The Born This Way Ball was the third concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga, in support of her second studio album Born This Way (2011). The tour visited every populated continent, and was ranked as the fifth highest-grossing tour of 2012 by Pollstar. The tour grossed $22.5 million in 2013 according to Pollstar's year-end chart from the 18 dates played, bringing the Born This Way Ball Tour's total gross to $183.9 million from 98 dates. The tour was well received by critics who praised the stage design, Gaga's vocal abilities and different expressive messages.
On February 13, 2013, after already announcing the postponement of shows in Chicago, Detroit, and Hamilton two days earlier due to an injury, Live Nation and Lady Gaga announced the cancellation of the remaining concert dates due to the singer's development of a labral tear of the right hip caused by strenuous repetitive movements involved in the shows. The singer went through surgery to fix the damage caused.
Background and development
During the release of "Judas", the second single from Born This Way, Lady Gaga confirmed in an interview that she would embark on a concert tour in 2012, which would visit Latin American countries for the first time, like Brazil, and would return to Mexico. In November 2011, producer DJ White Shadow asserted that Gaga was "doing [preparations] for the next round of touring", adding that the singer's main objective in the following year was to continue preparing for the Born This Way Ball, as well as create new songs for her next studio album. Fernando Garibay, who began collaborating with Gaga in The Fame Monster (2009), felt that Born This Way was one of his most personal moments. He opined, "This album was the most personal [because of] the amount of detail that went into this record, the amount of passion [and] emotion from her and the team. Every song was a story towards the Born This Way theme. We're excited now, putting that into the tour and expressing that on a live performance level." In contrast to her previous tour, Garibay affirmed that the shows of the Born This Way Ball would be more exaggerated.
A promotional poster of the tour was released on February 7, 2012, which was described by Billboard Ray Waddell as a "bizarre poster that portrays the ball as a campy, medieval-meets-the-80's kingdom." It features Gaga's face hovering over dark clouds looking down from the sky, and includes touches of neon purple and turquoise coloring. She is also fused into a keytar, standing near her dancers in front of a medieval castle. The first leg for the Born This Way Ball was announced the following day, revealing that Gaga would perform concerts in countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Additional dates as part of the Asia-Pacific leg were added on February 15, 2012. Live Nation Global Touring CEO Arthur Fogel and his team will steer around the tour, as they did the bulk of The Monster Ball Tour of 2010–11. Fogel explained that "The last tour established [Gaga] as a major act worldwide and I believe this tour will be an extension of that, particularly considering we're going to territories she's never been in, like Southeast Asia and Latin America."
A European leg was announced in March 2012, which consisted of twenty-one dates over a period of two months, initiating in Bulgaria while concluding in Spain. Subsequently, German electronic musician Zedd was declared as an opening act for the Asian leg of the tour, while longtime collaborator Lady Starlight and British glam rock band The Darkness were approached as opening acts for the European portion of the Born This Way Ball. In their website, the band stated that they were "honoured to announce their addition to the bill as main support for Lady Gaga's Born This Way Ball tour 2012." Dates for Latin America were announced on August 6, 2012, via Twitter. There were two dates in North America and four in South America, with more to be added.