Live Nation Global Touring has confirmed that due to a case of synovitis, (severe inflammation of joints), Lady Gaga’s doctor has ordered her to postpone The Born This Way Ball performances in Chicago, Detroit and Hamilton.

“I am completely devastated and heartsick. I’ve been hiding this injury and pain from my staff for a month, praying it would heal, but after last night’s performance I could not walk. To the fans in Chicago, Detroit and Hamilton, I hope you can forgive me as it is nearly impossible for me to forgive myself right now. I would do anything for you. I will hopefully heal as soon as possible and be at 500% again, which is what you deserve.” –- Lady Gaga

The postponed performances are as follows:
Feb. 13 & 14 – Chicago, IL – United Center
Feb. 16 – Detroit, MI – Palace of Auburn Hills
Feb 17 – Hamilton, ON – Copps Coliseum

Additional Lady Gaga Born This Way Ball performances are expected to proceed as scheduled.
Fans holding tickets to the affected performances are advised to retain their tickets pending confirmation of rescheduled dates.

Refunds for the postponed performances if required will be available at point of purchase.

For complete tour and ticketing information visit, www.livenation.com and www.ladygaga.com

During her UStream broadcast Tuesday morning, rapper Azealia Banks decided to share her verse and some of what seems to be the chorus from one of the songs she recorded with Gaga, titled “Red Flame”. The track is one of two the pair collaborated on last year for ARTPOP; the other being called “Ratchet”. Although it’s not confirmed that the much buzzed about collaborations will make it through to the final cut, Banks decided to share the verse with fans anyway. Check it out!

With only three albums under her belt, Lady Gaga is already a household name. But unless you’re working in the businesses of music or social media, you might not be as familiar with Troy Carter, Gaga’s manager and the genius behind her media presence. V sat down to talk shop with the guy who helped Mother Monster get massive.

How did you originally meet and come to work with Lady Gaga?
Troy Carter: We were introduced by Vincent Herbert, who was her executive producer at her record label. You saw the energy when she walked in the room. She was very specific about her vision, all of the music was there, and all she needed was someone to help her translate it to the rest of the world, which is where I came in.

When did you first realize the potential social media had to affect Gaga’s career?
TC: I think it developed because we were forced into it. We couldn’t get her record played on the radio and we couldn’t get the video on TV. YouTube and blogs were our platforms in the very beginning because the Internet was the only platform!

Is it true that Lady Gaga’s next record, ArtPop, will be released as an app?
TC: The album is going to be an app. It will also exist in CD and digital form, but the primary experience will be as an application. It will be built around the tablet, but will have a mobile version as well.

How do you think the business of pop music will evolve?
TC: This is the best time to be in the music industry. As sub-Saharan Africa and China go completely mobile, you have people who’ve never had access to the music we offer all of a sudden able to access it. I think we can reach a lot more people now. You’re going to see a lot more friction points for independent artists disappear, but there will be more artists than ever. You’ll have to look at making money through a different lens. Artists are going to be giving away music in exchange for different things, like data or purchasing a ticket or a piece of merchandise. There will be new ways to monetize music, but it may not be the music itself.

What is your most memorable experience of working with Gaga? Does anything particularly surreal stand out?
TC: I think—and I can say this because it just happened recently—it was seeing her have a casual conversation with the President about gay rights issues. When you think back to six years ago, this girl from New York walking in with ripped-up stockings, and now she’s having conversations with the President about serious issues-—it’s a bit surreal.

What is next for the Troy/Gaga think tank?
TC: I have no idea! We could have never predicted we’d be where we are right now, so I have no clue what the next five years are going to look like, but I hope it gets even better.

Get ready for V82, on stands February 28!

When I first saw photos and videos of the Born This Way Ball, I admit I was originally put off by the whole look and overall feel of the show. I was very critical. Wrongly so, considering I hadn’t truly experienced it for myself. But that all changed on February 6, 2013, when Lady Gaga played a sold-out show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. It’s truly something else when you’re standing with 400 other screaming super fans in the Monster Pit, who are dancing in circles as Gaga plows through “Americano,” a performance worthy of its own telenovela.

This show is a different kind of beast compared to The Monster Ball. The fans at the Born This Way Ball are a new breed, as opposed to the fans you’d see at a Gaga concert 3 years ago. The sense of unity and joy is amazing and Gaga is giving everything she can and her fans giving everything back to fuel what she is right down to her core: an artist. This isn’t just a show; this is who she is. Gaga sported a lime green glow-in-the-dark wig for the show and said that it’s one of many things she plans to do that takes the Ball to another level as the tour comes to a close in the next few weeks.

As the set started to wind down after witnessing a giant vagina birth Gaga and her dancers, Gaga floating across a foggy stage, and Gaga as a motorcycle, her dancers rolled out a large piano covered in what looked to be the spiked balls from a one-handed flail. Gaga got candid with us and let us know that she was feeling down about her late grandfather as she lead into a vey emotional rendition of “The Edge of Glory” in place of “The Queen.”

35 minutes and seven songs later, Gaga defeated Mother G.O.A.T. and finished off the main set with “Scheiße.” By song’s end, I was trying to pick myself up off the floor and compose myself, so I could make my way towards the left side of the pit, to go backstage and meet Lady Gaga. As other fans and I waited, we got to see Gaga give her encore performance of “Marry the Night,” which she performed mostly in a stripped-down arrangement, up until the very end, when the track exploded into an underground, New York City-esque club and the fans on-stage and off broke into choreography from the music video. Now it was time to go backstage. Read More…

While promoting his single “Clarity” in the UK, Zedd spoke to BBC Radio about ARTPOP and working with Gaga. Zedd revealed that he and Gaga have created a lot of tracks for the project, saying that “she will decide how many will be on her album and I don’t know how many that will be.”

The producer later revealed that the tracks are “right in the middle between Zedd and Lady Gaga,” stating that anything that didn’t make it on ARTPOP could maybe see a release on one of his own projects, maybe with Gaga featuring.

On how the two created music together, Zedd says that they just started “collecting ideas”, not knowing which would be a song that fit the pop icon.

ARTPOP is expected to be released later this year with production by DJ White Shadow, Madeon, RedOne, and Fernando Garibay.