Lady Gaga's artRAVE flops its way over to Western Asia

  

Lady Gaga and co. tried their best to cover up her struggle in Australia with numerous ticket giveaways (alleged), curtained-off sections, and false/misleading reviews.

This one’s my favourite. It states Allphones Arena has a capacity of over 20,000 and laughs at the low ticket rumors - but of course it doesn’t mention how many tickets were actually SOLD, nor does it mention her ticket availability was capped at 14,500! There's a pretty big difference between the two numbers!

Anyway, despite the shoddy cover-ups, the numbers speak for themselves and here’s the best estimate I could find of the Australian leg, straight from the Little Monsters themselves:

OCEANIA

AUGUST 20 - PERTH - Perth Arena - ENDED - 12,000+/15,500 (80%)
AUGUST 23 - MELBOURNE - Rod Laver Arena - ENDED - 11,500+/12,500 (90%)
AUGUST 24 - MELBOURNE - Rod Laver Arena - ENDED - 6,000+/12,500 (50%)
AUGUST 26 - BRISBANE - Brisbane Entertainment Centre - ENDED - 10,000+/12,000 (80%)
AUGUST 30 - SYDNEY - Allphones Arena - ENDED - 12,500+/14,500 (80%)
AUGUST 31 - SYDNEY - Allphones Arena - ENDED - 7,500+/14,500 (50%)

Wow! Two shows with only 50% of the tickets sold? So much for the supposed Queen of Pop! 


So what’s next for the artRAVE?
Well, the tour is about half over, and the second half is shaping up to be the same as the first. Her next stop is Western Asia with a show in Dubai and a show in Tel Aviv.

Take a look at the demand for Gaga in Dubai:

That's right - only 5/17 sections of this show are sold out. If you look at the official page, you can see each seat that is available - personally I found it funny that people are filling up the back of the arena first. They'd rather sit in the stands than get close, even though the GA tickets are nearly half the price. Why? I have no idea!

Even though the demand for her is extremely low in both places - with tickets currently sitting at 12,000/25,000 (49%) for Dubai (Sept. 10) and 15,000+/45,000 (33%) for Tel Aviv (Sept. 13), she’s still managing to have predictions of a “sold-out show” in Dubai and "tens of thousands" of fans in Tel Aviv.  Have you ever seen this kind of media bias before?

Whatever. Guess we’ll see what happens when pictures of the not-so-full arenas show up on Twitter, won't we?

Leaked lyrics: true or false?

According to sources like ET Online and the Huffington Post, Madonna has written a song slamming Lady Gaga for her upcoming 13th album.

The Queen of Flop and the Queen of Pop

  The song is supposedly called "Two Steps Behind Me", and the alleged leaked lyrics are:

 "You're a copycat, Where is my royalty? You're a pretty girl, I'll give you that. But stealing my recipe, it's an ugly look."

"Did you study me hard enough? You're never gonna be, you're just a wannabe me." 

"Like a sister all messed-up, who's gonna help you out? In your fantasy, you can try it all. But you can't be me."

"You can walk the walk, even talk the talk. But you'll always be two steps behind me."

 According to the original source of the leak, Madonna is still choosing the songs that are to be included on the album and this one may not even make the cut. If it does however, the source states that "Gaga's going to be mortified."

Could it be true, or is this just a rumor? Would Madonna really write a song about Lady Gaga? Is she really still seething over the Born This Way/Express Yourself controversy?

Lady Gaga snubbed by the VMAs – again!

The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) are tonight, and not only was Lady Gaga not even nominated for a single award – despite the fact that she released three two music videos from her third album ARTPOP – but she isn’t even scheduled to perform.

Maybe no one understands her art

This is not the first time she was snubbed by the VMAs since her debut as a popstar, and it's also not the first time she hasn't performed (the other year was 2012). Is it because she's in the middle of a tour? Doubtful - she was in the middle of the Monster Ball tour when the VMAs took place in 2010 and she dominated the awards in nominations and wins back then.

So what does this say about Lady Gaga's current status as a popstar?

Well, if you look at how much she's still being hyped from other major music sources - not much. But when the VMAs are consistent in nominating the latest pop acts for awards and having them perform (Iggy Azalea, Ariana Grande...) as well as other pop artists that have been around at least as long as Lady Gaga has, if not longer (Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Jessie J) - it says a lot. Especially since she has a new album coming out next month and a follow-up album already planned.

With something to promote, the VMAs should have been a priority for Lady Gaga... and maybe they were. But last year, her performance bordered on boring and had next to no shock value - something the VMA audience counts on year after year. Could it be that there was just no demand for her? Or have people simply gotten bored with her antics? 

What do you think? How important are the VMAs for a pop star? Was getting snubbed a big deal?

                                                And just for fun... the last time Lady Gaga won a VMA

Lady Gaga's hypocritical "Body Revolution" message makes a comeback

Lady Gaga's been getting a lot of bad press lately over her size. Fingers have been pointed about how much weight she's been gaining lately on her tour, and she's hitting back - just like she did in 2013 with her "Body Revolution"

 

So proud of her size that she feels the need to suck in her stomach and raise her arms for the photo

"Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15," she said on littlemonsters.com. "But today I join the BODY REVOLUTION. To Inspire Bravery. and BREED some m$therf*cking COMPASSION."

Lady Gaga shared a post on Instagram yesterday saying: "A true Venus is beautiful at any size. #BodyRevolution Don't allow Society to tell you what beauty is. back when they first made painting and sculptors of the goddess she was represented as a round and fertile woman. It was in style to be thicker because food was a sign of money. eat up children. Life is too short." 

Great sentiment - too bad she doesn't seem to believe it herself. 

More like: "A true Venus is beautiful with Photoshop"

The reality

Is Lady Gaga truly proud of her size? She doesn't seem to be. Whenever she calls attention to her size (like with the "Body Revolution"), it's either with pictures that are heavily edited/altered in some way (pounds and inches shaved off, smoothed complexion, etc.) or pictures where she's almost completely covered up.

What a hypocrite. She tells others that they should be proud of who they are, then she hides behind costumes, wigs, makeup, and Photoshop herself.

Hey, Gaga - you want to start a "Body Revolution"? Then start one!

Pollstar's Mid-Year Top 100 Worldwide Tours of 2014 report was released...

 ... and Lady Gaga's artRAVE barely makes it into the top 50.
                   

Trailing behind her female pop competitors at #46, Lady Gaga is behind Cher (#9), Miley Cyrus (#14), Dolly Parton (#23), Katy Perry (#26), Celine Dion (#28), Demi Lovato (#41), Taylor Swift (#42), and Britney Spears (#44).

The data shows Lady Gaga's average ticket price at $78.24 (clearly doesn't include giveaways or other sad attempts to fill the arenas)...

Tweet captured by PDLM

The average number of tickets sold per show at 13,348

The total number of tickets sold as far as publication - which was 21 shows played in 15 cities - at 200,222

And in terms of money, the average dollar amount pulled in per show is published at $1,044,372 with a grand total of $15.7 million.

The leading lady and lucky #46

Wow! So much for the Queen of Pop! Maybe Lady Gaga should have released The Greatest Thing after all, then maybe she could ride off Cher's coattails for a while instead of Tony Bennett's.

Now that Gaga's North American leg of the tour is over, it should be interesting to see how the rest of the tour pans out. Her next stop is Eastern Asia, with two dates in Japan and one in Seoul, followed by Oceania (6 shows),Western Asia (2 shows), and finally Europe (30 shows).

What do you think her final numbers will look like?