Multitalented star Jennifer Lopez won't be getting loud in arenas across the country this summer, rising Mexican music star Peso Pluma won't be dancing into Oklahoma City, Tulsa and many other North American cities, and if The Black Keys were depending on their fall headlining tour for companionship, they're going to be lonely boys.
That's because over the past several days, all three acts have canceled several or all of their planned North American tour dates, including scheduled shows at Oklahoma arenas.
Seeing a trio of high-profile acts cross off swaths of dates for less-than-tangible reasons — not like Ann Wilson's “time-sensitive but routine medical procedure" cited by classic rockers Heart in nixing a batch of European shows, or the broken water lines that disrupted Megan Thee Stallion's "Hot Girl Summer" Atlanta stop — has left music fans speculating about the causes behind the recent rash of concert cancellations.
Possible explanations from industry watchers range from buyers' changing habits in the post-pandemic era to the high prices for tickets.
"There's a lot of options in the marketplace right now. I think 2024 is proving to be a very high volume year for concerts. And with the way things are in the economy, I just think people are being more selective with their income," said, Jordan Racine, director of programming for OKC's Paycom Center.
Why did Jennifer Lopez cancel her summer concert tour?
In February, Lopez announced plans for her "This Is Me…Now The Tour," including a July 24 Oklahoma show at Tulsa's BOK Center. Produced by Live Nation, the North American run was to mark J.Lo's return to touring after a five-year break following her successful 2019 trek, which grossed more than $50 million and sold out venues across the country.
The summer outing was to feature Lopez performing songs from her catalog of hits as well as from her new album "This Is Me…Now," released Feb. 16. Instead, J.Lo announced on May 31, weeks before she was scheduled to go on the road, that she was scrapping her entire trek.
The tour cancellation announcement in her On The JLo newsletter informed fans that "Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends." He announcement came amid rumors about the state of her marriage of nearly two years to Ben Affleck, USA Today reports.
"I am completely heartsick and devastated about letting you down. Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary. I promise I will make it up to you and we will all be together again," Lopez wrote in a "special message" to her fans in the newsletter. "I love you all so much. Until next time …"
But J.Lo's announcement also came weeks after several of her shows were canceled without explanation. According to Ticketmaster, Lopez's scheduled performances in Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; Raleigh, North Carolina; Atlanta; Houston; Cleveland and Tampa, Florida, weren't happening. And that led to reports of lackluster ticket sales that plagued the planned tour, according to Forbes.
J.Lo joins The Black Keys in scrapping North American tour
Just before Memorial Day, six-time Grammy Award winners The Black Keys quietly canceled their 2024 North American headlining tour that was originally slated to launch in Oklahoma.
The duo of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney announced in April plans to kick off the fall "International Players Tour" Sept. 17 at Tulsa's BOK Center. Produced by Live Nation, the coast-to-coast tour originally was scheduled to go on to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, with two dates in the band’s home state of Ohio.
The Black Keys' 31-city autumn tour was to support their 12th studio album, "Ohio Players," which was released April 5 via Nonesuch Records.
But an Instagram post over Memorial Day weekend on The Black Keys' official account revealed the duo's new plan to reconfigure the the North American leg of the tour, which seems unlikely to be rebooked in arenas.
"Following the recent run of shows in the UK & Europe, including stops at iconic venues like Brixton Academy and the Zenith in Paris, we have decided to make some changes to the North American leg of the International Players Tour that will enable us to offer a similarly exciting, intimate experience for both fans and the band, and will be announcing a revised set of dates shortly," the band posted on Instagram.
Peso Pluma cancels OKC, Tulsa and other North American tour dates
Groundbreaking Mexican musician Peso Pluma recently canceled his summer OKC and Tulsa shows, along with several other concerts on his North American tour. In partnership with Live Nation, the rising global music star announced in February plans to play coast to coast on his 2024 "Éxodo Tour" in celebration of his Grammy-winning 2023 album "Génesis."
His 40-date trek was originally slated to include two summer shows in Oklahoma: July 23 in OKC at Paycom Center and Aug. 3 in Tulsa at the BOK Center. But representatives from both Sooner State venues confirmed last week that those shows were canceled.
YouTube's No. 1 most-viewed artist of 2023 in the U.S., Pluma also has canceled tour dates in at least seven other North American cities, including Montreal, Toronto, Kansas City, Nashville, New Orleans, Detroit and Miami, Florida, according to Ticketmaster.
No official reason was given for the Oklahoma show cancellations. Neither representatives for Pluma nor Live Nation responded to an email last week from The Oklahoman.
"In the case of Peso Pluma, yes, he took down several concert dates. He also added a lot (in) ... more obvious Latin markets that have been very strong, well-established Latin markets for a long time, just to make the safer play" said Racine at the Paycom Center.
"When you're in a growing Latin market, such as Oklahoma City or Tulsa ... I think sometimes it can be hard to command as high of ticket prices as the artist wants to be able to get paid."
So, why are so many concerts getting canceled?
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, concert promoters, sports teams and performing arts organizations all have noted a shift in consumer habits to waiting until the last minute to buy tickets. That trend can make it difficult to predict how a tour or season will fare financially, making them riskier prospects for event organizers.
"We have a subscription base, but then two weeks out, we don't know what we will sell," Oklahoma City Philharmonic Music Director Alexander Mickelthwate said at a 2023 Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Forum.
"It just makes it hard for us to plan. ... It's just a little bit more rocky."
In May, the Justice Department, 29 states and the District of Columbia sued Live Nation Entertainment — the parent company of Ticketmaster as well as the promoter of many tours, including the scrapped treks for J.Lo and The Black Keys — alleging it monopolized the live events industry.
The lawsuit seeks to lower prices for fans and open up venues to more musicians, USA Today reports, noting that the fees Ticketmaster charges for concert tickets can be "staggering."
Last year, MarketWatch noted the coining of the term "funflation" — a combination of “fun” and “inflation" — to describe a surge in consumer spending on entertainment like concerts, movies and sporting events, with the high demand boosting the ticket prices for those types of experiences.
"I think a little bit of it is the industry realizing that there is a level of price resistance. We haven't really seen that in the last couple of years. Coming out of COVID, people have been willing to pay a lot of money for concert tickets," Racine said. "Now that we're a couple of years past COVID and things have evened out a little ... we're starting to see what the ceiling is on what artists are able to charge for ticket prices."
Which music stars are seeing success on tour?
Although some stars are canceling their concert tours, others are finding great success on the road.
Last year, Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" set a Guinness World Record by becoming the highest-grossing music tour ever and the first to surpass $1 billion dollars in revenue.
Also in 2023, Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour," Beyonce's "Renaissance World Tour" and Harry Styles' "Love on Tour" all broke into Billboard Boxscore's Top 10 Tours of All Time.
This year, hitmakers like Oklahoma country music star Zach Bryan, Drake and Olivia Rodrigo haven't had trouble selling out the OKC arena and beyond, either.
And the concert announcements keep coming.
Justin Timberlake recently added a Paycom Center concert to his 2024 "The Forget Tomorrow World Tour" that already included a Tulsa BOK Center show, and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson revealed last week a short list of dates for his "Last Call: One More for the Road" tour, including an OKC farewell performance on Jan. 18, 2025, at Paycom Center.
"I think the demand for experiences and live entertainment is strong. I think people want to get out, they want to experience those events, and they want to come to concerts. It's a business that has a very finite supply ... in that an artist is only going to come around to the market once every four or five years, if (that)," Racine said.
"People are going to come and purchase an experience that they're going to get maybe once in their life or twice. ... But I do think that with the amount of options that are available for fans right now in the entertainment market, people are just being a little more selective with their discretionary spending."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why are stars like J.Lo, Black Keys, Peso Pluma canceling arena shows?
