Over the next four months Iron Maiden will perform their breathtaking Maiden England show to 1.2 million fans in Europe, USA and South America, starting in Bilbao tonight.

According to Iron Maiden’s record label EMI, the band will play 44 shows across 25 countries in Europe, United States and Latin America to over 1.2 million fans. Quite impressive considering the state of the music business these days, where a lot of major artists are struggling to fill up the venues.

Most of the arena shows are already sold out, including a double night in Frankfurt’s Festhalle, the massive Atlantic Pavilion in Lisbon, the 17.000 seater Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam and the legendary Bercy in Paris. Lodz in Poland and Zurich, Switzerland are also packed to the hilt, while Hamburg and Gdansk are on the verge of a sellout.

If that was not impressive enough, Maiden will play their biggest indoor show of their entire career at the massive new Swedish stadium Friends Arena, in front of a record breaking attendance of close to 60.000 crazy metal maniacs.

Before heading over to the States and South America, the band will do a series of stadium and outdoor shows in Eastern Europe, including Romania, Turkey and Czech Republic.

And despite touring extensively in the United States for the Maiden England tour in 2012, it seems like the appetite for Maiden in the States is still increasing. The show in the massive San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino, aptly dubbed The Battle of San Bernardino sold out within a day, leaving only lawn tickets left 5 months prior to the show. The arena show in Las Vegas sold out in a week, and the other gigs in St. Louis and Raleigh are packing out quickly.

In September and October the band will hit South America again, including a third stop at the legendary Rock in Rio festival. The Maiden day sold out its 70.000 tickets in a matter of hours after going on sale. The band will also play the massive River Plate stadium in Buenos Aires. Even though they’ve just started the pre-sale where tickets are available locally only before going on official sale May 2^nd, they sold 20.000 tickets within the first two days.

Before heading home, they will also have visited the Jockey Club in Sao Paulo, Estadio Nacional in Chile where they filmed “En Vivo!” and a much welcomed gig in Asuncion, Paraguay for the very first time ever.

So what can we expect? Obviously you will all find out about it tonight. Maiden Revelations will be following tonight’s show with a commentary, and we will head on the road through the summer to bring you reviews, analysis and general banter about the Maiden England World Tour. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is an article about our dream Maiden England setlists.

Enjoy and we’ll see you somewhere on tour!