An  international superstar… even if he didn’t want to believe it. Kip Moore has been at it for over two decades now, releasing his debut album Up All Night in 2012 and subsequent records like Wild Ones, Slowheart and Wild World that has captured the hearts of the dedicated fan base that he has both here in America, as well as overseas. But fans here in the United State might not realize just how big he is in places like Europe and South Africa. In fact, in 2024, he was awarded the CMA International Artist Achievement Award in recognition of his success outside of this country. Country music in general is wildly popular outside of the U.S., and you’ll often hear artists talk about just how into it the fans in other countries are. Contrasting the typically-rowdy and much more raucous crowds here, fans in Europe specifically tend to hang onto every word, and dig very deep into an artists entire album, making for an extremely unique experience when artists who are used to American country fans when they go overseas. And while Kip was a guest on Tracy Lawrence’s TL’s Road House podcast this week, he talked about how hard it was for him to wrap his mind around having such a large fan base in a country he never played after taking his Nomad World Tour there last year, playing for sold-out crowds in arenas. Lawrence asked him how that all happened, and Kip explained that it all started with a South African radio host who discovered his music organically and started playing it there: “In a lot different ways. The South Africa thing was all from one guy. Early 2022, my manager called me and said something crazy is happening in South Africa. We seen a really insane uptick and streams over there. And I just thought, ‘Oh, well the word’s getting out.’ And then the end of ’22 rolled around, and he said, ‘Man, something really wild. You’re streaming just as much in South Africa per week is you are in the states.’ The guy, which we didn’t know at the time, who owns the biggest like pop, rock, little bit of country, he plays whatever he wants because he owns it. It’s a hell of a concept for radio, right? He calls Sean and says, ‘Can he come and do a couple nights? a night in the club in Johannesburg and then like a night in Cape Town?’ And I was so fried at the end of the year, ‘I was like, there’s no way that I’m going over there for two shows.’ Mid 2023 rolls around, once again, he’s calling again. He says we wanna put him in the arena.” Kip was convinced that there was something fishy going on, though he finally gave in and agreed to do the shows so the guy would drop it. He thought they would sell 100 tickets, and after the weekend went by, they could cancel it and move on. But he ended up with the fastest sellout in Cape Town history, eclipsing Sting: “I’m like, this just sounds like a set up, something’s weird. An arena in the country I’ve never been to? And he said, ‘I swear the fan base is here to support it.’ I’m sick of even talk about this. When does he wanna do this tour? He wants to do the arena Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. By Monday morning when we sold 100 tickets, we’ll just cancel it. And because that’s where I had my mind, this is this is ridiculous. So I go about the rest of my week, and I don’t even give it any thought. Friday rolls around, I’ve completely forgotten about it, and I’m surfing that morning. I’ve got probably 15 missed calls from my manager, he says, ‘Congrats, it’s the fastest sellout in Cape Town history eclipsing Sting.’ And I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me.’ It was gone in seven minutes, so they’ve already booked night two.” Kip ended up selling out a stadium in, playing to over 25,000 fans a while back, leading to his aforementioned award and continued success touring internationally. I’ve always felt like Kip hasn’t fully gotten the attention or credit he deserves, his music really is great and he’s an incredibly talented live performer, so it’s really cool to hear that he’s having incredible success outside of the country because that’s NOT easy to do for anyone, but especially someone who has never toured in those markets before. It’s understandable that he didn’t want to go over there and lose money, because he also talked in the episode about how much more expensive it is to tour in other countries, and obviously no one wants to put in all the effort that goes into an international tour if you don’t think anyone’s going to show up. But it sounds like the people in South Africa and all the other countries I mentioned have real taste, and I love to hear that… View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tracy Lawrence (@therealtracylawrence) The post Kip Moore Didn’t Even Want To Play In South Africa Because He Didn’t Think He’d Sell Any Tickets, But He Ended Up With The Fastest Sellout In Cape Town History first appeared on Whiskey Riff.