Thunderstorm forces Lady Gaga to end final ‘Chromatica’ show early

Lady Gaga was forced to bring the final show of her stadium tour to a premature end on Saturday (September 17).

The pop icon was already 17 songs into an epic set as part of her Chromatica world tour at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami when a thunderstorm forced her off stage during a performance of ‘Angel Down’.

With messages on the stadium’s giant screens urging fans to take shelter in the concourse at the home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, a lengthy delay ensued as organisers struggled to ascertain whether Gaga would be able to continue.

Ultimately, the decision was taken to pull the plug as the storm showed no signs of abating. Fan-shot footage of an audience singalong of Gaga’s Ariana Grande collaboration ‘Rain on Me’ underlined the severity of the storm, with deafening thunderclaps ringing out as the 65,000-string crowd made their way to the exits.

“I don’t want to put your life in danger,” said the singer as she returned to the stage to announce the early finish. “Get home safely, God bless you and thank you for coming to the show.”

An emotional Gaga took to Instagram shortly afterwards to offer a longer apology. “I’ll see you next time I’m on stage,” she said tearfully; she has no further tour dates in the diary at present, with the Miami show bringing the curtain down on a run that also took in European shows earlier in the summer. “Chromatica will never be over, because Chromatica is about healing.”

In a five-star review for Rolling Stone UK of Gaga’s Stockholm stop on July 21, Hannah Ewens said: “Inarguably the Chromatica tour is Gaga predictably back on form, proving that from vocal delivery to dance to showmanship, she maintains her title as one of the world’s greatest living musical performers.”

It is the second time in succession that time has been called early on a Gaga world tour. In 2018, she was forced to axe the last few dates of her global Joanne run due to her ongoing battle with fibromyalgia. That included three UK dates, one in Manchester and two in London.