Justin Bieber‘s 45-date North American tour is rapidly approaching, but it doesn’t seem to be selling well, as shown on Ticketmaster.
As a result, the 26-year-old pop star has downsized eight of the upcoming shows on the long awaited — but seemingly not anticipated — “Changes” world tour.
This means that Bieber will no longer perform at stadiums in Glendale, Ariz.; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and Indianapolis, Ind., among several other American cities, rather much smaller, arena-sized venues instead.
The Changes to the upcoming tour were made last Friday, with the decision being accredited to “unforeseen circumstances” by multiple venues, including Dallas, Texas’s American Airlines Center and Nashville, Tenn.’s Bridgestone Arena on Twitter.
Not only has Bieber had to scale down some of the shows, but he’s even had to reschedule a handful of them for different dates, including Houston, Texas, and Detroit, Mich.
The tour was announced in December, only weeks ahead of the release of Changes (2020): Bieber’s fifth and latest studio album. Throughout the trek — which will be his first since the Purpose world tour (2016-2017) — the Stratford, Ont.-born musician will promote the new record.
While there’s been no official statement from Bieber himself regarding the matter, a source supposedly “close to the tour,” described the downsizing of these shows as “a hard decision,” to Variety on Friday.
Tickets have been on sale since Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), and as of this writing, have not sold very well at most of the venues.
The news of the venue switches correlated with the cancellation of the world-renowned, Austin, Texas-based music festival, South by Southwest (or SXSW).
On Friday, the festival tweeted that for the first time in 34 years, it would be cancelled, shortly after the mayor of Austin, Steve Adler, announced a local disaster as a precaution to the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Additionally, multiple reports (including TMZ), have suggested that sales for the Changes tour are low because of the worldwide concern surrounding COVID-19, however, that has not yet been addressed publicly by Bieber, his label, or his management.
Though the Sorry singer never once claimed that ticket sales were low because of the continuously spreading virus — or any particular reason for that matter — many are now criticizing Bieber by claiming he’s simply using coronavirus as an excuse for his tour “flopping.”
Here’s what some Twitter users, including Perez Hilton, had to say:
Global News has reached out to a representative of Bieber seeking comment as to why some of his upcoming concert dates have been downsized.
Changes is now available through all major streaming platforms.
Despite the poor numbers in sales, all four Canadian stops on the Changes tour remain unchanged:
Select tickets for each date on the upcoming tour are still available, except for the Dallas, Tampa, Columbus and Washington shows — which are yet to go on sale through Ticketmaster.
For additional tour dates and further updates, you can visit the official Justin Bieber website.
Canadian 2020 ‘Changes’ world tour dates
Sept. 1 — Ottawa, Ont. @ Canadian Tire Centre
Sept. 3 — Quebec City, Que. @ Videotron Centre
Sept. 10 — Toronto, Ont. @ Rogers Centre
Sept. 14 — Montreal, Que. @ Bell Centre