Kanye West, Lady Gaga tour cast in doubt as ‘Fame Kills’ dates dry up

A lot of things have happened since late last week when Lady Gaga revealed the first dates for a co-headlining tour with Kanye West. However, the promised official announcement about the upcoming 2009-2010 venture has yet to materialize.

The tour began to sour soon after it was announced, starting with West’s unfortunate commandeering of the September 13 MTV Video Music Awards. In a stunt that has since sustained the media’s vitriol, West swiped the mic from country starlet Taylor Swift mid-acceptance speech to say a few misguided words of his own.

Whether West’s all-too-public folly is to blame for more than Swift’s televised heartache remains to be seen. However, since those antics incensed the nation, a mystery has grown around the planned West-Gaga production, according to recent reports from the Los Angeles Times.

In a September 11 update on her official Web site, Lady Gaga confirmed four tour dates with West on the Fame Kills Tour. The artist’s site promised that complete dates for the 2009-2010 outing would appear on September 14 or 15 (or the jumbled “Monday, September 15,” to quote exactly), and at the same time, Ticketmaster unveiled the first event pages for the co-headlining event.

On the Monday morning following the VMAs, a supposedly “confirmed” itinerary did circulate through the press, appearing first on trade publication Pollstar before receiving coverage from Rolling Stone, among others. Media outlets even announced details of the pair’s concert plans to local markets on the tour’s route. (The full itinerary is listed below.)

Initial presales were set for mid-week, with the first Fame Kills onsales slated for September 18 and 19. But in recent days, Ticketmaster has pulled its event pages for the pair’s few listed performances. Even Gaga’s tour update on September 11 has disappeared from her site.

All the while, Lady Gaga and West have remained silent on the issue. Even now, as the award show furor continues, the artists’ determined silence and the slow evaporation of event details has cast doubt on the fate of the tour.

When questioned about the tour’s status, Lady Gaga’s spokesperson reportedly told the Times, “Live Nation has yet to officially announce the tour and the correct routing.”

Official spokespeople for Live Nation and Ticketmaster did not immediately return TicketNews’ requests for comment. However, a customer service representative for Ticketmaster noted that the company usually alerts its employees about major upcoming tours in order to prepare for consumer calls. According to the representative, no new tour dates or sales have been announced internally for West or Lady Gaga.

It is unclear whether the supposed touring partners are simply waiting until the current media firestorm blows over, or if a more indefinite hiatus lies ahead for the tour.

On the evening of September 14, West told late night talk titan Jay Leno that he planned to take time off to re-evaluate his life following the incident with Swift. At the time, critics noted that his “time off” would be limited if he had to be on the road for a November 10 tour launch, but with the current tour itinerary in doubt, it seems his statement might have had some grounds.

“Fame Kills” itinerary:
(Dates subject to change.)