The Mayhem Ball
The Mayhem Ball is the eighth concert tour by the American singer Lady Gaga, in support of her album Mayhem. The tour was announced following the strong response to the album, having initially planned only a brief run of outdoor promotional concerts. Spanning 87 shows across Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania, the tour began on July 16, 2025, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, United States, and is scheduled to conclude on April 13, 2026, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Conceived as a theatrical production divided into acts, the tour was produced by Gaga and Michael Polansky, and directed by Gaga and Ben Dalgleish of Human Person, with choreography by Parris Goebel. Primarily designed for arenas to allow greater creative control, the show combines large-scale staging, narrative elements, and couture-inspired fashion, with its main set piece being a Colosseum-like opera house. Its storyline explores themes of duality, death, and rebirth, expanding upon the operatic and psychological motifs of the album. The setlist consists primarily of songs from Mayhem, along with tracks from most of her previous albums.
The Mayhem Ball received widespread critical acclaim for its theatricality, Gaga's vocal performance, and the production design, costumes, and choreography. Critics also described it as a celebration of her career, with reviews across multiple countries being overwhelmingly positive. The first North American leg grossed over $103 million from 27 reported shows, marking her highest-grossing run in any territory, with Billboard projecting total earnings to exceed $300 million. As of 2025, The Mayhem Ball was the highest-grossing pop tour by a female artist of the year and the second-highest overall, grossing $166 million from 35 shows.
Background and development
Gaga's last headlining concert tour, the Chromatica Ball, consisted of a brief itinerary of 20 shows at outdoor stadiums throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. As the tour began, Gaga revealed that she was able to perform without much of the chronic pain caused by her long-term fibromyalgia for the first time "in ages". Health improvements and the tour's commercial success and positive critical reception reignited her confidence in her performance and her ability to tour. The tour was chronicled via Gaga Chromatica Ball, a critically acclaimed concert film released on May 25, 2024, in collaboration with HBO and its streaming service, HBO Max.Alongside editing Gaga Chromatica Ball and completing her duties associated with her role in Joker: Folie à Deux and its accompanying soundtrack, Gaga spent most of 2023 and 2024 recording what she referred to as "some of the best songs can remember". These sessions culminated in two studio albums, 2024's Harlequin and 2025's Mayhem, the latter of which reached the top of music charts in over 20 countries around the world and was described as a "chaotic blur of genres" focused in Gaga's pop roots. The album was initially supported by the release of three singles, "Die with a Smile", "Disease", "Abracadabra", and a run of promotional concerts that included stops at the 2025 Coachella festival and a free performance to an estimated 2.5 million spectators at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which became the largest show of Gaga's career and the most-attended concert by a female artist in history.
Announcements
On March 26, 2025, Gaga announced the Mayhem Ball concert tour through her social media accounts, unveiling an initial run of thirty-two dates in North American and European cities. Due to an overwhelming commercial response, additional concerts in both continents were announced throughout the next week, which included extra dates in New York City, Paradise, Nevada, London and Paris, among others. Following these announcements, Hits and Rolling Stone identified the previously revealed outdoor promotional concerts as part of the tour, though Live Nation, the official promoter, and Billboard listed them separately under distinct titles, indicating they were not part of the Mayhem Ball.To promote the tour, Gaga launched a tarot-themed minigame that invited fans to discover their "lyrical prophecy" through cards inspired by the show's narrative themes and connected to the tour's imagery and merchandise. On April 8, 2025, Gaga announced three dates scheduled for December at outdoor stadiums in Australia, marking her first shows in the country since ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour in 2014. Due to initial demand, second shows in both Melbourne and Sydney, respectively, were added to the tour's itinerary. On April 22, 2025, succeeding Gaga's performances at Coachella, three shows in San Francisco and four shows in Inglewood were announced.
On June 9, 2025, Gaga announced five shows in Japan, scheduled at the Tokyo Dome and Osaka Dome for the following January. This announcement officially extended the tour to 2026. One month later, an additional show in Tokyo was announced due to overwhelming demand. In September 2025, Gaga announced additional dates throughout North America scheduled for 2026, including stops in new cities such as Washington, D.C., Boston, and Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Production
Conception and stage setup
The tour was conceived as a theatrical production divided into acts, produced by Lady Gaga and Michael Polansky, and directed by Gaga and Ben Dalgleish of Human Person. Creative direction was handled by Gaga, Polansky, Human Person, and Parris Goebel, who also served as choreographer. The production and stage design were created by Jason Ardizzone-West and Es Devlin. During the production phase, Gaga emphasized the importance of creative control and the show's theatrical scope, stating:
We chose arenas this time to give me the opportunity to control the details of the show in a way you simply can’t in stadiums — and honestly, I can’t wait. This show is designed to be the kind of theatrical and electrifying experience that brings Mayhem to life exactly how I envision it.
The main set piece is a Colosseum-like opera house with balconies and boxes, where Gaga, the band, and twenty-two dancers perform, featuring a pendulum-shaped catwalk that extends into the crowd as a B-stage and changes appearance throughout the show, with effects such as simulated blood flow or a multicolored parquet floor depending on the number. The show expanded on the operatic and psychological themes first introduced earlier that year, incorporating new choreography, custom-made costumes, and large-scale staging that emphasized transformation and chaos within the Mayhem universe.
In an interview with Variety, Goebel said the opening sequence was conceived as "a theatrical opera that would immediately establish the show's grand scale." She further explained envisioning colossal gowns that eventually evolved into a cage-like dress with dancers inside, creating a "really innovative and mic drop" moment, while also reimagining "Paparazzi" as "a slow, emotional rendition", with Gaga emerging from a sandbox representing a grave and using a flowing cape to symbolize "her soaring and finding her wings again". On the "Poker Face" performance, Goebel said:
I kept thinking, what are visuals that people can resonate with and relate to? With the chessboard idea, we ran through that being on different types of songs, and then I was like, wait for "Poker Face," it's brilliant. It made sense, so we started to develop the story of this push and pull with her and a different version of herself. Everyone knows how to play chess, and putting that in her emotional storyline was really cool and powerful.
In a later interview with Rolling Stone, Gaga described the show's conceptual structure as "a gothic dream" tied to themes she had "struggled with whole life". She also added a redesigned version of "Shallow" during final rehearsals, explaining that she wanted to bring the song into her own aesthetic because "it doesn't have signature style". Polansky noted the logistical challenge of moving her to the secondary stage, which led to the gondola concept used in the performance, with Gaga labelling the idea of singing "Shallow" on a boat as "so campy" and as "the perfect challenge".
Costume design
The costumes for the Mayhem Ball expanded on the aesthetic first introduced during the earlier promotional concerts, continuing Gaga's exploration of duality between darkness and purity. She worked with stylists Natali Germanotta, Hunter Clem and Hardstyle's Peri Rosenzweig and Nick Royal to curate gothic and operatic looks across four acts, combining religious iconography, sculptural silhouettes, and metallic constructions.Custom designs were created by Sam Lewis, Athena Lawton, Manuel Albarran, Dilara Findikoglu, Francesco Risso for Marni, and Matières Fécales, with additional pieces by Seth Pratt, Gyouree Kim, Louis Verdad, and accessories from Chrome Hearts and Yaz XL. Footwear include custom rhinestone work by Disco Daddy Studio, Stuart Weitzman items and Steve Madden boots with handmade modifications by designer Lacey Dalimonte.
Several looks drew direct inspiration from historical haute couture and pop-cultural icons. The opening crimson gown, designed by Samuel Lewis, Athena Lawton and William Ramseur, was structured as a multi-story steel cage engineered by Jet Sets, incorporating Elizabethan corsetry and metallic studs in an homage to Thierry Mugler's 1985 Lady Macbeth design, and symbolizing the tension between control and chaos. Another key motif referenced the red lace gown from Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 1998 Joan collection—worn by Gaga at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards—reframing her early fame within themes of sacrifice and rebirth, and subtly recalling the visual language of her early videos such as "Bad Romance".
The wardrobe also revisited her 2009 "Paparazzi" music video imagery, featuring armor-like bodysuits, metallic crutches, and a billowing cape that nodded to the visual motifs of the original video. Elements of McQueen's Spring/Summer 2005 It's Only a Game and Fall/Winter 2003 Scanners collections also informed later acts, blending chess-like visuals and surreal tailoring with psychological symbolism. Additional designs evoked Michael Jackson Dangerous tour uniforms through military tailoring by Louis Verdad, while a hooded cloak inspired by The Phantom of the Opera closed the show.
Throughout the tour she alternated between black leather bodysuits, spiked armor, and white gowns with illuminated trains and elongated prosthetic gloves, occasionally incorporating archival pieces like her original Born This Way jacket by Thomas Knight. Fashion publications such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, W, Vanity Fair, and Variety highlighted the wardrobe's theatrical scale and "gothic glamour", noting its blend of haute couture and performance art, its recurring references to designers like McQueen and Mugler, and how each look "pushed the boundary between fashion and performance further."