Usher axes Australian shows and offers no explanation to fans
The 46-year-old had planned to bring his globetrotting Past Present Future tour Down Under for 12 shows - six at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena and six at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
However, fans were left heartbroken on Friday to find an email from Ticketek announcing the string of shows Down Under would not go ahead, with no explanation why.
'The promoter of USHER's Australian Tour regrets to advise that the scheduled November/December shows, will no longer be proceeding,' the email read.
'All purchased tickets will receive a full refund.'
The tour would have been Usher's first headlining tour Down Under in more than a decade.
His last headlining run was back in 2011, on his OMG tour.
The singer was last in the country back in 2018, performing alongside the likes of Salt-N-Pepa, T-Pain and Naughty By Nature for the RNB Fridays Live tour.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted promoter Live Nation for comment.
Cancellation: Ticketek's message revealing the shows Down Under will not go ahead, with no explanation why
Usher's tour, which kicked off in the US back in August last year, has since jetted to Europe and the UK.
Usher took to Instagram in May to make the announcement, sharing a compilation video of some of the best tour moments.
Fans were quick to express their excitement over the announcement with the likes of, 'I'm so excited, I'm headed to Australia'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Annie Stainer obituary
The mime, clown and dancer Annie Stainer, who has died aged 79 of pneumonia, was best known for her solo work in the 1970s and 80s, and in particular for the three thematically linked mime and dance pieces that became known as the Annie Stainer trilogy. They all had a basis in myth, as well as themes of journey, life-cycles and seasons, change, and the archetypes of womanhood. The Legend of Lilith, devised in 1973, with Adam's 'first wife' as the central character, and based on the writings of William Blake and George MacDonald, was performed around the world, notably in the Cathedral of St John the Divine, in New York City. Moon (1975), a celebration of love, the phases of the moon and the gardener's year, was staged at many festivals, including the inaugural Cockpit festival of mime and physical theatre (now the London international mime festival) in 1977, and won an Edinburgh Fringe First award. Changing Woman, which debuted in Glasgow in 1984, evoked ancient mysteries, exploring the points of the compass and the four elements. These physically demanding works were performed together as a trilogy at the Perth festival, in Western Australia, in 1988. Annie also collaborated on significant ensemble works. She originated the role of Ernestine in Lindsay Kemp's acclaimed production Flowers (1974) and appeared as the ethereal Columbine alongside David Bowie in the 1970 film version of Kemp's improvised mime drama The Looking Glass Murders. Annie and Lindsay were part of Bowie's backing troupe for his 1972 concerts at the Rainbow theatre in London. Grainy black and white photos show Ziggy Stardust surrounded by spectral figures in gossamer unitards – Annie is easily distinguished by her waif-like figure and her trademark long, feathery hair. She worked with Emil Wolk at the Edinburgh festival on Don Quixote (1974) and in the Fringe First award-winning The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1977), in which she embodied the Albatross. In 1982, Annie joined the Australian tour of Steven Berkoff's The Fall of the House of Usher, as the haunting Madeleine Usher. Berkoff said of Annie that she 'creates a theatre that goes beyond the commonplace and takes us into far deeper areas'. This tour was her first visit to Australia and the beginning of her love for the country, which eventually resulted in her settling there. Annie was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset and raised in Mere, Wiltshire, where her parents, Edna (nee Grey) and Ron Stainer, ran the local bakery. After leaving Shaftesbury grammar school, she studied French at the University of Warwick, where in 1967 she met her future husband Reg Bolton, a student of English and European literature. At childhood ballet classes, Annie had been reprimanded for her 'broken arms' – this physical attribute would later become a feature of her celebrated solo shows. She would appear to fly, by delicately and continuously undulating her arms as if they were remarkable wings. This skill for physical shapeshifting was strengthened by her studies in dance in 1968 at the London School of Contemporary Dance and in mime with Etienne Decroux in Paris (1970-71), and complemented by an innate talent for storytelling, which helped establish her as a spellbinding performer Her longest professional partnership was with Reg, whom she married in 1972 and with whom, in 1974 in Edinburgh, she created the Long Green children's theatre company. Its shows included Suitcase Circus (1983), which they took on tour to more than 20 countries, accompanied by their children, Joe and Sophie. This took them back to Australia, where both Annie and Reg were invited to join the teaching staff of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 1985. The family settled in Perth, and for six years, Annie was head of movement in the theatre department at WAAPA. In 2002, Annie established the Total Theatre school of physical theatre, at the Camelot theatre in Perth, which fused theatre, dance, cabaret and circus in sprawling original and subversive works. Labyrinth: A Cosmic Comedy drew on sources as wide-ranging as Italo Calvino, Angela Carter and Agatha Christie. Kindly Leave the Stage asked students to recreate famous vaudeville acts. Il Milione: The Travels of Marco Polo depicted a chaotic journey along the Silk Road. Total Theatre also branched out into children's and street theatre, tackling (and upending) well-known tales such as Cinderella, Noah's Ark and Aladdin. In her final few weeks in hospital, Annie was planning her next production (a time-travelling love letter to Shakespeare), and made sure that any doctors and nurses she encountered knew it was scheduled for 2026. Reg died in 2006. Annie is survived by her children and four grandchildren. Annie Stainer, mime, clown and dancer, born 29 September 1945; died 31 May 2025
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Creative Australia chief executive facing mounting pressure to resign after Khaled Sabsabi controversy
Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette is facing mounting pressure to resign after the body's decision to reinstate Khaled Sabsabi as Australia's 2026 Venice Biennale representative. Senior arts figures have also criticised the Creative Australia board, as a former chair of the selection panel for the biennale said the board and Collette did not 'understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts'. An external report, released on Wednesday, recommended a review into Creative Australia's governance processes, better training for future board members, and the urgent appointment of a board member with deep visual arts expertise, after the protest resignation of artist Lindy Lee shortly after the board voted to withdraw the Sabsabi commission in February. But Max Bourke, general manager of the Australia Council from 1987 to 1994, said he was 'appalled' by Creative Australia's handling of the controversy and called for Collette's resignation. A former arts adviser to the federal government also told Guardian Australia that the CEO should step down. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Callum Morton, professor of fine art at Monash University who chaired the selection panel for the 2017 biennale, said he did not believe the current selection process – where the chief executive, informed by a panel of experts, makes the final decision – was flawed. It was a process that delivered last year's Archie Moore exhibition at Venice, which won the Golden Lion, he pointed out. But Morton added that a series of 'kneejerk reactions that caved into baseless scaremongering' on the part of the executive and board ultimately betrayed the artist. 'It speaks to a CEO and board who frankly didn't seem to understand or at least trust the power and complexity of the visual arts,' Morton said. 'I think the conversation should be less about the process and more about how we choose board members, so that the right industry experts are given proper place and a voice to advise on these matters. 'This will help boards avoid these self-inflicted crises that hurt artists and arts workers and embarrass our reputation nationally and internationally.' The Blackhall & Pearl report also expressed surprise that Creative Australia management had not requested a contentious issue report into the selected artist, given this appeared to be standard practice in the organisation's other grant and investment decisions. Another senior arts figure told Guardian Australia that although a panel of experts acting in an advisory capacity recommended Sabsabi for Venice, 'either way, it was Adrian Collette, the CEO of Creative Australia, who made the final decision'. 'Firstly, he's got no visual arts expertise. Secondly, the board doesn't seem to have been involved in the deliberations at all,' they said. 'This is the most important thing Creative Australia does – it's the biggest decision they make. You would expect the CEO to have appropriate expertise, and the board to be fully engaged. That simply didn't happen.' Prof Jo Caust, a principal fellow at the University of Melbourne's school of culture and communication, said the Blackhall & Pearl report highlighted serious problems with governance at Creative Australia. 'If you look at the current board, some are arts people, but some clearly are not,' Caust said. 'You need people who understand the sector, who can stand up and be counted.' The Blackhall & Pearl report did not identify a failure of process, governance or decision on the part of the Creative Australia board, but said that 'with the benefit of hindsight there are things the Board might have done differently'. Whether the board erred in its decision to decommission Sabsabi was an assessment outside the scope of its terms of reference, the report said, but added that it believed 'the board and Creative Australia are able to learn from this exercise and be better prepared should a similar situation arise in future'. Guardian Australia has requested comment from Collette and the acting chair of the Creative Australia board, Wesley Enoch.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Who's that girl?: the stolen statue mystery that led from the Gold Coast to Sydney's northern beaches
Someone is stealing the art of the Gold Coast. Not paintings from galleries, but bronze sculptures, bolted to concrete in parks and public spaces. In one of the most brazen incidents, Sun Spirit, a beloved bikini-clad statue by the veteran artist Frank Miles, vanished from its plinth at Currumbin beach during Cyclone Alfred four months ago. Locals believe the noise of the storm camouflaged the rowdy business of separating the 100kg bronze statue from its anchor points with an angle saw. 'I've got four public works on the Gold Coast and three have been stolen,' Miles says. 'One time, they just found the head at a scrap dealer. It looks like they're just taking them for scrap.' Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads But in an unexpected second act, the missing Sun Spirit appeared to resurface – almost 1,000km away, lounging by a swimming pool in a real estate listing for a property in Curl Curl, on Sydney's northern beaches. Tipped off by a Gold Coast real estate agent about the Sydney property listing, local surfie Nicka Atkins posted the sighting in a video on his Instagram account. 'Oh my God, are you kidding me? Look, I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but that sure looks like Sun Spirit to me,' he wrote, superimposing his body on to the Sydney real estate listing video. 'To say I've been waiting for this day for a long time is an understatement. Have a look at this … Come on viewers, tell me is that the Sun Spirit statue sitting down in beach in a real estate video right now. Are you kidding me?' The sculpture's apparent reappearance triggered a wave of online speculation and media frenzy. The Gold Coast dining precinct Oxley offered a $5,000 reward for information. Atkins made it on to Nine's The Today Show, offering a reward of two cartons of beer for more information. Soon accusations began to fly against the owners of the Sydney property, Annette and Brett Straatemeier. 'All of a sudden it was just ding, ding, ding – the phone wouldn't stop,' Annette Straatemeier says. 'People were tagging the police, calling us thieves, threatening to come take her back. It was wild.' Amid all the furore, no one contacted the artist or the homeowners – until Atkins himself sent a mate down south to investigate. The Straatemeiers swore they had bought the sculpture from Miles nearly 20 years ago. The artist confirmed the provenance, saying he had cast three Sun Spirits, modelled from his daughter but larger than lifesize, and had sold one to the Sydney couple for $20,000, which they had affectionately named Sheila. The third iteration still stands in his studio. Rather than retreat from the chaos, the Straatemeiers leaned into the moment, looking for a way to transform the misunderstanding into something positive. Longtime supporters of the Starlight Children's Foundation, they decided to donate the sculpture to the Gold Coast council, to take the place of the stolen one, but only if $50,000 could be raised for Starlight. 'We thought, if everyone is so invested in this statue, then let's do something beautiful with it,' Annette said. 'The Gold Coast gets a sculpture back, Starlight raises money for sick kids, and Sheila gets a new life.' A contrite Atkins pledged to lead the fundraising drive. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion 'Annette and Brett are these amazing, wonderful philanthropist people who raise all this money for Starlight Kids Foundation,' he says. 'We've become friends and I'm about to meet them for the first time next week when I come to Sydney, so that's going to be really cool.' 'We've done nothing, really,' Annette says. 'We just wanted to make some good out of a very strange moment. When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.' Miles, nonplussed about the spate of missing public sculptures in recent years, says he is deeply moved by the gesture. 'It's incredibly generous,' he says. 'I think it's a wonderful offer.' With bronze fetching about $4 a kilogram, he believes the thefts are motivated by money. 'It's not about the art for these people – it's about melting it down.' One of his other sculptures, Melody, has survived two attempted thefts, though not unscathed. 'She used to have a bugle,' he says. 'Now she's only got half of one.' The Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, declined to discuss the spate of thefts. A Gold Coast councillor, Gail O'Neill, says a large bronze pelican mounted on a timber pole in nearby Robert Neumann Park has also vanished since Sun Spirit's disappearance in February. Gold Coast police say investigations continue.
