident)
Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City
Fox Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.
Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Citywalk, Universal City

Top venue under 10,000 seats (resident)
The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

Top festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, Tenn.
Download U.K., Castle Donington, England
Lollapalooza, Chicago

Top promoter
AEG Live
CIE
Live Nation

Top independent promoter
C3 Presents, Austin
Jam Productions, Chicago
Outback Concerts, Nashville

Top agency
Artist Group International
CAA
WMA

Top manager
Front Line Management
Kathy Schenker Management
Wright Entertainment Group

Humanitarian Award
Kevin Wall

Legend of Live
Frank Barsalona