Most UN member states visited by a musician on a world tour

BRIT- and Grammy-winning musician Joss Stone (UK, b. Joscelyn Stoker) performed in 190 United Nations (UN) member states – everywhere from Antarctica to Zimbabwe – on her five-year-long Total World Tour. The ambitious project saw the singer team up with local musicians and volunteer with local charities on each leg of the 260-date tour, which began in Casablanca, Morocco, on 29 March 2014 and finished in Barcelona, Spain, on 3 July 2019. Stone became the first artist to receive “World Tour Certification”, which stipulates that at least 10% of the countries on each of five designated continents – Africa, America (North and South), Asia, Europe and Oceania – must be visited for it to be deemed an authentic world tour.

Stone visited all but three of the 193 UN member states – Indonesia, Philippines and Iran. She had played the first two countries on tours previously, and was deported from Iran, ahead of what would have been the final date of the tour on Kish Island on 4 July 2019.

In October 2017, Stone teamed up with onboard.earth’s Energy Revolution Programme to help reduce the tour’s carbon emissions and balance the 2.7 million miles (4.34 million km) that were reportedly travelled on her mammoth trek to that point.

In December 2018, she performed in Antarctica after a two-day boat trip, alongside Leon Michael King from the reggae/roots band The Drop, “surrounded by natural beauty and some friendly penguins”. Stone described the experience as a “really magnificent moment” and a “dream come true”.

Some of the dates – including Antarctica – were not played in front of a paying audience, but were nonetheless part of the Total World Tour schedule. Some 79 performances were at various music festivals around the world.