Jennifer Lopez is still struggling to sell tickets just ONE MONTH before This is Me… Now tour kicks off – as insiders claim she looked to Taylor Swift and Madonna for inspiration
Jennifer Lopez may have rebranded her This is Me… Live tour – but even with a new emphasis on her greatest hits she appears to still be struggling to shift tickets.
The Jenny From The Block singer, 54, is hitting the road next month with a string of dates across North America in support of her ninth studio album, This is Me… Now.
But with only a matter of weeks to go, Lopez – who will co-chair this year’s Met Gala next week – is facing a worrying lack of sales, with blocks of seating still available at multiple venues, according to official seat maps on Ticketmaster.
It comes after insiders claimed she looked to Taylor Swift and Madonna for guidance on how to draw in bigger numbers.
Jennifer Lopez is still facing poor ticket sales at multiple venues just one month before she is set to kick off her This is Me… Live tour
Blocks of seating are still available at some venues, according to official seat maps on Ticketmaster, ahead of the start date on June 26 in Orlando, Florida
Performances in Denver, Colorado, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are particularly bad, with row upon row of seats still available, while swathes of resale tickets also on offer for the opening night in Orlando, Florida, on June 26.
Despite selling the majority of tickets for the first nights, numbers are abysmal for the second, in particular on August 17 – the closing night of the tour – with large numbers of seats still available.
VIP packages for the gig, which range in price from $651 to $4,198, are also proving difficult to shift.
Other acts playing the 19,500-seat MSG arena this summer include Niall Horan and Billy Joel, who are close to selling out, while Pearl Jam has sold out two back-to-back shows in September at full capacity.
In contrast, there are a handful of locations that look close to selling out. These include Lopez’s upcoming shows in Newark, New Jersey, and Canada’s Toronto and Montreal in early August, where whole blocks of seating have been booked up.
In March, Lopez quietly canceled seven dates in Cleveland, Nashville, Raleigh, Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans and Houston between August 20 and 31 amid slow sales.
Sources previously told Billboard this was ‘due to routing issues.’
Lopez is experiencing poor sales for the second night of two in Miami, Florida, on June 29. The swathe of blue is unsold seats
It is a poorer state of affairs for the first night of two in Denver, Colorado, on July 22
Her date at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where not even 50 per cent of tickets appear to have been sold
Despite selling the majority of tickets for the first night in New York City, numbers are poor for the second night on August 17 (pictured), which also doubles up as the closing night of the tour
At the same time she announced the addition of second dates in Miami, Toronto and New York.
Shortly after, she renamed the tour This Is Me… Live The Greatest Hits in an apparent bid to appeal to fans after initially planning to focus it on her latest album– and first in 10 years – on February 16.
The decision was said to have been partly inspired by the success of her competitors Swift and Madonna who have enjoyed hugely successful tours in the last two years.
Lopez reportedly rebranded after looking at the success of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, which surpassed $1 billion in revenue, making it the highest grossing of all time
She also reportedly looked at Madonna’s ongoing Celebration Tour, which has made an impressive $77 million in ticket sales
‘This Is Me… Now was such a healing and cathartic experience for her. She does not regret it for one second.
‘But now she is looking forward and is ready to bring this back to her roots and show her fans that she is still, and always will be, Jenny from the Block.’
It is perhaps no surprise that Lopez looked to Swift, 34, whose record-breaking Eras Tour surpassed $1 billion in revenue, making it the highest grossing of all time.
Spanning over 3.5 hours, each show consists of a 44-song set list from the singer’s 17-year career.
Brand expert Hayley Knight previously told DailyMail.com that Lopez’s difficulty with shifting tickets could be the result of a bad marketing strategy – but claimed the rebrand would not necessarily help.
‘There is one main reason why Jennifer Lopez has rebranded her tour, and that’s to get people talking about it,’ she said.
‘Sales are low, and there hasn’t been a great deal of engagement or buzz around it, so rebranding it has gotten everyone talking about it again.’
The original poster for Lopez’s This is Me… Now tour before she changed the name and scrapped seven dates
She said the new title ‘diminishes the confidence she has in her same titled new album, and focuses on her hits,’ adding: ‘Secondly, unlike the likes of Taylor Swift, Madonna, Britney Spears and Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez doesn’t have a devoted fan base.
‘She has more casual fans of her music, who may or may not choose to go and see her live.’
This Is Me… Live The Greatest Hits marks Lopez’s comeback after a five-year hiatus, following her 2019 tour that grossed more than $50 million.
Her latest album debuted at number 38 on the Billboard 200, marking the first time she has missed out on the top 20.
It also failed to reach the top 50 on the UK Album Chart, entering at a dismal 55.
The release coincided with the premiere of her new semi-autobiographical film, This Is Me…Now: A Love Story, and her documentary, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, which together with the album, were part of a self-financed $20 million three-part multimedia project.
