✈️ From Pontypridd to the World
Tom Jones didn’t become a legend by staying in one place. From the moment It’s Not Unusual hit the airwaves in 1965, he understood something most artists never realize:
great voices don’t belong to one country — they belong to the world.
So he packed his bags, left his small Welsh hometown behind, and began a never-ending journey that would carry him across continents, languages, and cultures.
🇬🇧 Europe – The First Triumph
His early European tours in the late 1960s were nothing short of sensational. Paris embraced him like one of their own. Rome greeted him with flowers and TV specials. In Germany, audiences compared his voice to an orchestra in a single body.
He didn’t just sing his hits — he delivered full-scale experiences, mixing pop, R&B and soul. In Spain and the Netherlands, Delilah became a national obsession. In Scandinavia, people camped outside arenas just to hear his soundcheck.
Europe confirmed one thing: Tom wasn’t just a British star. He was becoming a continental phenomenon.
🇺🇸 America – A Second Home
If Europe validated him, the United States turned him into royalty. From his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to his iconic Vegas residencies, Tom toured practically every major American city.
New York. Chicago. Dallas. Miami. San Francisco. Seats sold out weeks in advance — and not only because of his voice, but because of his raw, physical energy on stage.
American critics called him “the Welsh lion.” Women threw hotel keys instead of flowers. He adapted quickly, even performing country-influenced sets in Nashville and Memphis, winning over an entirely new segment of fans.
By the mid-70s, he was one of the top-grossing touring acts in the United States — and America felt like a second home.
🌏 Asia – A Voice They Had Never Heard Before
Then came the most unexpected chapter.
In the late 70s and early 80s, Tom took his tour to Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and even Thailand. Very few Western artists performed there at the time.
Audiences were stunned.
They had never seen a singer move like this, sound like this, control a crowd like this. He bowed respectfully, introduced songs slowly, and then unleashed a voice so powerful that people literally gasped.
In Tokyo, the crowd remained silent during the entire first verse of Green, Green Grass of Home — not out of indifference — but out of shock. When it ended, the applause seemed endless.
In Hong Kong, officials had to ask people to stop climbing the sides of the venue just to get a better look at the stage.
Tom Jones wasn’t just touring — he was exporting pure emotion.
🌐 A Universal Language
What made these global tours so successful wasn’t just his talent.
It was his ability to speak the same emotional language everywhere he went. Whether the crowd spoke English or not, they understood the heartbreak in I (Who Have Nothing), the joy in It’s Not Unusual, and the fire in Sex Bomb.
He didn’t change himself to fit the world — he brought the world into his universe.
🎤 Every City, a New Story
In Madrid, a storm cut the power mid-show — Tom kept singing a cappella and the entire crowd sang with him.
In Los Angeles, Stevie Wonder jumped on stage and played harmonica during Delilah without rehearsing a single note.
In Bangkok, a 70-year-old Thai fan handed him a bouquet and said, in broken English, “your song kept me alive during a hard time.”
Tom remembers those stories more than the statistics. Because for him, touring wasn’t a career move — it was a human connection.
🏁 Years Later… Still on the Road
Even in his 70s, Tom Jones has never stopped touring. The arenas may change. The staging might be modernized. But the mission is still the same:
Take the voice around the world. Share it. Let it live in every place and every heart willing to listen.