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Drake has just announced he is cancelling the remainder of his Australia and New Zealand tour, with some debate as to whether he truly sold out every show. He isn’t the first to do so, either. What gives?
Drake’s team has stated that all remaining shows on his Australia and New Zealand tour are to be cancelled.
In a statement provided to Rolling Stone AU/NZ, a representative confirmed that the early wind down was due to a ‘scheduling conflict’, though no specific details as to what this could entail have been given. His team also said that they were ‘actively working on rescheduling these dates along with some additional shows.’
‘All tickets for affected shows will remain valid for the new dates. Refunds will be available for those who prefer, but please note that as these shows are sold out, any refunded tickets will be released for sale,’ Drake’s team said.
The rapper was expected to perform four more shows, with two back-to-back nights at Auckland’s Spark Arena in mid-March. He had already attended various cities as part of the ‘Anita Max Win’ tour, and also appeared at several venues for surprise pop up shows and intimate sets.
Footage from these gigs has been doing the rounds on social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram. As his tour aligned with Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, many hip hop enthusiasts were eager to see how Drake would respond to most of the US music industry actively clowning on his name. The answers have been…well, indisputably Drake, to say the least.
One widely-shared clip sees him walking on stage wearing a hoodie covered in ‘bullet holes’. Smoke seems to be rising from Drake’s body, presumably via manual control in his pockets. Another moment that’s been thoroughly mocked is his impression of reloading a gun using a microphone before jumping around stage. The comments are truly something.
While Drake’s team says that every show was sold out and that new ones are set to be scheduled, some are sceptical. A few commenters on Reddit noted that many tickets were still available up until the day before the cancelled announcement, and that scalpers tried to sell off tickets for less than asking price, indicating low demand.
The last four dates being cancelled due to a ‘scheduling conflict’ is bizarre too, particularly given how far in advance this tour will have been arranged. It’s unlikely that this couldn’t have been foreseen earlier, though we wouldn’t want to accuse Drake’s team of anything unproven.
Still, huge artists cancelling big tours for undisclosed reasons has become more common over the past few years.
It looks like Katy Perry may be next up for a tour cancellation. ‘The Lifetimes Tour’ is set to follow on from the release of her last album ‘143’, yet 70% of seats in the US have reportedly been unfilled so far. This is likely partly due to the underwhelming public reception of the new record alongside very expensive ticket prices.
Last year, Jennifer Lopez cancelled her US tour entirely, stating that she wanted ‘time off’ to ‘be with her children, family and close friends.’ However, many noted that ticket sales were seemingly very low and that there were significant logistical issues causing problems.
The Black Keys cancelled their entire North American arena tour without explanation in the summer of 2024 too. They similarly had reports of low ticket sales across the board and the band eventually split with their management team. No official blame was given to any party, mind, just that the band were ‘recalibrating’.
So, what gives? Why is this happening?
There are – most likely – a few reasons. One of the biggest is simply the cost of tickets to live events. The most famous artists in the world still do huge arena tours that have become unbelievably expensive, especially in the US. Since the pandemic, tickets for shows have sometimes tripled in price and yet people’s wages have not increased.
As a result, many people can’t afford to attend. That’s all without even considering Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s questionable ‘dynamic pricing’ model, which can see ticket prices inflate into the thousands. It’s what has made some artist tours such as Taylor Swift so insanely profitable.
