Lily Allen has explained why several venues were downsized on her North America tour.
The singer has been performing her acclaimed 2025 album ‘West End Girl‘ in full at the accompanying tour over the last year. The theatrical shows see her appearing on stage alone, singing to backing tracks and not speaking to the crowd.
Earlier this month she kicked off the US leg of the tour with a giant show at Madison Square Garden. The rest of the tour was initially also supposed to take place in several arenas across the country, but in July, she moved several shows to smaller venues and cancelled a planned Montreal date.
Some dates went ahead as usual with no venue changes, however the show in Chicago – originally set for the 23,500-capacity United Center – was instead held at the 3,500-capacity Chicago Theatre. Other shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco were also downsized.
Now, Allen has opened up about the decision to switch the venues. Speaking in a new interview with The Cut, the singer explained: “The ticket sales weren’t there.”
She went on to say: “I think people sometimes have a misconception about artist greed. And, you know, maybe there are artists who are greedy, but let me tell you a little bit about the mechanics of how these things work: I don’t call up MSG and all of these other venues and say, ‘I’d like to book these dates, please. Thank you very much. I think I can fill these arenas.’ The company’s own promoters have data machines that tell them whether they’re going to be able to sell these tickets.
“And they offer artists a certain amount of money and tell them, ‘We would like to put on these events, and we think that we can sell out tickets. And would you like to oblige?'” she continued.
