Born This Way Ball

The Born This Way Ball was the third concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga, in support of her second studio album Born This Way (2011). The tour visited every populated continent, and was ranked as the fifth highest-grossing tour of 2012 by Pollstar. The tour grossed $22.5 million in 2013 according to Pollstar's year-end chart from the 18 dates played, bringing the Born This Way Ball Tour's total gross to $183.9 million from 98 dates. The tour was well received by critics who praised the stage design, Gaga's vocal abilities and different expressive messages.
On February 13, 2013, after already announcing the postponement of shows in Chicago, Detroit, and Hamilton two days earlier due to an injury, Live Nation and Lady Gaga announced the cancellation of the remaining concert dates due to the singer's development of a labral tear of the right hip caused by strenuous repetitive movements involved in the shows. The singer went through surgery to fix the damage caused.
Upon the release of "Judas", the second single from Born This Way, Lady Gaga confirmed in an interview that she would embark on a concert tour in 2012, in which she would visit Latin American countries for the first time, like Brazil, Chile and Colombia, and would be returning to Mexico. In November 2011, producer DJ White Shadow asserted that Gaga was "doing [work] for the next round of touring", adding that the singer's main objective in the following year was to continue preparing for the Born This Way Ball, as well as write new songs for her next studio album. Fernando Garibay, who began collaborating with Gaga on The Fame Monster (2009), felt that Born This Way was one of his most personal moments. He opined: "This album was the most personal [because of] the amount of detail that went into this record, the amount of passion [and] emotion from her and the team. Every song was a story towards the 'Born This Way' theme. We're excited now, putting that into the tour and expressing that on a live performance level." In comparison to her previous tour, Garibay affirmed that the shows of the Born This Way Ball would be more "exaggerated".
A promotional poster of the tour was released on February 7, 2012, which was described by Billboard's Ray Waddell as a "bizarre poster that portrays the ball as a campy, medieval-meets-the-80's kingdom." It features Gaga's face hovering over dark clouds looking down from the sky, and includes colors such as neon-purple and turquoise. She is also fused into a keytar, standing near her dancers in front of a medieval castle. The first leg for the Born This Way Ball was announced the following day, revealing that Gaga would perform several concerts in Asia, including in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. Additional dates were added to the Asia-Pacific leg on February 15, 2012. Live Nation Global Touring CEO Arthur Fogel and his team would steer around the tour, as they did the bulk of The Monster Ball Tour (2010–11). Fogel explained that "The last tour established [Gaga] as a major act worldwide and I believe this tour will be an extension of that, particularly considering we're going to territories she's never been in, like Southeast Asia and Latin America."
A European leg was announced in March 2012, which consisted of 21 dates over a period of two months, kicking-off in Sofia, Bulgaria, and concluding in Spain. Soon thereafter, German electronic musician Zedd was declared as Gaga's opening act for the Asian leg of the tour, while longtime collaborator Lady Starlight and British glam rock band The Darkness were approached as opening acts for the European portion of the tour. On their website, The Darkness stated that they were "honoured to announce their addition to the bill as main support for Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball tour 2012." Dates for Latin America were announced on August 6, 2012, via Twitter. There were two initial dates in North America and four in South America, with more soon added.
Gaga evaluated the tour as an "electro-metal pop-opera" and "the tale of the Beginning, the genesis of the Kingdom of Fame. How we were birthed and how we will die celebrating." Dance rehearsals were held for approximately one month. In February 2012, Gaga revealed that she would release visuals of the show's stage set via Twitter. The singer unveiled a sketch of the stage design, which was created by Gaga herself along with her creative team, Haus of Gaga. She tweeted: "I'm so excited. The Haus has been working so hard, we can't wait for you to see it!! Love you Little Monsters, have the time of your life." The stage was built over a period of several months, and was modeled after a medieval-gothic castle, featuring tall viewing towers, intricate carvings and a large catwalk to interact with the floor audience. The spectacle required at least 15 trailers to move the castle onto the stage, each one measuring nearly 53 feet (16.15 m) long. The area enclosed by the catwalk was described by Gaga as "The Monster Pit". "The Monster Pit is General Admission only, and Little Monsters [...] unlock it when they arrive to the arena or stadium. Entry to The Monster Pit is relegated [...] to the fans who have arrived first, waited all night, [...] dressed to 'Ball.' Every night Haus of Gaga will choose fans from The Monster Pit to come back stage and meet me! These tickets are not more expensive. No dress code requirement. Born This Way means anything goes."
As part of an advertising campaign in the weeks prior to the tour, sketches of four costumes designed by Giorgio Armani were released to the press; Armani previously dressed Gaga for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, and later, on the Monster Ball Tour. Many other costumes on the tour were created by Donatella Versace.
The show was set in and around a large medieval-style land and castle, dubbed the "Kingdom of Fame", which rotated and maneuvered throughout. A classical score accompanied the concert's interludes, tying-in with the dark, operatic themes. The show began with "Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)", featuring an extended intro in which Gaga performed atop a manually-operated "horse" puppet built exclusively by The Jim Henson Company. After the opening number, the stage went dark and spotlights were shone across the stage with a helicopter sound being played. The audience then heard "Mother G.O.A.T." speak for the first time, stating that "alien fugitive Lady Gaga has escaped", and that "Operation: Kill the Bitch" was in order. Gaga appeared in an alien-like costume for "Government Hooker", in which she pretended to seduce a dancer, dressed in a suit, before "killing" him and leaving the stage. Gaga's dancers then re-enacted the "birth" scene of "Born This Way", as Gaga groaned and simulated being in labor, before exiting a zipper-like "vagina" of a large, inflatable body.
After "Black Jesus + Amen Fashion" and "Bloody Mary", an interlude commenced, and the opening dialogue of the music video of "Born This Way" could be heard For "Bad Romance", Gaga arrived on stage inside of a vessel. Following this, she escaped to the top of the castle for "Judas", before escaping and performing "Fashion of His Love" and "Just Dance". During "LoveGame", a clear bathtub, built on the stage, featured Gaga singing inside. After a break and brief chat from the singer, in which she thanked the audience for coming to the show, "Telephone" was performed, with its original choreography. An interlude followed, with Mother G.O.A.T. describing "Gaga's takeover of planet earth". "Heavy Metal Lover" was performed next; Gaga appeared atop the body of a motor-"tricycle" with her arms in two slots, a recreation of her album cover. Gaga drove-around the Monster Pit, followed by choreography for the last chorus of the song. After "Bad Kids", an acoustic section followed with songs like "Hair", "Princess Die", and "You and I". The section concluded with "Electric Chapel", with a display of flashing lights before Gaga left the stage.
After a Spanish guitar intro, Gaga then returned in a recreation of her iconic meat dress for "Americano". "Poker Face" was next; at the end of the song, Gaga was lowered into a "meat grinder", before later emerging from the stage sitting on a "meat couch" to perform "Alejandro" in a gun-bra and green trousers. The castle closed with an interlude and blue lights. Mother G.O.A.T. flew about the castle, mouthing the words of the first verse of "Paparazzi", until Gaga returned to "kill" her with her new disco-stick. Gaga then gave a speech about how there are "no boundaries in music", before performing "Scheiße". After the song, the stage went black. Moments later, Gaga was seen in one of the castle towers for "The Edge of Glory" and the final song, "Marry the Night". When the show ended, Gaga and her dancers were lowered off-stage and the castle went dark.
The Korea Herald journalist Cho Chung-un opined that Gaga "captivated the audience" with what he described as "innovative and breathtaking stage installations and ideas" during the performance. Writing for the same publication, Emma Kalka complemented Gaga's wardrobe, and cited several segments, such as her "Americano" performance, as highlights of the concert. To Kwaak Je-yup of The Korea Times, the performance demonstrated Gaga's abilities as a performing artist, stating: "Friday night was Lady Gaga at her best, fusing fashion and designs with great melodies and dance moves."
A writer for MTV noted the elaborate visuals of the show with its "Gothic castle backdrop and myriad costume changes", concluding that it was "clear that Gaga has outdone even her own Monster Ball in terms of spectacle." Elizabeth Soh of Yahoo! gave a positive review of the Singapore concert, describing it as "at times shocking, raunchy, mellow and just plain bizarre." The New Zealand Herald felt that it was "obvious Gaga believes in her message, you can feel it in her voice. [That] Behind all the lights, glitz, meat, guns and exploding bras is a singer of exceptional talent". Regarding her first show in Brisbane, the Brisbane Times gave it five stars, writing that it was "pure pop theatre", and that "the crowd was simply lost in the Gaga experience. Sean Sennet of The Australian commented that the show was "An extravaganza in every sense" and will be "remembered as a benchmark tour."
Simon Sweetman of New Zealand's Stuff.co.nz praised the tour's three nights in Auckland as the best pop concerts since Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope Tour (1998-99). South African publication The New Age gave Gaga's performance in Johannesburg five stars, stating that "Gaga's energy teamed with a bevy of spectacular dancers made for an electric show". South African newspaper The Times's Nikita Ramkissoon shared in this praise, writing that she "was really taken by was her natural talent... From arriving on stage on a horse, birthing herself, dancing dripping with sex and magnificence, Black Jesus and legs splayed open on an armchair made of meat, this performance was nothing short of spectacular. Every minute of it... Everyone [she] know who was there was blown away. You just had to be there to see how impressive it was".
The Born This Way Ball was labelled as the "best show of the year" and "one of the most amazing events in years in Lithuania" by Lithuanian publication ATN. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph awarded the Born This Way Ball in Helsinki four stars, writing that the show "is quite spectacular... and quite spectacularly bonkers", mentioning that Gaga "occupies pole position as the 21st centuries ultimate pop star". Swedish news corporation Expressen gave the show five stars, believing that "her two and a half hour show is by far the most lavish and eccentric [they'd] ever seen", complementing Gaga's "flashes of humour... and smart political digs", and the show's intimacy and promotion of self-expression and love. The Guardian gave the show four out of five stars, stating that "The tightly choreographed hits sound terrific, but it's when this curious star sabotages the slickness that she seems most herself". Regarding her performance at the O2 World in Berlin, Berliner Morgenpost reported that "unlike Madonna, whose artificial spectacle you could experience at the same place, the younger rival is cheeky, fresh, uncompromising". Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang gave it a mixed review, admiring her voice, but saying that "if we are going to talk about content, it is similar [to Madonna's]. Gaga hardly says anything Madonna didn't say 25 years ago" adding that "But I have a feeling that she is a less interesting pop-artist than many of us had hoped for. Lady Gaga so often praised for being "original", is mostly very un-original."
Reviews of the North American leg were mostly positive; in the Vancouver Sun, François Marchand praised the show, stating that "Unlike Madonna, whose latest Vancouver appearance was dominated by violent imagery and a borderline bullying attitude toward her longtime fans, Gaga continued to carry her trademark message of empowerment and self-love". Jeva Lange's review in Seattle Weekly of the Tacoma show echoed the praise given to the Vancouver shows, believing that "her voice, costumes, and lyrical honesty were not only completely unforgettable, they were inspiring". Rich Lopez from the Dallas Voice praised the show and Gaga's "relentlessness in giving a dynamic performance", saying that "She shocked, she touched, she served diva realness, and like those four fans onstage (as well as the ones who joined her in the "Marry the Night" finale), she made everyone feel special." The Arizona Republic's Joe Golfen also gave the Phoenix show a positive review, stating: "The nearly two-and-a-half hour show, a stop on her worldwide Born This Way Ball, highlighted everything that has made Lady Gaga such a phenomenon. There were outrageous outfits, elaborate set pieces, sexy dance numbers, and messages of self-respect and gay rights. Plus, all those hit songs." Golfen also added: "That packed arena of screaming fans made it clear that her star wasn't going to be fading away anytime soon."
Other North American reports were more critical, such as Emily Zemler of The Hollywood Reporter giving the Los Angeles show a mixed review, writing: "The music was, at best, secondary to the grab-bag, highly produced performance... It was almost as though the singer decided to indulge every possible idea anyone ever had for her live show simultaneously". Jim Harrington from the Oakland Tribune gave the San Jose concert a negative review, saying that the "production is so over-the-top that it completely buries the music", adding that "the level of enthusiasm [of the fans] definitely seemed to peak early in the concert."
Tickets for the tour brought tremendous commercial success across several Asian and Australian markets. Tickets for the Asia-Pacific leg of the Born This Way Ball became available on February 17, 2012, through Ticketek and Ticketmaster. Shortly after being made available, tickets for the first two of the three Auckland shows were sold-out. In response to positive ticket sales in New Zealand and Australia, nine additional concerts were scheduled as part of the Asia-Pacific leg. In Hong Kong, an estimated 6,000 presale tickets became available on February 24 for two originally scheduled shows; these were sold-out within three hours, prompting Live Nation to add three more dates (for a total of five sold-out shows) in Hong Kong. Additional sellouts and positive commercial results were reported for the successive performances in Hong Kong, as well as in Taipei, Saitama, Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul, and Jakarta, with the latter having sold out within two hours.
Similar successes were echoed in European markets. Several British publications indicated that presale tickets in the United Kingdom were selling beyond the demand. Industry analysts suggested that based on internet searches that an estimated two million people could attempt to purchase a ticket out of the 75,000 that were issued for the London and Manchester dates. Tickets became available for general sale on April 13, 2012; the London event sold out in a record-breaking 50 seconds, while the Manchester concert sold out under ten minutes. Several European ticketing sites crashed when the tickets went on sale, including Sweden, Finland and Spain, where the Barcelona pre-sale fastly sold out; more than 22,000 people attended her outdoor concert in Bucharest, Romania. Both Russian dates sold out in hours. The biggest crowd on the tour was in Saint-Denis at the Stade de France on September 22, 2012, when Gaga, with 71,000 people in attendance, became the youngest artist to ever grace the stadium until Rihanna scheduled a date at the Stade de France on her Diamonds World Tour for June 2013.
The high demand for tickets continued in Africa. When tickets went on sale for the two dates in South Africa, the ticket retailer Computicket's online ticketing servers crashed under the pressure from the high volume of fans trying to buy tickets to the concerts. Before the crash, some fans experienced extremely long waiting times in online queues, up to two hours, and at one point it was reported that over 26,000 people were still waiting to purchase tickets online. As a result, Computicket decided to cease online ticket sale until the following morning.
Despite the worldwide commercial success of the tour, it was not very well-received by the South American market, largely due to ticketing and pricing issues, as well as availability. In Colombia, for example, some tickets were sold at half of their original price to increase total sales, generating widespread criticism from fans who had bought tickets at their original prices; the production company also made an offer to fans who had bought tickets at their original prices, in which they could receive a second free ticket for the same show with a price-adjusted refund, or a full refund. To increase sales of the three concerts in Brazil, special offers were made, including a two-for-one special for standing-room-only sections, as well as a "ten-installments-with-no-interest" payment plan for tickets. In Chile, demand was comparatively higher than in the rest of South America; however, tickets for each respective date were not made immediately available. The production company then had to make additional special offers, two weeks before the show, including a two-for-one offer for standing-room-only sections, and reducing the prices for most of the tickets. In Peru, tickets were sold at their original prices.
The North American leg of the tour additionally experienced strong ticket sales. By the time the final 21 dates of the tour had been canceled on February 13, the entire leg had been nearly sold out. Had the entire leg been completed, the tour would have topped $200 million in ticket sales. The cancellation of the last 21 dates resulted in refunds of over $25 million and 200,000 tickets. With more than twenty dates left, Gaga was forced to cancel the remaining tour dates due to sustaining a hip injury that required surgery. With the dates of the tour that were successfully completed, Gaga grossed more than $160 million.
The South Asian part of the tour was the subject of some controversy due to its denunciation by anti-LGBT activists. Gaga's support for LGBT rights, the supposed indecency of her shows, and religious content in her lyrics led some homophobic Christian and Muslim groups in South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia to call for the cancellation of the concerts. Most went on as scheduled, although one, in Indonesia, was canceled due to threats, the cancellation being seen as an indicator of the growing influence of extremist groups like the Islamic Defenders Front.
Several conservative political commentators denounced The Born This Way Ball shortly after the conception of the tour. In May 2012, Gaga sparked an online uproar, particularly in the city of Bangkok when she tweeted: "I just landed in Bangkok baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex." Several of Gaga's fans felt that the tweet was racist and viewed it as a negative stereotype. The following month, weeks after her concert in Thailand, several members of the country filed a public lawsuit against Gaga for misuse of the Thailand flag. The complaints came from when Gaga while wearing an accessorized and provocative bikini costume with a traditional Thai headdress, rode a motorcycle across the stage with a Thai flag tied to it. Government officials in the country deemed the act as "not appropriate" and felt that it "hurt the feelings of Thai People".
Gaga caused more controversy after her performance of June 27 in Melbourne, where she debuted a new song called "Princess Die", about suicide and mental illness. The song's lyrics, including lines such as "I wish that I was strong/I wish that I was wrong/I wish that I could cope/but I took pills and left a note" were slammed as "distasteful" by suicide charities, who feared the message about the suicide that the song portrayed. Chris Wagner of Lifeline, an international crisis support service, stated, "Lifeline is very concerned about the nature of the song, particularly as it clearly describes the method of suicide and talks in depth about suicide. It doesn't actually have any message of hope, of help seeking, or anything of a positive nature whatsoever." The song's references to Diana, Princess of Wales and her death also caused offense and outrage, despite Gaga attempting to distance herself from such controversy by clearly spelling out the name of the song during her concert.
This set list is representative of the first show in Los Angeles. It does not represent all dates throughout the tour.
Credits adapted from the tour's official program.