Can you smell the raw meat yet? Taste the neon paint? Pull out your hairspray, draw on eyebrows with your favourite Sharpie and brace your inner freak for the Queen Monster: Lady Gaga is bringing her artRAVE tour to Dubai on September 10, marking her first time performing in the Middle East.
If you don’t already know, Gaga goes gaga for the unexpected, so here’s a recap of the icon’s previous tours, and what to anticipate from her performance.
Tour: Fame Ball
Associated album: The Fame
When: March 12-September 29, 2009
What: The tour opened in San Diego, California; The show’s Andy Warhol theme came to life with fashion technology videos and futuristic theatrics; she called it “a travelling museum/party show.” This tour is where she first walked out in her famous plastic bubble dress and sang at her $60,000 glass piano. The four-part show included her dressed up as her alter ego, “Candy Warhol”, wearing a yellow, above-the-knee dress with pointy shoulder pads and rocking a platinum blonde bob.
Number of performances: 70 (24 in North America, 29 in Europe, 9 in Oceania and 8 in Asia).
Set list highlights: Paparazzi, Poker Face, Just Dance
Gross income: $3.5 million
Tour: Monster Ball (known to be her most popular tour to date)
Associated album: The Fame Monster
When: November 27, 2009-May 6, 2011
What: The only one of her tours to have been documented by HBO, (Gaga Presents: The Monster Ball Tour At Madison Square Garden), the tour’s theme was a mix of the previous Fame Ball tour with the Monster Ball tour; incorporating the idea of fame with inspirations from her favourites childhood musicals such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “West Side Story” and her love for sci-fi films and miniseries, “Metropolis” and “Angels and Demons.”
Number of performances: 201 (119 in North America, 63 in Europe, 15 in Oceania and 4 in Asia).
Set list highlights: Telephone, You & I, Alejandro, Bad Romance
Gross income $2.4million
Tour: Born This Way Ball
Associated album: Born This Way
When: April 27, 2012-February 11, 2013
What: One of her most controversial tours, the five-act tour was imbued with social and political themes, such as discrimination, self-love and government control. Reference to religious content in her lyrics and social issues (such as her support of the gay community) and indecency on stage offended some Asian Muslim and Christian groups, resulting in show cancellations in the Philippines and Indonesia. This show marked her first appearance on a couch made of meat, performing “Alejandro”.
Number of performances: 98 (16 in Asia, 17 in Oceania, 33 in Europe, 22 in North America, 8 in South America and 2 in Africa.)
Set list highlights: Born This Way, Edge of Glory, Marry the Night
Gross income: $1.8million
Tour: ArtRave: Art Pop Ball
Associated album: Art Pop
When: May 4, 2014-November 10, 2014
What: For this tour, Lady G made sure she held her concerts in the cities where some of her “Born This Way” shows were cancelled due to hip surgery. Shows include two stages rather than the regular “one stage-monster pit”. Her shows’ themes are going to be a hybrid of classic Disney films and ’90s raves — she has already been seen in Little Mermaid costumes, such as an Ursula costume with tentacles attached, and black latex pants with a green wig and a necklace made of marijuana leaves.
Number of performances expected: 69 (37 in North America, 25 in Europe, 4 in Oceania and 3 in Asia (and one in the Middle East!)
Set list highlights: Applause, G.U.Y., Do What U Want
