Very thankfully, the COVID-19 pandemic did not dramatically surge again in 2023. But the concert market did, thanks in large part to the pandemic.

Or, to be more precise, thanks to the continuing consumer demand to attend concerts after the pandemic resulted in the shutdown of live events for most of 2020 and a large chunk of 2021.

Led by Beyoncé and Taylor Swift — whose ongoing “Eras Tour” is the first in history to bring in more than $1 billion — ticket revenues from the top 100 concert tours of 2023 soared to a record $9.17 billion, according to the annual tally by Pollstar magazine.

Despite the pinch of inflation, tickets sales for the 2023 tours rose an astonishing 46 percent over 2022, from $6.28 billion to $9.17 billion this year. And the two women superstars at the forefront — who both sold out stadiums in the U.S. and across the globe — documented their tours with box office-topping concert films.

Between March and November, Swift’s first 60 “Eras” dates sold 4.3 million tickets that grossed a jaw-dropping $1,04 billion. With an average ticket price of $238.95, Swift scored a nightly gross of $17,321,063.

Beyonce, who would have led the field in almost any other year, grossed $579.8 million for her 56 “Renaissance Tour” concerts this year. That’s over $200 million more than the third-highest earning tour of 2023 — by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band — brought in. The 10th most profitable tour of the year was by Drake, who grossed $184,.9 million for his 43-show tour.

Fans made all this possible by buying tickets in record numbers — 70 million in the U.S. alone this year, up 18 percent from 2022 — even as average ticket prices rose more than 23 per cent to $130.81.

Alas, the tours by Swift, Beyonce and Drake skipped San Diego, although all three have performed here before and will likely do so again. But four of the 10 top touring artists of 2023 did take the stage here this year. So, take a bow, Pink, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Morgan Wallen, who did back-to-back shows July 14 and 15 at Petco Park. (Springsteen’s December date at Pechanga Arena was pushed back to March because of health-related issues.)

Then there is country-music troubadour Zach Bryan, who is bringing the San Diego concert year to a memorable close. His Saturday “Wild Horses Restival” show at Petco Park — which also features Trampled By Turtles, Sierra Ferrell and the San Diego-bred band The Silent Comedy — is sold out.

Peso Pluma’s October Tijuana concert was canceled after threats from a Mexican drug cartel. His September San Diego concert took place without incident. He is shown performing with Becky G at the Latin American Music Awards on April 20, 2023, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

Alas, one of the fastest-rising live-music attractions of the year, 24-year-old “corridos tumbados” singer Peso Pluma, earned some of his biggest headlines in 2023 for a concert that didn’t happen.

Pluma’s Oct. 14 concert at Tijuana’s Caliente Stadium was canceled after narcomantas — banners bearing messages from criminal organizations — appeared in Tijuana on Sept. 12. They warned the internationally successful regional Mexican Music sensation not to appear as scheduled.

“It will be your last performance because of your disrespectful loose tongue,” the banners read. “You show up and we will destroy you.”

The banners were signed by JNGC, the acronym for Jalisco New Generation Cartel. JNGC is a rival to Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is now serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison. The fact that some of Pluma’s most popular numbers are “narco corridos” (“drug ballads”) that sing the praises of Guzman and his cartel did not sit well with JNGC.

Pluma’s Tijuana show was canceled, along with three of his September U.S. tour dates. His Sept. 30 San Diego concert at North Island Credit Union Amphitheater took place without incident, but the controversy over his aborted Tijuana concert created a disturbing ripple effect.

Later in September, the band Fuerza Regida canceled its Oct. 6 Tijuana concert following the appearance of another threatening banner. On Nov. 8, Tijuana’s city council voted unanimously to ban all “narco corridos” from being performed live — or even played on recordings or videos — in any Tijuana public spaces.

The new law states that any artist who “transmits, exhibits, sings or reproduces music, videos, images or any other similar thing that promotes the culture of violence or makes apologies for crime or for the authors of illegal acts in a live performance” can be subject to fines of up to 1,244,880 Mexican pesos (roughly $72,000).

“What cannot be part of Mexican folklore, nor represent us, is the narcocorrido and the apology of crime,” Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero said when she announced the new law.

Not to be outdone, this fall saw Malaysian authorities implemented a “kill switch” option to enable concert promoters in the conservative country to abruptly shut off the power by any live-music performer who does or says anything objectionable while on stage.

The goal of the “kill switch” is to cut off power in case of any “unwanted incident.” Precisely such an incident occurred on July 25 during a Malaysian festival performance by the the English band The 1975, whose lead singer — Matt Healy — spoke out on stage about Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ stance and then kissed the band’s bassist, Ross MacDonald.

Even without an official “kill switch,” the promoters responded by cutting The 1975’s set short. The remaining two days of the ironically titled “Good Vibes” music festival were quickly canceled by Malaysia’s Communications and Digital Ministry. The 1975 has been banned from performing again in the country, where homosexuality is illegal.

Authorities in Malaysia are now carrying out background checks on all foreign acts seeking to perform there. Concerts and festival performances will now be strictly monitored. “During a performance, we (will) ensure that… the Immigration Department, Puspal (Malaysia’s Central Agencies Committee for Applications for Filming and Performances by Foreign Artists), police and local authorities are at the venue,” Malaysia’s Deputy Communications and Digital Minister Teo Nie Ching told the lower house of the Malaysian parliament in October.

One can only wonder if the New England-bred metal-core band Killswitch Engage is contemplating a Malaysian concert for, you know, purely symmetrical reasons?

Back in San Diego, my favorite concerts took place — thankfully — in “kill switch-free” venues small, large, and in between. Here are 15 of them.

Chris Thile, left, Sean Watkins, and Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek perform are shown performing in June in Kentucky, four months prior to the trio’s triumphant San Diego homecoming concert at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.

(Amy Harris / Amy Harris/invision/ap)

1. Nickel Creek, Oct. 13, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park — Touring in support of the terrific “Celebrants” — Nickel Creek’s first new studio album in nine years — this San Diego-bred trio’s first concert since 2017 was a consistent musical treat that charmed and dazzled.

Drawing from bluegrass, folk, rock, neo-chamber music, Brian Wilson-inspired psychedelia (circa “Pet Sounds”) and more, the 24-song performance showcased the group’s sterling instrumental work, pitch-perfect vocal harmonies and increasingly ambitious songwriting. It also spotlighted the near-telepathic rapport of the trio, whose members were still in grade school when the group formed in 1989. And when a helicopter unexpectedly buzzed overhead at the start of “Thinnest Wall” — a wry ode to a rapidly diminishing love affair — singer/violinist Sara Watkins was quick to incorporate its flight into the song.

Silkroad Ensemble artistic director Rhiannon Giddens sings at the group’s Nov. 10 concert at San Diego’s Balboa Theater.

(Courtesy of Ken Jacques)

2. Rhiannon Giddens & Silkroad Ensemble, Nov. 10, Balboa Theater — Musical and geographic borders blissfully evaporated as Giddens, the banjo- and violin-playing singer who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for her debut opera — led Silkroad through a concert inspired by the stories of the indigenous, African American, Irish, Chinese and Japanese workers who largely built the Transcontinental Railroad. San Diego’s Wu Man, one of the world’s foremost players of the pipa, a lute-like Chinese instrument, was a standout.

Neil Young’s solo concert at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park was a bold act of musical bravery by the two-time Rock Hall of Famer.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

3. Neil Young, July 11, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park — Neil Young’s enchanting solo concert was also an act of artistic bravery, as the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer lived up to his promise to focus mostly on obscure songs he had rarely, if ever, performed live, including “I’m the Ocean” and “If You Got Love.” And when Young dug into such classics as “Ohio” and “Heart of Gold,” time didn’t stop so much as it seemed to start anew.

Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Stephen Stills, left, and Joe Walsh spurred each other on at the Nov. 12 VetsAid Concert, which raised money for San Diego and Southern California area nonprofits that assist U.S. military veterans.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

4. VetsAid, Nov. 12, North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre — Rock Hall of Famer Joe Walsh performed memorably with his band, which featured San Diego-bred bass great Nathan East. So did Stephen Stills, the Jeff Lynne-led ELO, Flaming Lips, Lucius, Jack Tempchin and the show-opening U.S. Marine Band San Diego. Watching Walsh and Stills trade sizzling guitar licks on “For What It’s Worth,” “Love The One You’re With” and “Rocky Mountain Way” was the tantalizing cherry on this musical sundae.

Jimmy Buffet was in high spirirts for his May 6 Snapdragon Stadium concert with his Coral Reefer Band. It was his final concert anywhere with his group before Buffett’s Sept. 1 death from skin cancer.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

5. Jimmy Buffett and The Coral Reefer Band, with Jason Mraz, May 6, Snapdragon Stadium — The first concert at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium was also the last anywhere by Jimmy Buffett with his Coral Reefer Band, because he died Sept. 1 death from skin cancer. Buffett sounded and looked fit as he romped through such favorites as “Fins,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and the inevitable “Margaritaville.” He handily transformed the stadium into a freewheeling beach party that happened to be eight miles inland.

6. Sting, Oct. 4, Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU

7. Stevie Nicks, Nov. 29, Viejas Arena at Aztec Bowl

8. Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Sept. 7, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

9. Danny Elfman, Aug. 3, North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre

10. A.J. Croce, with surprise guest Ingrid Croce, Sept. 23, Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

11. Cypress Hill & The San Diego Symphony, July 25, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

12. Billy Strings, May 21, Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU

13. boygenius, June 2, Snapdragon Park

14. They Might Be Giants, April 13, Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

15. Maggie Rogers, March 2, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park