Sarah McLachlan, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow and Jewel marque the database of the biggest songs by the groundbreaking festival's performers.
9/26/2025
Sarah McLachlan, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, Jewel Courtesy Photos
“Almost everybody I knew didn’t cognize who Lilith was,” Sarah McLachlan says successful archival footage successful the caller documentary, Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, which premiered successful the United States connected Hulu Sept. 21. “She’s specified a beardown and fantastic feminist figure.
“In spiritual mythology, Lilith was Adam’s archetypal wife, earlier Eve,” McLachlan explains. “She was created of the aforesaid worldly helium was, yet helium refused to dainty her arsenic an equal. So she said, ‘I’m retired of here.’ Lilith near the Garden of Eden and built her ain garden, dancing and singing among women who, similar her, refused to surrender their strength.”
Guided by that resolve, McLachlan spearheaded the instauration of Lilith Fair, the euphony festival of each women (or women-fronted bands) — a mostly unprecedented endeavor to that constituent — that toured successful 1997, 1998 and 1999, followed by a revival successful 2010.
“This is simply a weird job,” McLachlan muses successful the documentary of the tour’s origin. She recalls thinking, “It would beryllium truthful bully to link with different women who are doing a akin thing.
“Independently, we had fanbases. Together, I thought, ‘How could this fail?’ ”
McLachlan’s instincts proved right, arsenic Lilith Fair stormed the United States and Canada. The 1997 tally grossed $13.1 cardinal and sold 489,000 tickets implicit 29 shows, arsenic reported to Billboard Boxscore. The totals for 1998 swelled to $21.2 cardinal and 646,000 tickets from 41 shows. For 1999, it pulled successful $18.6 cardinal and 482,00 tickets much than 34 shows. Lilith Fair — which besides donated millions of dollars to charitable causes — finished among the apical 20 tours successful each of those years.
“It wasn’t until we deed the roadworthy that we truly understood the magnitude of what we were trying to create,” Catherine Runnals, Lilith Fair accumulation coordinator, says successful the documentary. “By comparison, thing similar a Lollapalooza, they were doing 15 oregon 18 shows. We did 4 oregon 5 festival shows successful a week. It was perfectly bonkers.”
In 1 of the film’s champion lines, Runnals sums up, “It felt similar we were gathering the airplane portion we were already flying it.”
In solemnisation of the groundbreaking tour, Billboard has compiled The Biggest Hot 100 Hits by Acts Who Played Lilith Fair, a 100-song countdown — and Spotify playlist — commemorating the 100 apical titles connected the Billboard Hot 100 by acts who shone connected the festival’s stages. Included are hits by 3 artists played each 4 iterations of Lilith Fair: McLachlan, Sheryl Crow and Suzanne Vega. The illustration encompasses 17 No. 1s among 86 apical 10s, with songs spanning 38 years, from Heart’s “Magic Man,” from 1976, done Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go,” from 2014. (The retrospective includes acts’ hits successful pb roles, arsenic good arsenic featured billings successful which the pb creator didn’t supply vocals.)
Among the 100 songs connected the ranking are McLachlan’s “Building a Mystery,” 1 of her signature hits, from 1997, that inspired the documentary’s subtitle.
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