page_title: Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga
section_title: Cancellation
hierarchical_section_title: Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga / Cancellation
caption_attribution_description: Kanye West
context_page_description: Fame Kills: Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga was a planned co-headlining concert tour by American rapper Kanye West and singer Lady Gaga. For the tour, which would have supported West's fourth album 808s & Heartbreak and Gaga's The Fame Monster EP, the pair conceived a production that would unite their different musical audiences. The tour was scheduled to run from November 2009 to January 2010, but was canceled after public controversy regarding West's interruption of Taylor Swift's Best Female Video speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and because of the backwards roll. Shortly after the cancellation, Gaga embarked on her own tour, The Monster Ball Tour, while West took a break from his career.
context_section_description: Following singer Taylor Swift's win for the music video "You Belong with Me" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video, West stormed the stage, grabbed Swift's microphone, and declared that singer Beyoncé deserved the award for her "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" video. He declared, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm going to let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time." West was profusely criticized by celebrities and fans alike over the incident. Following the interruption, the status of Fame Kills was rumored to be in question. A representative from a US urban radio station commented: "I think this could potentially affect his upcoming tour with Lady Gaga. This isn't an urban tour — urban audiences can be a bit more forgiving than mainstream audiences are. I can see him going on stage and people booing him. It's unfortunate." Less than a week after the ticket sales began, the tour was canceled but no reason was given.
  Various rumors circulated as to why the tour was canceled. It was suspected that it was canceled due to poor ticket sales, feuding between Gaga and West's management teams, and Gaga's desire to play in smaller venues. Gaga's choreographer, Laurieann Gibson, said the tour was terminated due to "creative differences" between the singers. Gaga claimed that the cancellation was a mutual decision, and added that she would soon embark on her own headlining tour, The Monster Ball Tour in the coming weeks, while West would be taking a break. In 2016, West claimed that Gaga had been solely responsible for canceling the tour following the MTV incident.
  Gaga was scheduled to begin The Monster Ball Tour in March 2010, but following the cancellation of Fame Kills, The Monster Ball Tour began in November 2009. Gaga said that while she was inspired by what she and West had planned to do with the Fame Kills tour, she decided not to use any of the ideas and concepts they created together, citing integrity.
caption: West (pictured) was criticized for his interruption of Taylor Swift's VMA speech. The incident reportedly put the fate of the Fame Kills tour in question.
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