CHICAGO — After initially postponing four shows Feb. 12, Lady Gaga and Live Nation announced Feb. 13 that, due to the artist’s need for hip surgery, 21 of the shows that had been scheduled as part of her Born This Way Ball tour through March would have to be cancelled.
With a total 80 shows in 2012, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball tour ranked as the fifth biggest money-maker by Pollstar, generating $161.4 million in revenues.
The costs to the industry resulting from the cancelled tour, which includes scheduled performances in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Atlanta and Miami, were estimated to be as high as $35 million, according to published reports.
The Born This Way Ball Tour was originally conceived as a massive, two-year, six-continent trek. After her Feb. 11 performance in Montreal, however, the artist was in severe pain and unable to walk. An initial diagnosis of joint inflammation later proved to be a tear in the soft elastic tissue surrounding the hip socket that would require surgery and months of rest.
